Fort Lauderdale City Commission Approves Additional Funding for ISHOF Aquatic Complex Center
City Commission Approves Parks Bond Funds for Aquatic Center Project
The City Commission approved $3.5 million in additional funding for the Aquatic Center Project through the Parks and Recreation Bond. The contractor, Hensel Phelps, was originally tasked with designing and constructing improvements at the Aquatic Center Complex including new pools, decks, bleachers, and the north building at the site. The additional funding will be used to replace the south building that houses locker rooms and offices. Overall completion is expected by the end of 2022. If you haven’t driven by the Aquatic Center on the beach recently, then do yourself a favor and check out the progress on this peninsula. Coming soon will be our 27 meter diving platform and the work continues on the pools. How exciting that Fort Lauderdale will soon reclaim its reputation as a leader in swimming and diving. For details, visit ftlcity.info/3sWozjJ.
On this date in 1898, the great coach, Bob Muir was born……….
BOB MUIR (USA) 1989 Honor Pioneer Coach
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1948, 1952 Assistant Coach; 1956 Head Coach USA’s Men’s Team; COACH: 1920’s Boston University, MIT swimming teams at Boston YMCA; 1930-1935 Harvard University freshmen swimming, varsity diving; 1936-1966 Williams College (17 New England Championships); President Intercollegiate Swimming Coaches Association, 2 terms; National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Award: 1968; Author of over 50 published articles on swimming.
Little did Bob Muir know at the age of 10 in 1912 when he first dove into the pool at the Brookline (Massachusetts) Swimming Club, that he was destined to spend the rest of his life on the pool deck. As a swimmer under Hall of Fame coach, Matt Mann, he won 19 New England AAU Championships in the breaststroke and backstroke. In 1917, as captain of the Boston Swimming Association, he won the junior national breaststroke championship and held the national YMCA breaststroke record for seven years.
But in 1921, he began his coaching career at the Boston YMCA where he coached Boston University and MIT swimming teams. In 1930, he began a six year stint at Harvard University as freshman swimming coach and varsity diving coach. His most illustrious swimmer was the future President John F. Kennedy who went undefeated in Freshman competition before retiring due to a chlorine-aggravated sinus condition.
In 1936, Coach Muir moved to Williams College where he coached for the next 30 years. His teams never had a losing season, winning 185 meets with only 44 losses and 4 ties. With Bob at the helm, Williams swimmers won 17 New England championships.
During the Olympic Games of 1948 and 1952, Bob was an assistant coach for the U.S. Team. In 1956, he served as head coach for the USA Men’s Team in Melbourne, Australia.
Apart from his coaching, Bob served two terms as president of the Intercollegiate Swimming Coaches Association, authored more than 50 published articles on swimming, taught more than 35,000 youngsters to swim and was very active with the College coaches Swim Forum. In 1968, he received the National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Award. And among his many accomplishments was the introduction of the so-called “Muir system” of seeding which assigned the lanes of the swimmers in the finals on the basis of their times in the preliminary heats. This system is still being used today.
Passages: NCAA Champion, World Relay Record Holder Richard “Dick” McDonough, 78
by MATTHEW DE GEORGE
02 April 2021, 10:09pm
Richard A. “Dick” McDonough, Villanova’s only NCAA champion and an American record holder and relay world record holder, died on March 31 in Savannah, Ga. He was 78.
McDonough was a standout in high school at Seton Hall Prep, graduating in 1960. He won state titles and claimed gold at the Eastern Interscholastic Championships in high school.
McDonough attended Villanova University, where he won the 1963 NCAA Championship in the 200-yard butterfly, still the only men’s championship in program history, among several All-American honors. The Wildcats also set an American record in the men’s 200 medley relay at 1:42.0 in 1964 (McDonough, Bill Levingood, Ken Herr, Rick Girdler).
Internationally, McDonough was part of the U.S. delegation to the 1963 Pan Am Games in Sao Paolo, Brazil, winning a gold medal in the 800 freestyle relay with Gary Ilman, David Lyons and Ed Townsend. At a dual meet with Japan that summer, McDonough was part of world record foursomes in the 400 freestyle relay (Steve Clark, Ilman, Townsend in 3:36.1) and 800 freestyle relay (Don Schollander, Roy Saari, Townsend in 8:03.7). McDonough also set an American record in the 100 free in 54.0 seconds.
