Michael Katz ’66, ’76

After earning an undergraduate degree from Southern, Michael Katz played offensive guard for the NFL’s New York Jets. He is best known internationally as an amateur and professional bodybuilder, winning the Mr. America title in 1970, Mr. Universe in 1972, Mr. World in 1972, and Mr. Olympia runner-up in 1975. He costarred in the 1977 hit documentary Pumping Iron. Katz was a highly respected judge for the International Federation of Bodybuilding and was a 1996 inductee of the New Haven Gridiron Club Hall of Fame. In 1979, he became president of World Gym Fitness in Branford and Hamden. In 2004, he transitioned to a Planet Fitness franchise, which he runs alongside his son Michael Jr. He spent 33 years as a Hamden educator and coach. Katz sits on the SCSU Foundation’s finance and development committees.