Mark H. Pittman Scholarship

The Mark H. Pittman Scholarship is provided by the UCM Alumni Foundation for a track and field student who is in academic good standing. This scholarship was made possible through a generous donation by Mark H. Pittman.

Mark H. Pittman was introduced to UCM when he attended College High School (CHS) while his father, Dr. Riley H. Pittman, taught at Central Missouri State College as a professor of sociology and anthropology. Mark played football and ran track at CHS, winning the Class C State Track and Field Championship in his junior year. In 1963 he enrolled at Central Missouri State, supported in part by a small track & field athletic scholarship. After earning “All-American” status at the 1967 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Mark graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. One of Mark’s most memorable Central experiences, which he says, “in retrospect may have saved my life,” was learning how to play a card game called Bid Whist while on the road with fellow track athletes. He says, “Fast forward to April-June 1970, on my second Vietnam duty assignment with the United States Marine Corps. I asked some of the Marines if they would allow me to play with them. They were shocked! They liked nothing better than to beat me and to discover someone as competitive as them. This card game sharing soon led to healthy camaraderie and mutual respect not just with them but with the other battery enlisted Marines.”