To him, Chippewa student-athletes continually raise the bar for what comprises an exceptional student.
Whether it's communicating their demanding practice and game schedules with a professor or showing up for a Monday morning class after arriving home late Sunday night from a weekend away game, Damitio said CMU student-athletes never fail to stand out.
"Student-athletes, to me, are model students in terms of time management," he said. "I would tell other students in class that 'you need to develop some of the time management skills that these student athletes have.'"
Damitio not only champions student-athletes in the classroom, but has done so across campus throughout his career at CMU.
The 1969 alum began his teaching career at CMU in 1975. Shortly thereafter, he became a member of the Academic Senate athletics committee and eventually the chair of that committee.
Then, following the retirement of long-time Faculty Athletics Representative Doug Nance, Damitio was named as his replacement.
"It was great, I got to go to a lot of NCAA conventions where I got to review a lot of the legislation that went through," he said.
Damitio was also successful in passing a number of student-athlete friendly initiatives at CMU.
Among his most notable accomplishments as CMU's F.A.R. were the getting the missed class policy in the CMU student bulletin and reinstating priority registration for student-athletes.
While the majority of Damitio's contributions to CMU athletics' Championship Culture are by way of his support of student-athletes, he also played an integral role in honoring its tradition by helping select the members of the CMU Athletics Hall of Fame.
"I have great memories from being on the athletic hall of fame committee for many years and hearing that rich tradition of athletes that were here even before I was here," he said.
Damitio helped to enshrine a host of the best ever to wear the maroon and gold and heard many heartfelt speeches of what it means to be a Chippewa.
He said that his most memorable hall of fame moment came when Dave Keilitz entered the hall as a member of the class of 1994.
Damitio said Keilitz's speech was one of the best he's ever heard.
"What he did, and I'll never forget it, he integrated into his speech every single person that was in the hall of fame," Damitio said. "He just made it like it wasn't about him, but it was about all the student-athletes that came before him and that really impressed me."
He mentioned that Dick Enberg did a similar thing the year before when he brought up his fellow inductees during his speech.
Damitio said that the recognition that being a Chippewa is bigger than just one athlete was a commonly held belief among CMU athletics' all-time greats.
While his career at Central Michigan has provided him a wealth of memories, Damitio said that his favorite moment is one he gets to revisit each and every fall.
"I've been an academic so long that the year doesn't start January first, it starts in the fall," he said. "I think in general, it's the aggregate of the fall football schedule, the pageantry and everything. It's a new year and everything's fresh and there's a level playing field."
For Jim and a host of other Chippewa fans, "new year's day" can't arrive soon enough.
On behalf of the over 400 CMU student-athletes, we would like to thank Jim Damitio for his outstanding commitment to Chippewa Athletics through his contributions to the Chippewa Athletic Fund.
