Lifetime Achievement Award

ISHOF Lifetime Achievement Award

This award recognizes the lifetime dedication and achievements in the swimming community.

Brent Rutemiller (USA)

2023

USA Swimming once recognized Rutemiller as one of the 30 most-influential figures in the sport and the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association presented him with its Collegiate Award in 2023.

How do we begin to put the career of Brent Rutemiller into perspective? That’s a difficult question, given his enduring contributions to swimming and the various roles in which he has contributed to the sport. Then again, the fact that there is so much to choose from only emphasizes why Rutemiller has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

A standout letterwinner for Eastern Kentucky University and now an informal swim coach to his grandchildren, swimming has long been a part of Rutemiller’s life. A Level 5 certified coach by the American Swimming Coaches Association, he first coached successful teams in Indiana and Kentucky, totaling 11 championships and five undefeated seasons.

Rutemiller then contributed as a coach with the Mission Viejo Nadadores and served as a coach with both the Phoenix Swim Club and Scottsdale Aquatic Club. Along the way, his swimmers earned state titles, All-American status, numerous personal-best times and had a genuine love for the water. Perhaps his greatest coaching achievement can be found in the joy he generated in the countless Special Olympians he mentored. Because of his coaching prowess, Rutemiller guided several of these athletes to significant success. Yet, his impact is most evident in the smiles and pride displayed by his Special Olympians.

Initially a part of the Swimming World Magazine family as the creator of the Aquazoids, an educational animated series that has been printed in more than 150 countries, Rutemiller eventually joined Swimming World as its head of advertising. Over time, his influence grew, to the point where he ascended to publisher.

In his role as publisher, he led a charge against doping in the sport, and fronted Swimming World’s decision to strip several East German athletes of their world and regional swimmer of the year accolades. He also served as writer for the magazine, tackling critical issues such as doping, governance and mental health. His work was cited globally by television stations, newspapers, magazines and online outlets.

Before podcasts became popular, Rutemiller created The Morning Swim Show, an online TV series which interviewed some of the top names in the sport. More, he oversaw the merger of Swimming World with the International Swimming Hall of Fame, as he recognized the importance of joining the two best-known entities in the sport. With Rutemiller at the helm, the Hall of Fame embarked on the development of a new museum and, in cooperation with the city of Fort Lauderdale, the construction of a new aquatics facility.

Obviously, Rutemiller’s career is spectacular in nature and tonight he is deeply deserving of ISHOF’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Eddie Reese (USA)

2021

In 2002, Eddie Reese was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Coach and was already considered one of the most successful swimming coaches of our time.

From a young age growing up in Daytona Beach, Florida, he was a natural in the water, winning two high school state championships at Mainland High School before moving on to Gainesville and the University of Florida. As a Florida Gator, he was an all-star swimmer, where he helped the Gators win three SEC Championship titles in 1961, 1962 and 1963. On a personal level, acting as captain in his senior year, he became the first Florida swimmer to win five SEC titles in a single year: 200 breaststroke, 200 and 400 IM, the 400 free relay and the 400-medley relay. Almost 60 years later, Reese’s seven SEC titles still rank in a tie for third on the school’s record board.

After coaching as a graduate assistant at Florida for a year, he tried his luck in New Mexico at Roswell High School. After a short one year stint, he returned to UF as an assistant in 1967 and stayed six years before becoming the Head Coach for another SEC school – Auburn University. From his hire in 1972, it only took Reese six years to turn the Tigers struggling program around.

In Reese’s first year, Auburn was coming off an abysmal season, having qualified zero swimmers for finals at the 1972 SEC Championships. By the end of Reese’s tenure in 1978, the Tigers produced four consecutive national top ten showings, with Auburn finishing a program high second place at the 1978 NCAA Championships.

After Auburn, Reese was hired in 1978 as the head coach of the University of Texas’ men’s swimming and diving team, where he remains to this day.

Reese’s first year at the helm, Texas came in a disappointing 21st nationally, but since then, Texas has never finished lower than seventh at NCAA’s.

Eddie’s first National Championship title was won in 1981. Texas became a national powerhouse just three years after his arrival. He won four straight national titles from 1988 – 1991, as well as three straight from 2000 – 2002. Along with a 1996 team title, his Longhorns had won nine national titles in Reese’s first 20 seasons as head coach.

His tenth title for UT was appropriately won in 2010 and in 2015, Eddie tied the great Ohio State coach Mike Peppe with 11 NCAA titles. Reese broke the tie with a 12th title in 2016. Since then, he won three more titles in 2017, 2018 and most recently last year in 2021, while going through the challenges of the COVID pandemic. Reese’s 15th national title gave him the distinction of winning national titles in five different decades.

