Happy Birthday to the Mother of Baby Swimming – Virginia Hunt Newman
VIRGINIA HUNT NEWMAN (USA) 1993 Honor Pioneer Contributor
FOR THE RECORD: Swimming instructor of infants; Produced film on how to dive springboard. 1967–published Teaching An Infant To Swim; Best know for developing the non-forceful, non-traumatic method of teaching infants to swim.
Virginia Hunt competed in swimming for the Indianapolis Athletic Club from 1932 to 1940, winning numerous Midwest and national titles. From 1940 to 1948 she competed in diving for the Los Angeles Athletic Club where she won several Southern Pacific Association titles and a national title.
During World War II, Virginia traveled with the United Service Organization and the Hollywood Victory Committee, appearing in water shows with Hall of Famers Johnny Weissmuller, Stubby Kruger, Buster Crabbe, and Dutch Smith, for the armed services.
Although she was quite successful as a swimmer and diver, Virginia is renowned for her accomplishments as an infant swimming instructor. She began teaching swimming to infants and pre-schoolers in 1950 and became an aquatic director and diving coach at a private boys’ school. During this time, Virginia wrote and directed a series of films on springboard diving and served as Secretary of the Southern Pacific Association Diving Committee for two years.
In 1962 she came to a major turning point in her career. Her star student, two-year old Mary Crosby, daughter of entertainer Bing Crosby and his wife Kathryn successfully passed the skill test for the Red Cross Beginners Certificate. At this time, Mary was the youngest child in the history of the Red Cross to do this. So impressed with her achievements and the fact that she was the daughter of Bing Crosby, Mary’s award was personally presented by the director of Red Cross Safety Services and Hall of Famer Johnny Weissmuller on national television and covered by Life, Look, and Time magazines and headlined in the Los Angeles newspapers.
This event led to the compiling of Virginia’s methods in her book Teaching An Infant to Swim in 1967. It gave world-wide attention to non-forceful or non-traumatic teaching methods. Her book became so popular that it was published in England, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Japan. She later published her next book Teaching Young Children To Swim And Dive, in 1969.
Besides her success with young Mary Crosby, Virginia was also the swimming instructor for the children of John Wayne, Bob Hope, Harry Cohen, Jerry Lewis, Alan Ladd, Bob Newhart, Max Factor, Sonny & Cher, and Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman.
Her methods, distraction from normal fears associated with learning to swim and rewards for trying and performing skills, have been accepted by thousands of swim instructors world-wide.
For her accomplishments, Virginia received both the National Service Award in 1971 and National Honor Award in 1983 from the Aquatics Council of American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Virginia later opened Newman Swim Academy in Hollywood, California, in 1973 and became the executive director of the United States Swimming Foundation in 1980. Today Virginia continues to give many national and world workshops, clinics, and lectures on teaching children how to swim.
March 14th – Happy Birthday to Coach Ron O’Brien !!!
RON O’BRIEN (USA) 1988 Honor Diver/Coach
FOR THE RECORD: NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1959 (one meter); AAU NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1961 (3 meter); OLYMPIC COACH: 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988; Assistant Coach: 1968; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS COACH: 1975, 1978, 1982, 1986; PAN AMERICAN COACH: 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987; WORLD CUP COACH: 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987; 1974 Malone Memorial Award; 1976 Fred Cady Award; 1979-1987 Mike Peppe Award; 1984 Ohio State University Sports Hall of Fame; Winner of 62 National Team Championships while coaching at University of Minnesota (1962-1963); Ohio State (1963-1978), Mission Viejo (1978-1985) and Mission Bay (beginning 1985-1988).
Ron O’Brien has done it all in diving from NCAA and AAU national champion under Mike Peppe while a six letter man (gymnastics and diving) at Ohio State to the top professional water show act (with Hall of Famer Dick Kimball), to the Ph.D. that made believers out of the academicians, to a top college, club, national and international coach. He has won U.S. Diving’s Award as the “Outstanding Senior U.S. Diving Coach” every year since the award was inaugurated in 1979.
