R. C. Pitts played football and basketball at Arkansas, graduating in 1942, but he was with the Phillips 66ers when he made the 1948 Olympic team. In basketball he was All-Southwest Conference in 1942 and made the 1948 AAU All-America team. He was later inducted into the University of Arkansas Hall of Fame. In World War II he served in the Army Air Corps as a 1st lieutenant with the 68th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group, flying 22 successful missions with his crew. He was awarded an air medal with two oak leaf clusters and the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three bronze stars.
Pitts spent over 20 years in the employ of Phillips Oil, playing several years of AAU basketball with the Phillips 66 Oilers, and playing on three AAU national championship teams. After leaving Phillips, he moved to St. Louis, where he was vice-president of Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. In 1967 he moved to Baton Rouge to begin his own company in specialized tank truck operations, Groendyke Transport, and he later briefly owned and operated R & P Trucking.
United States