Reese has coached so many Olympians through his program at Texas, you would be hard pressed to name them all.Those honored by the International Swimming Hall of Fame include: Brendan Hansen, Rick Carey, Aaron Peirsol, and Ian Crocker.

Eddie’s style and approach is what leads to his success. He has said, “I’ve always worried about the individual first. We don’t talk about winning the NCAA Championship. We talk about what it takes for each individual to get better. What satisfies me as a coach is seeing people go faster than they ever have before. With that focus, we are in a battle for the championship every year. I like that too.”

After initially announcing his retirement after this year’s NCAAs, Eddie decided against it during the summer, and is returning for his 43rd season at the University of Texas.

A look at the numbers:

3-time USA Men’s Olympic Team head swimming coach
15 National Championship team titles
12 NCAA runner-up finishes and 33-top-three finishes
40 Consecutive top ten finishes at the NCAA Championships
41 Consecutive conference titles
73 NCAA individual champions
50 NCAA champion relays (through 2020 season)
29 Olympian who have collected 39 gold medals, 16 silver and eight bronze medals,
3-time CSCAA National Coach of the Year (2015, 2016, 2017)
8-time NCAA Coach of the Year (1981, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2001)
4-time ASCA Coach of the Year (1991, 2005, 2006 and 2009)

Jim Wood (USA)

2019

A coach’s main job is not to take young athletes and create great swimmers, but to take young athletes and create great adults.” – Jim Wood

The loss of James “Jim” Martin Wood was felt deeply throughout the USA Swimming community as well as around the world. This year the International Swimming Hall of Fame decided it was a simple choice to present its Lifetime Achievement Award to Jim Wood. We lost Jim in January of this year, but he will never be forgotten.

In 2006, Wood was the first swim coach to be elected President of USA Swimming. After serving his term of President at USA Swimming, Wood was elected to serve the entire governing body community, when he was elected President of the United States Aquatic Sports group in 2010.

Wood founded the Berkley Aquatic Club in 1977, a successful swim club team in New Jersey, while simultaneously influencing the future of swimming on a global scale. His passion for the sport and his desire to see it expand and grow inspired the entire swimming community for decades. He spoke extremely well before a large audience and he was often outspoken in his messages on the floor of the USA Swimming House of Delegates at its annual convention. Many of his friends will remember Jim as the champion for bringing back Junior Nationals to USA Swimming, mostly because he saw so many young swimmers benefitting from this first step to being recognized on a national level.

Wood gained national attention for being very active on the administrative side of the sport, setting high ethical standards.

His first national responsibility was as the Chairman of USA Swimming’s Time Standards Committee. He served 12 years (1992-2004) as Chairman of the USA Swimming Olympic International Operations Committee and was a member of the USA Swimming delegation at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.

In 2011, Jim was inducted to the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Hall of Fame and in 2015, he was voted as one of the “30 Most Influential People in Swimming Over the Past 30 Years”. In 2017, he was elected as one of the ASCA’s Vice Presidents.

At the time of his passing, Jim was Chairman of the USA Swimming Steering Committee, a member of the USA Swimming Board of Directors and a member of the USA Swimming Foundation. On a local level he previously served as the General Chairman of New Jersey Swimming.

The Berkeley Aquatic Club (BAC) swim school that Wood founded, taught over 8,000 school children how to swim. In 2012, it was reported that BAC competitive swim team had won 57 out of the last 64 state championships. At least 30 BAC swimmers have held first place national rankings and have raced 38 times at the U.S. Olympic Trials since 1980.

BAC athletes have represented the United States and “medaled” in every major international swimming competitions including the Olympic and the Paralympic Games. Wood coached Scott Goldblatt, a USA Olympian who won silver in 2000 and gold in 2004 as a member of USA’s 800 Free Relay, and Lauren Reynolds in the lead up the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games. Reynolds won a Paralympic Gold medal in the women’s 400 free (S7 disability class) setting a new world record. She earned two silver medals in the 100 free S7 and as a member of the 400 free relay.

At the 2001 FINA World Swimming Championships, Wood was on the pool deck in Fukuoka, Japan to watch the USA swim to a third-place finish in the men’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay. He may have been the only one to notice that two men swam in a different order, but while this may have escaped everyone else’s attention, he urged the National Team Director to self-report the violation, resulting in the relay team’s disqualification. Jim Wood was a man of integrity and this is but one example of his character. In 2003, the USA Swimming Award, the organization’s highest honor was presented to Wood in recognition of his contributions to the sport of swimming.