It seems like Ron O’Brien has always been a diving coach. Standing next to the deep end (now a diving well), speaking in sort of a stage whisper, animated by body language and hand signals of what the diver did or did not do. His face is constantly sunburned–his green eyes bloodshot with crinkle smile lines around his mouth. His ears and nose peeling as he does a dance in place, teetering on the edge of the pool.
In his first 25 years of coaching, his divers have won 154 gold, 90 silver and 78 bronze medals in major Olympic, world, national, NCAA and Big Ten Conference diving championships. This doesn’t take into account the dozens of medals in prestigious invitational meets around the world. He has coached everyone from beginners to the famed Greg Louganis.
Ron narrowly missed the 1960 Olympic team himself placing third or fourth in the Olympic trials where only two were taken. Perhaps this experience gave him the patience, persistence and understanding to be the coach of every Olympic team since 1968. “It certainly was a good motivator,” he says. “It made me want to make it as a coach. But what keeps me going is not winning,” O’Brien says, “but the quest for reaching potential in myself as a coach and my kids as divers. It’s the pursuit of excellence.”
If you had to pick a highlight from his first 25 years of coaching at Minnesota, Ohio State and the two Missions, it might be the 1982 World Championships when O’Brien’s divers from Mission Viejo won all four of the diving gold medals, the first and only time this has happened in diving history.
Happy Birthday Candy Costie !!!
CANDY COSTIE (USA) 1995 Honor Synchronized Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (duet); 1982 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (duet); 1983 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: gold (duet), silver (team); 4 US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: (duet); 1 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.
Candy Costie is an attractive, highly-spirited, athlete with an infectious smile who is artistic by nature. Fortunately, at the age of nine, she was able to find the perfect sport to devote all of her God-given attributes–synchronized swimming.
Candy is best remembered for being part of the dynamic pair that she and her partner, Tracy Ruiz, were throughout their year of swimming together. Candy and Tracy first teamed up when they were ten years old. In the crystal blueness of the water, their artistic movements captivated the judges and their audiences again and again. During their ten year partnership, only twice did she and Ruiz ever finish lower than first place in the duet event, taking silver medals in the 1980 US Nationals and 1982 World Championships.
Candy and Tracy are one of the most decorated synchronized duets to date. They have won four US National Championships, one NCAA National Championship, and a 1983 Pan American Games gold. The culmination of their career happened in the summer of 1984 –when, for the first time in history, the duet event was presented at the Olympic Games. Candy and Tracy approached the crowd and swam with such beauty, spirit and grace that no one could deny the team their right to the first Olympic Games gold medal in synchronized swimming.
Shortly after her historic Olympic experience, Candy retired. Though her athletic career has past, her name lives on through the many products she has endorsed, her appearances as a sports commentator, and her video, “The Water Workout.” Candy is remembered for helping to raise synchronized swimming — a sport which requires strength, co-ordination, and artistic composition, to new levels of popularity.
Eleven years since her retirement, Candy Continues to find new goals to reach. Her strokes no longer land in the water but rather on canvas, exploring her artistic talent at her art studio, the Desert Fish, in Arizona. Candy is the mother of two children and recently expanded her family to include two more youngsters when she married Fred Merrill, Jr.
Happy Birthday Mike Peppe !!! Yesterday the great Coach was born in 1898……..
MIKE PEPPE (USA) 1966 Honor Coach
FOR THE RECORD: U.S. Olympic Coach: 1948, 1952 (5 gold medals); Coached divers and swimmers to 24 Olympic berths; Ohio State University coach for 33 years, coaching 33 major championship teams in Big Ten, NCAA, and AAU Championships; U.S. Pan American swimming and diving coach in 1951.
Mike Peppe is known around the world as the coach of more Olympic divers than any other man. During one long period, 20 divers who studied under this master coach bagged 96 of 125 available National titles, including two gold, four silver and three bronze Olympic medals in the four Games, 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960.
