Fitzpatrick, Springfield resident and businessman, recalls his neighborhood, lumber business, sponsorship of numerous athletic teams, effects of the Depression, involvement with the publication The Citizens Tribune, local political campaigns, violence during the mine wars, service on the Illinois Boxing Commission and Golden Gloves, and sponsorship of semi-professional softball including the Fitzpatrick Lumberjacks. He recalls a softball game played between the Lumberjacks and Joe Louis's team (the Brown Bombers) and the sponsorship of the Springfield Sallees (a professional women's baseball team that played during WWII). He also discusses Springfield in the 1920's and 1930's, the Lincoln Home property, racism and the 1908 race riot, the Ku Klux Klan in Springfield, prejudice against Catholics, construction of defense homes during WWII, automobile races at the state fair grounds, and the publication of Main Street.

5 tapes, 450 mins., 83 pp. Interview by Richard Shereikis, 1980 OPEN See collateral file: Interviewer's notes, article about Fitzpatrick, photographs his Lumber Company, a baseball team, employees, newspapermen William Menghini and Jim McCloskey, boxer Joe Louis, race driver A.J. Foyt.