Commencement, June

The best stories of the quiet manner in which he helped a person over a troublesome spot or directed a misguided youth back to the straight and narrow will remain untold. They 're locked in the hearts of the grateful recipients.

But as coach, Sunday School teacher and director of Camp Virginia, Pitt has left his mark on many.

Some years ago there was a player who after suffering a head injury was bothered by failing eyesight to the extent that he couldn 't follow a fly ball. But Pitt knew it would crush the youngster 's spirit if he couldn't play his senior year, so Pitt tried to hide the problem and played the boy.

On the last day of the season, he got his reward, The player delivered the key hit in a win over arch-rival William & Mary that clinched another state title.

To many, Pitt seems as much a fixture at Richmond as the stately pines. He first arrived on campus in 1916 and during the next few years made a name as a basketball, football and baseball player. After coaching at Fork Union Military Academy for some years, he returned as Spider coach in 1933 and went on to coach basketball and serve as athletic director in addition to his baseball duties.

In 1967, he formally retired and they renamed the field in his honor.

But when spring rolled around the next year, a rush call went out to Pitt to come back as baseball coach. He readily answered the call and the winning tradition at Richmond has continued.

Looking back on the years now, Pitt says if he had it to do over again, he wouldn't change a thing. ''I'd coach and work with boys," Pitt says. "The boys I've coached and worked with have been dear to me. The many friends I've made through coaching mean a great deal. "I've been amply and sufficiently rewarded."

And so have the hundreds of young men who were privileged to call Mac Pitt "my coach."