In 2004, he had a vision to build his own aquatic complex. It was a dream that started with the purchase of the 2004 USA Olympic Trials pool from Long Beach, California. The pools were shipped across country and were to become the cornerstone for his vision, “The Center for Excellence”. The pools sat in storage for years while he considered more than 50 properties and fought countless zoning issues across several municipalities while searching for the optimum location. In 2015, Wood’s dream facility finally opened in New Providence, New Jersey, just miles from his childhood home.

Beyond swimming, more than 50 BAC swimmers have earned High School All-American Honors. All Berkeley graduates have gone on to attend four-year colleges such as Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Penn, Texas, US Military Academy at West Point, the Naval Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and UNC, to name a few. More than 20 BAC graduates have earned NCAA All-American Honors.

Over the course of his coaching career, Jim was stubborn……Jim was outspoken……and Jim was a man of the highest integrity. As a swim coach Jim Wood will always be loved.

Greta Andersen (DEN/USA)

2015

One of the greatest swimmers of all time, Greta Andersen burst on the world’s stage when she won the gold medal for the 100 meter freestyle at the 1948 London Olympics.

One of the greatest swimmers of all time, Greta Andersen burst on the world’s stage when she won the gold medal for the 100 meter freestyle at the 1948 London Olympics. When she returned home to Copenhagen Denmark, she was a national hero.

After moving from her native Denmark to Long Beach, California, in 1953, she found she needed to make a living. She met Tom Park, a record setting Catalina Channel swimmer, who convinced her she had what it took to be a successful marathon swimmer.

In 1956 Greta won the first of seven Around Atlantic City Marathons swims. She then won the 50 mile Lake Michigan race from Chicago to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Greta finished 10 miles ahead of her nearest competitor and captured the $25,000 first place prize money. The next year she entered her first Sir Billy Butlin Cross English Channel Marathon race. She won again in 1958 and after her third swim, in 1959 Sir Billy gave her the perpetual trophy.

During her career, Greta broke 18 world marathon records. She was the first woman to complete five crossings of the English Channel – set speed records in both directions – and the first person to swim the Santa Catalina Channel both ways … nonstop, a feat that took almost 27 hours! She earned first, second, or third place in every event competing with men head to head and never lost to another woman. She was the largest money winner in women’s professional swimming history.

Confident, personable and talented, she made quite a splash on the pool deck when she opened the Greta Andersen Swim School in 1960 and has devoted her life teaching children how to be water-safe and confident swimmers. “Teaching toddlers to be unafraid of water,” she says, “and introducing them to the fun of swimming, has been her fondest ambition since earning her degree in physical education in Denmark in the 1940s.

For her life in swimming as Olympic Champion, World Professional Marathon Champion, multiple world record holder from one-hundred yard to fifty miles, business woman, teacher and inspiration to men and women around the world, the International Swimming Hall of Fame is honored to recognize Greta Andersen Verres with the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award.

John McLaughlin

2014

In 1998, John was named “Diver of the Year” by divers and equipment managers.

John McLaughlin, known to all as “Big John”, is a deep sea diver, marine engineer, underwater cinematographer, marine mammal trainer, coast guard certified master diver, demolition instructor, and deep sea salvage for the U. S. Navy and more. He is best known as a Hollywood underwater stuntman, and his business card reads, “License to thrill.” As there was already an actor with the name John McLaughlin, he changed his name to “Big John” and ever since has been known as Big John McLaughlin.

Big John got his start with the “Sea Hunt” T.V. series and it was there that he struck up a great friendship with its star, Lloyd Bridges. Thanks to Big John, Bridges donated his “Sea Hunt” wet suit and other materials to the ISHOF Museum.

During the 1960’s and the 1970’s, Big John, along Film Director, Ricou Browning, made the James Bond series, “Shaken, Not Stirred”. His favorite film was “Thunderball”, where he was a stunt double for 34 different people. He also worked as a stunt double for “Goldfinger”, “The Spy Who Loved Me” and “Never Say Never”. In addition to the Bond films, McLaughlin worked on some 30 other films, some of which included; “Day of the Dolphin”, “Namu the Killer Whale”, “Around the World Under the Sea”, “Cocoon”, “Police Academy V”, and “Mako: The Jaws of Death”. Big John was also involved with hit television shows. He worked on the TV series “Flipper”, “Gentle Ben”, “The Six Million Dollar Man”, “The Bionic Woman”, and 12 other shows.

Big John had a hand in preparing the tables used by divers around the world, including Saturation Diving Techniques. He ascended to 520 feet at Lake Michigan and was one of the first to dive using neon gas. He was also one of the first to experiment with outside or saturation of mixed gases. In 1970, a light airplane crashed into Lake Mead, killing the U.S. Atomic Energy Commissioner, who was on board with four others. The recovery effort was so deep, John had to use a diving bell at the site complete with a barge and decompression chamber.