At the 1964 Olympic Trials, McDonough tied for 15th in the 100 free (55.7), 16th in the 200 free (2:03.9) and finished second in a three-person swim-off to miss the final of the 100 fly.
A Rhodes Scholar nominee, McDonough graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and worked for 33 years at IBM. He was admitted to the Bar in New York, Vermont and California and worked for IBM Europe, where he met his wife, Kirsten. He is survived by Kirsten and six children.
McDonough in 2019 made a large donation of records and historical documentation to the International Swimming Hall of Fame, part of his devotion to collecting historical materials related to swimming and golf. He and Kirsten purchased Norcross West Marble Quarry in Dorset, Vermont and opened it as a swimming hole. McDonough is a member of the Villanova Athletics Hall of Fame and the Seton Hall Prep Hall of Fame.
Dick McDonough’s full obituary is available here.
Happy Birthday Ted Stickles !!!
EDWARD “TED” STICKLES (USA) 1995 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 4 WORLD RECORDS: 400m individual medley; 8 U.S. NATIONAL AAU CHAMPIONSHIPS: 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley.
Ted Stickles swam with Doc Councilman’s legendary Indiana University swim team from 1962-1965. At on point during his career, he and his roommate, Hall of Famer Chet Jastremski, held a total of seven world records. Ted dominated the individual medley throughout the early ’60s, breaking a total of nine world records throughout his career.
His mother taught him to swim at an early age, but it was not until he entered high school that Ted began competitive swimming. After enjoying a successful high school career, Hall of Famer Doc Councilman recruited him to his IU team.
At first, Ted felt that Doc had made a mistake in his recruitment, but before long, he surprised himself and began to break unforgettable records. Ted was one of the first people to actually train for the individual medley events. Ted’s ease in moving from one stroke to another and fluidity without breaking stroke helped him be the first person to break two minutes in the 200 yard individual medley and five minutes in the 400 meter individual medley. For a span of three years, Ted Stickles held all of the world records in the individual medley events.
At the height of his career, he developed tendonitis in his elbow, hindering his ability to train. Yet Ted continued to swim and barely missed making the ’64 Olympic team. This was a disappointment because his sister, Terri Stickles, made the team; they would have been the first brother and sister to make an Olympic team.
Ted went on to coach swimming for the University of Illinois and Louisiana State University. Presently, he resides in Louisiana with his wife and two children and is event management director for all athletic functions at Louisiana State University.
Happy Birthday Djurdjica Bjedov!!!
DJURDJICA BJEDOV (YUG) 1987 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1968 gold (100m breaststroke), silver (200m breaststroke); OLYMPIC RECORD: (100m breaststroke); Many time Yugoslavian National Champion and record holder; First Yugoslavian swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal.
As the only swimming gold medalist Yugoslavia ever had, Djurdjica Bjedov may just be the all-time Cinderella of the modern Olympics. She is certainly a wonderful story on why it pays to be ready because no one really knows when their big chance might come. Swimming’s miracle wonder story went something like this:
The best Bjedov had ever done was third in her heat at the European Championships two years before her 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. The Yugoslavian Swimming Federation decided they had to take her to the Olympics because they had no other breaststroker for their medley relay (which was ultimately disqualified in the preliminaries because she jumped on her relay start). Bjedov qualified fifth in the 100 meter breaststroke in a final in which the odds were on favorite, world record holder Catie Ball of the United States who placed a sub par fifth because of a serious intestinal disorder. The formidable field that remained included Galina Prosumenschikova, the only European to have won a gold medal fours earlier at Tokyo.
Everyone was worried about the altitude affecting their performance, something Bjedov thought might improve her chances. She was fit, and she was ready, and she had made the finals. To everyone’s surprise, the unknown from Split, Yugoslavia, came through to win in Olympic record time. A few days later she almost did it again in the 200. Qualifying seventh, she swam in an outside lane, topped her best previous time by three seconds and again beat the Soviet Prosumenschikova, but this time she was the only Yugoslavian swimmer to win a silver medal as American Sharon Wichman came on to win the event.
Happy Birthday Peter Biros !!!
Péter Biros (HUN) 2016 Honor Water Polo Player
FOR THE RECORD: 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold; 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold; 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold; 2005 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold
Hungary is a land of thermal springs and although landlocked, swimming and water sports are ingrained in their culture. This love of water led to an early domination of international swimming and diving competitions in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the 1920s, it was water polo that came to symbolize Hungary’s unique strengths and individuality. From 1928 to 1980, the Hungarian National Water Polo Team dominated the sport like no other nation, reaching the podium at twelve consecutive Olympic Games. During this streak the Hungarians won six gold medals, three silver medals, three bronze medals, and back to back titles twice: 1932 and 1936 and, 1952 and 1956. It came to be that anything less than the gold medal was considered a failure.