Mike Peppe was graduated from Ohio State in 1927. He took a Masters from Columbia in 1928 and returned again to Ohio State where he became the University’s first swimming coach in 1931 and the only head swimming coach until his retirement in 1962. During those 33 years, Peppe and Ohio State won 33 major championships, 12 Big Ten, 11 NCAA and 10 NAAU. In dual meets, Ohio State won 173 and lost 37. Peppe’s teams went undefeated in 12 different seasons.
During these years, Peppe coached swimmers and divers, won 312 individual and relay championships, 5 Olympic gold medals and 19 Olympic team berths. Twice (in 1947 and 1956) Peppe’s Ohio State divers swept the boards 1, 2, 3, 4 in the NCAA diving finals.
No swimming and diving coach had a better record in the 1950’s than did Mike Peppe, the bantam master of the boards and the water at Ohio State. Peppe was U.S. Olympic diving coach at London in 1948 and again in 1952 at Helsinki. He was swimming and diving coach of the U.S. team at the first official Pan American Games in 1951 at Buenos Aires. In the four Olympic Games from World War II until Peppe retired, Ohio State contributed 19 of the 92 members. The 1952 team of 25 members had 5 “Buckeyes”.
Happy Birthday Michelle Calkins !!!
MICHELLE CALKINS (CAN) 2001 Honor Synchronized Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1973 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (team); 1978 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (duet); 1976 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: silver (team); 1976 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (team); 1977 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (duet); NATIONAL TEAM COACH AND OLYMPIC COACH: 1988 – present.
Coach Debbie Muir of the Calgary Aquabelles had a knack for pairing the two most synchronized swimmers on her team when she paired Michelle Calkins with Helen Vanderberg to win the 1978 World Championships duet in Berlin, Germany. It marked the first time that Canadian synchronized swimmers had won a World Duet Championship, an important milestone in the evolution of synchronized swimming in Canada. In 1977, Michelle and her Hall of Fame partner Helen were named to the Elaine Tanner Award as Canada’s best young female athletes of the year by Sports Federation of Canada. And all this before synchronized swimming became an Olympic sport!
In 1969, Michelle won the ’12 and under’ Alberta Provincial Figures Trophy and was on her way to synchronized swimming stardom. By 1971, she was a member of The Aquabelles Junior National Team Champions and in 1973 a Canadian Junior National Solo Champion. From 1973 to 1978, she won seven Canadian Senior National Championships in duet, team and figures events. Her first international competition was winning the silver medal in the 1973 First World Championships team event in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. She won the silver in the Mexico City 1975 Pan American Games team event. The Pan Pacific Championships of 1976 and 1977 were the warm up to the gold medal performance of the 1978 World Championships. All this was before synchronized swimming was an Olympic event. Also during 1978, she performed in a demonstration of synchronized swimming at the Edmonton Commonwealth Games before synchronized swimming became an official Commonwealth Games event eight years later in 1986.
Michelle’s success was by virtue of her exacting technical skill. Her and teammate Helen’s 1978 combined figures scores were 87.30, a full 2.70 points above the duet silver medalists. She performed creatively and with intensely dramatic routines. Michelle, with partner Helen, instigated the great success of their home club in Calgary culminating ten years later in another goal medal duet win, this time by Carolyn Waldo and Michelle Cameron at the 1988 Olympic Games.
Michelle’s passion for synchronized swimming never diminished and she is now the head coach of her Aquabelles as well as serving as a Canadian National Team coach since 1988. She was the 1996 Canadian Olympic coach when Canada won the silver medal in the team event.
Happy Birthday Jozef Szabo !!!
Jozsef Szabo (HUN) 2012 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m breaststroke); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m breaststroke); 1987 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m breaststroke), silver (4x100m medley); 1989 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (200m breaststroke).
In Jozsef Szabo’s competitive swimming days, he became part of a family of swimmers and teammates. Like a family, each member had a role. He was known as the clown, to provide and keep everyone in good spirits and laughs.
Under Coach Tamas Szechy, most of the swimmers had one thing in common, they were great breaststroke swimmers. Szabo was no exception. Along with Norbert Rozsa, Tamas Darnyi and Karoly Guttler, he became one of the greatest breaststroke swimmers in the world.
