All-American for baseball and for academics "at the University of Louisville, Jim LaFountain is a leading authority on health and fitness in Central New York. A graduate of John F. Kennedy High School in Utica in 1972, where he excelled in football, basketball and baseball, LaFountain went on to Mohawk Valley Community College and then to Louisville in 1974. At Louisville be led his team in batting average, homers and RBI'S.

Considered an outstanding prospect for the Major Leagues, Jim LaFountain played Minor League ball for the Minnesota Twiins' organization for three years, 1976-79. A nagging injury prevented him from playing in the Majors. An interest in health and fitness, nurtured by teaching. coaching and bodybuilding competition in Kentucky, came to fruition when Jim LaFountain returned to the Utica area and opened the All-American Fitness Center in New Hartford in 1981.

Since then he has lectured on fitness and conditioning at hospitals and colleges in the Utica area and published articles in magazines devoted to the field. LaFountain received his B.S. from Louisville in 1976 and, in 1989, was awarded an M.S. in Exercise Physiology by Syracuse University."

Having been commissioned a "Kentucky Colonel" by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1984, he has more recently been inducted into the university of Louisville Sports Hall of Fame. With all of this, he remains a strong advocate of the quality of life in the Utica.