So it became something of a national catastrophe and source of embarrassment when the pride of Hungary failed to medal in four consecutive Olympic contests. After finishing fourth in 1996, the Federation reached out to a young coach, who had made a name for himself coaching in Italy and Australia, to rescue the program.
Denes Kemeny started by building his team around two young men who had helped Hungary finish fourth at the 1996 Games in Atlanta: Tibor Benedek and Tamas Kásás.
Benedek was one of the most talented youngsters to ever play the game. He had joined the National Team as a teenager prior to the 1992 Olympic Games. His speed, quickness, rifle left arm and goal-scoring in Barcelona earned him the Hungarian Player of the Year titles in 1992, 1993 and 1994.
Tamas Kásás took up water polo at the age of six, being taught by his father Zoltan, a famous coach and silver medalist in 1972. Because of his world-class swimming speed, defensive skills, accurate shooting and passing he would come to be regarded as one of the world’s best defensive and all around players of his era.
Born in Szeged, Tamás Molnár was selected for the national team in 1997. He was a powerhouse at the all-important center position and could score or draw exclusions against the best defenders in the world.
The youngest to join the team in 1997, was 19-year old Gergely Kiss. He was not only a brilliant left-hander and center defender, but at 6’6”, 245 pounds, he was one of the most physically intimidating players in the sport.
It was 1998 when Péter Biros joined the team. Born in Miskolc, Biros had combined water polo with handball until the age of 17. He could play any position and could score from anywhere in the pool.
The final piece of Kemeny’s team was the goalkeeper, 21-year old Zoltán Szécsi. Standing 6’6” tall, he had learned to swim as an infant, but grew up playing a variety of other sports, like basketball and tennis, which was good training for his position.
Kemeny’s new approach brought immediate results, as the Hungarians won gold at the 1997 European Championships, silver at the 1998 FINA World Championships and gold at the 1999 World Cup.
At the 2000 Sydney Games, Hungary regained its Olympic water polo success by winning their first Olympic medal in 24 years, and their record seventh water polo gold medal, by routing Russia, 13-6.
Four years later, at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Gergely Kiss scored four goals, including the game-winner in an 8-7 come-from-behind victory over Serbia-Montenegro to defend their title.
In Beijing, at the 2008 Olympic Games, the Hungarians faced off against the surprising team from the USA. In a wild shoot out, the Magyars took command in the fourth quarter for a 14-10 victory.
The win gave Hungary an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic title. While a total of 21 players won Olympic gold medals playing for Hungary over the period of 2000 to 2008, only six own three by themselves. It is to them, and their coach, that we honor the Hungarian Men’s National Water Polo Team as the first team to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Happy Birthday Franziska van Almsick !!!
Franziska van Almsick (GER) Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (200m freestyle, 4x100m medley relay), bronze (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay); 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (200m freestyle, 4x200m medley relay), bronze (4x100m freestyle relay); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (4x200m freestyle relay); 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (4x100m medley relay, 4x200m freestyle relay); TWO WORLD RECORDS: 200m freestyle; FOUR WORLD RECORDS (25m): 50m freestyle (1), 100m freestyle (2); 200m freestyle (l); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m freestyle), silver (4x200m freestyle relay), bronze (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay), 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (4x200m freestyle relay), silver ( 4x100m freestyle relay); 1993 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x200m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay), silver (200m butterfly); 1995 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m freestyle,400m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x200m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay) silver (50m freestyle), 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (4x100m freestyle relay, 4x200m freestyle relay), silver (4x100m medley relay), 2002 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x200m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay); WORLD SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: 1993; GERMAN SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR: 1993, 19995, 2002; EUROPEAN SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: 1993, 1994, 2002; WORLD SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: 1993.
Growing up in Berlin, Germany in the former GDR, “Franzi” loved swimming, joined a team and by the time the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, she was ready to burst onto the international swimming scene. At age 14, at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, she was the youngest participant of the re-united German team, and sensationally won the 200m and 1 OOm freestyle silver and bronze medals, as well as silver and bronze medals on Germany’s medley and freestyle relays. She set the 200m freestyle World Record at the 1994 World Championships in Rome, breaking an eight-year record held by Heike Friedrich, the last of the GDR swimmers. She broke her own record in 2002 in Berlin. Overall, her 200m freestyle World Record stood for 13 years until broken by Federica Pellegrini of Italy in 2007. Franziska held the record longer than any other female in that event except for Hall of Fame swimmer Ragenhild Hveger of Denmark from 1938 to 1956.
