Born in Plainview, Texas, but reared on a ranch near Silverton, Texas, Bob Kitchens lettered in both track and football at Silverton High School, and ran the 100-meter and 200 meter dash and was a member of both sprint relay teams.
Although not highly recruited, he walked on a freshman at Texas Tech University and eventually earned a track scholarship. Kitchens ran track four years for the Red Raiders and earned three letters in all the events in which he competed back in high school.
After completing his eligibility he served two years as a graduate assistant while finishing his Bachelor of Science in Education at Tech in 1968. He then was recommended for the newly created job as head track coach at then-West Texas State University.
For the next decade Kitchens coached the Buffaloes' track and cross country teams directing the Buffs to the 1977 Missouri Valley Conference men's cross country and the 1979 men's indoor track championships. His teams were also runners-up for the 1978 men's indoor and outdoor track and men's cross country MVC championships and the 1979 men's outdoor MVC championships. Kitchens started the women's program in 1978.
He coached six NCAA All-Americans and seven United States Track & Field Federation All-Americans at WT. Kitchens coached 70 individual MVC champions, and was selected MVC Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1977 and MVC Indoor Track Coach of the Year in 1979.
From 1979-1988 Kitchens was head men's track and field and cross country coach at Mississippi State University and was also head women's track and field and cross country coach from 1985-1988.
That program produced 28 All-Americans and four NCAA champions on the men's side and three All-Americans and one Olympian on the women's side.
Kitchens has served as the head track and field coach at the University of Texas at El Paso, since 1989 and is still presently directing the Miners track & field program, and his record there is astounding. He has coached 63 All-Americans in the sprint events, 21 NCAA champions, most recently Mircea Bogdan in the 3,000-meter steeplechase this year, and a total of 206 All-Americans and 18 Olympians while at UTEP.
The Miners have six top-five, 12 top-10, 21 top-15, and 26 top-20 NCAA championship finishes under Kitchens. UTEP was runner-up in the 1994 outdoors, third in the 1994 indoors, fourth in the indoors in 1992 and 1993, and fifth in the 1992 outdoors and 1996 indoors. UTEP has eight Western Athletic Conference championships (four outdoors, three indoors, and one cross country) with its final WAC championships for both indoors and outdoors in 2005. On July 1, the school joined Conference USA.
Kitchens received his master's degree in education from WT in 1970 and was tenured instructor in the Department of Physical Education while coaching for the Buffs.
He was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 1996 and was one the top 100 sports legends of the 20th century for the Texas Panhandle in 2000.
