James Pitts , 75, was born in Rochester, NY, and lived there through the early 1950's.
In high school, he competed on the swim team and earned his letter, all four years. His best 100 free time was 58.1, which was better than any Rochester College swimmer during that time. Pitts matriculated at the local college, bettered his 100 free time to 53.9 and again, lettered all four years. It seems hard for us to imagine, but during his competitive years, there were no goggles (you saw rainbows at the end of workouts), no lane lines or back stroke flags (looked for the wall), no starting blocks and they swam between the lines on the bottom of the pool, just like track races.
He earned his MA from Harvard in 1954, which prepared him for his career in teaching science at the Ft Jefferson High School. He retired from teaching at Rochester Long Island in 1978 and moved to Niagara. His wife, Betty, was a swimmer, and in 1978 they organized the Empire Masters, and both were active competitors. His is very proud of all the work that his wife did to form one of the earliest Masters teams.
In 1998, they decided to escape from the cold and snowy winters, and moved to Sun City Center. They both competed for SCC Masters, and in 2001, James joined the Mavericks.
Pitts is a snow bird, and spends his summers in New York. He enjoys the competition of the NY State Senior Games, limited to only NY residents. He is undefeated in these meets. Last year, he aged up to 75, and had six outstanding USMS Top Ten times in SCM, and three in LCM.
In the fall of 2005, Pitts was one of the instructors in the successful adult swim lesson program at Sun City Center.
When asked about his swim goals, he replied, "I swim for efficiency and health."
Pitts' wife died four years ago. James still maintains two residences; Sun City Center, FL, in the winters and Penfield, NY during the summers.

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