In 1998, John was named “Diver of the Year” by divers and equipment managers. He has taught many movie stars to dive including Sean Connery, Tom Cruise, and Brooke Shields. Big John’s passion for the environment moved him to make a public outcry about the coral at Fort Lauderdale which being destroyed by ship anchors. His words fell on deaf ears, but Big John could not be stopped. Ten years and an act of Congress later, the coral preserving-anchoring patterns were finally put into place. Big John played a vital role in saving these reefs for future generations of divers to enjoy.

In later years Big John married the late Dorothy “Dottie” McLaughlin, long time ISHOF employee. The numerous

Bob & Norma Maxwell

2008

They met because they were divers.

Bob was world renown as the greatest “spotter” diver (a back somersault to the board before the take off). He organized many divers and is the only man in the world to have completed 7 ½ consecutive somersaults utilizing the diving boards. A New York City native of Jones Beach, he was featured for six years with water show troupes in the US and Canada, as the World’s Acrobatic Springboard Div-ing Champion.

During the same period, Norma Dean also of New York, was a featured diver and performer at Sam Snyder’s “Water Follies” of the US, Canada and Europe. She performed in Johnny Weissmuller’s “Watercade”; Noel Sheridan’s “Water Capers” of South America; Al Sheehan’s “Minneapolis Aquatennial” and “Seattle Seafare”; the Canadian National Exhibition Lakefront Water Shows and George Hamid’s Steel Pier Water- Circus in Atlantic City, NJ. Her diving act at the Steel Pier was a “Ripley’s Believe It or Not”, as she rode a horse off a 35 foot platform into a 12 foot deep tank of water, six times a day! She grad-uated from New York University where she was Middle Atlantic States Inter Collegiate 3- meter Springboard Diving Champion. This helped her be a stand-in for film star Esther Williams, when diving scenes were in the script.

In the early 1950’s, Norma met Bob at Sam Snyder’s Show. Their relationship blossomed into a 43 year long marriage that bore two children and a strong business partnership. Bob had formed the winter-time, Miami Beach “Aqua Spectacular” traveling show unit and with Olympic Diving Champion, Pete Desjardins, they put on over 100 shows a year. After five years of the traveling circuit and providing talent for film, television, and other live show producers, Bob and Norma formed “Maxwell Associates”.

Together they became the icon for water show productions. When amusement parks became more prevalent, they began putting water shows into the parks increasing park attendance. They signed up with Great Adventure in New Jersey and stayed for 12 consecutive years. Some of the over 500 parks in which they conducted shows included Disneyland, Sea World, Six Flags, Great Escape, Dutch Wonderland and Busch Gardens. They became mainstays in parks throughout the world including Safari Park in Austria and Ocean Park in Hong Kong. At one time, they had over 300 divers and performers under contract performing in such places as Hawaii, Taipei, Bangkok and Miami.

The Maxwells were pioneers when it came to exposing diving to television. They created and for-matted a variety of high dive shows for ABC’s Wide World of Sports and NBC’s Sports World, including the Acapulco Cliff Diving Championships, the Men’s High Diving Championships, the Women’s Cliff Diving Champi-onship and the Mixed Doubles World Target Diving Championships. They were honored with an award from Roone Arledge, head of ABC Sports, when the Acapulco Cliff Diving Championships became the longest-running show on Wide World of Sports – 20 years of Acapulco Championships.

Bob and Norma had a perfect combination of talent. Bob was busy promoting the shows, while Norma produced them. Bob conceived and designed the Acapulco CICI Water Park in Mexico and served as General Manager of Disney on Parade at the Walt Disney Theme Park. Together they pro-moted and produced three Worlds Fair Aquacades – 1964 New York, 1984 New Orleans and 1988 Brisbane. Their water shows were the most ambitious of their time and set the standard for what was to come. To assure crowd interest, the shows featured a combination of acts like precision water ballets, highboard antics by the Aqua Maniacs, aquabatics by college diving champions and even a water “circus” with animal acts, jugglers and tumblers and World Championship diving. Emphasis was on creating a wholesome, family-style show that appealed to whole families around the world. Performers were recruited world-wide, providing an opportunity to travel and earn money. Many stayed with the Maxwell’s for years.

After Bob’s untimely death in 1997, Norma continued to run the business until her retirement a few years ago. She and Bob stood high above their competition, not because they were high divers, but because of the impact they had on what could be accomplished in promoting and producing shows around the water.

Always the thrill seeker, Norma celebrated her recent 80th birthday by jumping out of an airplane, only this time wearing a para-chute and not diving into a pail of water.