Competing in another three Olympic Games, she won a total of 10 silver and bronze freestyle medals, the most of any female swimmer until surpassed by Hall of Farner Jenny Thompson (USA) with 12 medals, also in 2004.
Swimming for SC Dynamo Berlin, she competed at four European Championships between 1993 and 2002 winning 18 gold and silver medals. She is a three-time German Sports Woman of the Year, (1993, 1995, 2002), two-time European Swimmer of the Year and the 1993 World Swimmer of the Year.
Passages: Clara Lamore Walker, 1948 Olympian, Masters Hall of Famer, Dies at 94
by DAN D’ADDONA — SWIMMING WORLD MANAGING EDITOR
02 April 2021, 01:51pm
Clara Lamore Walker, who swam for the United States at the 1948 Olympic Games in London and is a Masters Hall of Fame honoree at the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) died at age 94 on Friday.
She won three national championships, and later in life set hundreds of national and world swimming records in several masters age groups.
Walker died Friday of natural causes at an assisted living facility in North Smithfield, Rhode Island, according to her great-niece, Alyssa Kent.
She participated in the 200-meter breaststroke in the Olympics when she was 22 years old, but swore after her last heat that she was giving up competitive swimming for good — which turned out to be far from the truth.
Born in Providence in 1926, Walker was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1995 as a Masters honoree, and the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1968.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
From her ISHOF page:
When Clara Lamore Walker climbed out of the pool at the 1948 Olympic Games in London after swimming the 200m breaststroke as a member of the United States Women’s Olympic Team, she swore she would never do it again. At 22, she had been swimming ten years and had had enough. After all, she was the winner of three US National Championships. She had done it.
It lasted for 33 years, until her doctor recommended she start swimming to relieve the pain from a bad back. She was 54 a t the time. She had worked for the telephone company, spent seven years in a cloistered religious order and became the first female graduate of Providence College in Rhode Island. She was married to Doneal Walker, a Naval officer and traveled through Europe with him for seven years until he died unexpectedly in 1970. She then taught school and became a guidance counselor at Western Hills Junior High School. It was then that she got back in to the pool – for therapeutic reasons. Wasn’t much, just three days a week for a few months. But after she entered her first swim meet, maintaining somewhat the same stroke that Coach Joe Whitmore had taught her years before, she set a US National record in the 50 yard breaststroke in the 50-54 age group. It inspired her and re-enthused her to train hard. It was as if all the years away from the water didn’t matter. It was as though she were alive again back in the Olneyville Boys Club, her world defined by the borders of the pool.
Once again swimming became everything to Clara Lamore Walker. Before she graduated from the 55-59 age group, she had set more than 103 national records. currently, she holds every world and national record in the 65-69 age group except in the butterfly. And she did the same thing when she was in the 60-64 age group. Her records and her achievements follow her through time.
Clara Lamore Walker had been undefeated in competition for over ten years. She has been selected the Outstanding Masters Swimmer in her age group for the past eight years and has been the holder of 184 world records and 468 national records, more than any other Masters swimmer in the world, male or female.
Happy Birthday 1976 Double Olympic Gold Medallist and ISHOF Honor Swimmer Brian Goodell
BRIAN GOODELL (USA) 1986 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1976 gold (400m, 1500m freestyle); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1979 gold (400m, 1500m freestyle, relay); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1975 silver (1500m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS: 5 (400m, 1500m freestyle); AMERICAN RECORDS: 8 (400m, 1500m 500yd, 1650yd freestyle, 400yd individual medley); NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: 9 (500yd, 1650yd freestyle; 400yd individual medley); AAU NATIONALS: 10 (500yd, 1000yd, 1500yd, 400m, 800m, 1500m freestyle); 1977 World Swimmer of the Year.
Brian Goodell “was a coach’s dream possessing uncanny determination and talents” says his coach Mark Schubert. Schubert’s record for team championships with the Mission Viejo Nadadores is unsurpassed in American swimming. He went into high gear with the emergence of Goodell. The same could be said for Goodell’s college swimming at UCLA where Coach Ron Ballatore says, “He had a will to win the I’ve seen in few other athletes. He can summon up those hidden reserves and turn it on when somebody is after him, like few others.”
