James Roland Kitts (June 14, 1900 – December 13, 1952) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player and coach. He served as head football coach at the

University of Dallas The University of Dallas is a private Catholic university in Irving, Texas. Established in 1956, it is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The university comprises four academic units: the Braniff Graduate School ...

from 1924 to 1925, Rice Institute—now known as

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

–from 1934 to 1939, and at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI)—now known as

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

—in 1941 and from 1946 to 1947. Kitts was also the head basketball coach at Rice from 1932 to 1938, tallying a mark of 58–56, and the head baseball coach at Dallas from 1924 to 1926 amassing a record of 26–15. Kitts was inducted into the

Texas Sports Hall of Fame The Texas Sports Hall of Fame recognizes athletes, coaches, and administrators who have made "lasting fame and honor to Texas sports". It was established in 1951 by the Texas Sports Writers Association. Once it made its first induction (baseball ...

in 1956.

Coaching career

Kitts was hired as the head football coach at the

in December 1923. From 1934 to 1939, Kitts coached at Rice, and compiled a 33–29–4 record. His 1934 team went 9–1–1, however his 1939 team went 1–9–1.

Death

Kitts died on December 13, 1952 in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

Head coaching record

College football

References

External links