Goodell came to Mission in 1972 not yet a world class athlete. He won a silver in the World Championships in 1975. But from there on in we can speak only of golds. Goodell attributes his incredible training regimen to a fantasy he and Jesse Vassallo used to indulge during those incredible dawn practices with steam coming off the water. They would play games; imagine the world’s best in the next lane and a huge crowd cheering from the imaginary grandstand at the Olympics. With such self-styled inspiration, Goodell set goals for his training and his future races that were unconquerable to others. He believed he did it and he won — until after the incredible boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics when Goodell announced matter of factly, “I’ve accomplished all that I’ve really want to” and retired.
In the years between, he was twice honored as the world’s top male swimmer (1977 and 1979), set five World and eight American records, won nine NCAA and 10 AAU Nationals and won two Olympic gold medals in world record time in individual events. Alongside the world’s best swimmers, one can’t help but wonder if he looked up at the Olympic crowd and fantasized he was swimming through the predawn fog at morning practice. . .
Passages: ISHOF Honor Swimmer and 1956 Olympic Gold Medalist Ursula Happe Dies at Age 94
by ANDY ROSS
1 April 2021,
Passages: 1956 Olympic Gold Medalist Ursula Happe Dies at Age 94
ISHOF Honor Swimmer and 1956 Olympic gold medalist Ursula Happe of Germany passed away March 26, 2021 at the age of 94.
In the decade of the 1950s, Germany had one female standout in international swimming. She was not only a great swimmer, but she was also a homemaker and mother of two children. That was Happe.
During World Way II, she served in the Female Labour Service and in the War Auxiliary Service. At the end of the war, her family was driven away from its home in Gdansk and was urged to flee to the western part of Germany, where Happe’s mother and two little sisters settled in Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen. Despite all of these hardships, Ursula Happe became Germany’s first post war athletic hero.
Born in 1926, in Gdansk, Ursula started swimming at the age of four and as she grew older began to participate in several age group competitions with varied success. She graduated from school in 1943, having swum for the “Neptun Danzig” Club. In 1949, following her country war duty, she joined the “Neptun Kiel” Club where she won her first of 18 German national Championships in breaststroke and butterfly.
The next year, 1950, she married her swim coach, Heinz Gunter Happe and moved to Dortmund and the swimming club “Schwimmverein Westfalen 1996,” where she again won national titles in the 100m and 200m breaststroke.
In 1952, Ursula Happe qualified to compete at the Helsinki Olympics but did not advance past the semifinal round. That’s when she decided to start her family, and, the next year she had a daughter, Gudrun. Back in to swimming by 1954, she won the German National 200m breaststroke title and the 100m butterfly title. Butterfly had just been recognized by FINA as a separate stroke.
At the 1954 European Championships in Turin, Happe won the 200m breaststroke, the first German to win that event since 1927, when Pioneer Hall of Famer Hilde Schrader won the event. Ursula also won the bronze medal in the 100m butterfly, the first time this new stroke was initiated into the international scene as a fourth stroke. Four of the five individual titles for women at these championships were won by married women. Ursula was so dynamic in her stroke that in the 1954, Swimming Times’ Bill Juba wrote, “She is a faultless breaststroker with particularly good turns and a following glide.” Later in the year, in an international swimming tournament in Hamburg, Germany, she was first again in the 200m breaststroke.
In 1955, after setting a new West German 100m butterfly record, she retired again to have her second child, a son, Klaus. But again she returned and in 1956, the Olympic year, she set a new German 200m breaststroke record of 2:51.0. Her time was the world’s third all-time best time, just behind her Olympic champion friend from 1952, Hall of Famer Eva Szekely of Hungary. The 1956 Olympic Games of Melbourne were fast approaching.
Once in Melbourne, Ursula finished first in the heats and first in the finals, winning the coveted 200m breaststroke gold medal by beating the 1952 champion and rival Szekely.
Because of her swimming success, Ursula Happe was elected as the German Sportswoman of the Year for both 1954 and 1956 and was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf, the highest award for peak performance in the German sports organizations, presented to European and Olympic champions. In 1996, she was honored with the “Verdienstorden des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen,” the highest decoration presented for acknowledgement of a service to country and to fellow citizens in the German Federal State. Part of the inscription reads “with her personality and her typical honorable insertion, she gives many young people joy to sport and sporting attainments.”