Szabo swam at the Budeapesti Honved Sportegyesulet. He burst onto the international scene at the 1986 Madrid World Championships, winning the 200 meter breaststroke, and repeating it in the next year at the 1987 European Championships in Strasburg, Austria.
Tall for an elite breaststroke swimmer at 6’1”, and weighing 180 pounds, Szabo surprised the world when he won the Olympic gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games, defeating Nick Gillingham of Great Britain and Sergio Lopez of Spain in the 200 meter breaststroke, only .18 seconds off Canadian Victor Davis’ world record.
All totaled, Szabo won one Olympic gold medal, one World Championship gold medal and three European Championship medals, one gold, one silver and one bronze.
Jim Ferguson Joins ISHOF’s One in a Thousand Campaign, “I Truly Believe Their Mission Statement”
by ANDY ROSS
08 March 2021
1972 Olympic bronze medalist in water polo Jim Ferguson has joined the ISHOF’s One in a Thousand Club, designed to help the Hall of Fame prosper during the financial difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ferguson, who is based out of northern California, got his start in his swimming when his family moved out west when he was three years old.
“I grew up in Santa Clara and swam all the way through high school with George Haines, Mark Spitz, and Don Schollander they were all at our competing high school. I played other sports but when I got to high school I gravitated toward water polo but I stayed in aquatics. That was where my Olympic experience came and my international hall of fame and all the other accolades I got. I still swim every day 7 days a week. I am a true believer that swimming keeps you healthy. I preach swimming and I have been donating to other causes that preach swimming.
“I knew Bruce Wigo really well and I like watching the Hall of Fame grow and following the newsletters from ISHOF. It is a great thing to keep people motivated. I was always attracted by the site and now is a good time to support it. I saw that and put some money in. What they are doing at the Hall of Fame is really fantastic and I thought it was a good reason to support.
Jim Ferguson during his playing days. Photo Courtesy: Jim Ferguson
“Recently we went to Colorado Springs to see the Olympic museum,” Ferguson said. “And I thought if Florida was anything like that then I will definitely put it on our next road trip plan. I’m looking at the whole thing. The architectural design is just fabulous and it is right on the water. I’ve been around the world looking at pools through my water polo background and so I am amazed by swimming pools and would love to see what they’ve done there with the museum and everything else. I like museums because there is a lot of history there.
“The Hall of Fame is not just swimming, it is all aquatics and it preaches that swimming is an essential part of life and it is for me. That’s why I joined the club I do and I swim every day in an outdoor facility and I teach people. It is why I do what I do. I truly believe (the Hall of Fame’s) mission statement.”
Join the One in a Thousand Club by helping ISHOF on a monthly or one-time basis.
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For larger corporate sponsorships and estate-planning donations, please contact us at customerservice@ishof.org.
The International Swimming Hall of Fame wants to know if you are one in a thousand? We think you are! Show how special you are and become a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s “One In A Thousand” Club. Help keep the International Swimming Hall of Fame moving forward toward a new vision and museum by joining now!
During these unprecedented times, the ISHOF Board is calling on every member in the aquatic community to make a small monthly commitment of support to show how special you are and how special the International Swimming Hall of Fame is to everyone.
“Our goal is simple. If we get 1,000 people to simply commit $10, $25 or $50 per month, we will generate enough revenue to go beyond this Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis.” – Bill Kent – Chairman of the ISHOF Board
“Those that believe in our vision, mission, and goals can join us in taking ISHOF into the future and be a part of aquatic history.” – Brent Rutemiller – CEO and President of ISHOF
Since 1965, ISHOF has been the global focal point for recording and sharing the history of aquatics, promoting swimming as an essential life-skill, and developing educational programs and events related to water sports. ISHOF’s vision for the future is to build a new museum and expand its reach by offering its museum artifacts digitally through a redesigned website.
The ISHOF Board of Directors is calling on all members of the aquatics community to make a small monthly commitment to show their dedication to aquatics and how special the International Swimming Hall of Fame is to everyone.
IWD: Marathon Swimming: Where Women Have Outperformed the Men
by NED DENISON
March 2021,
Marathon Swimming: Where Women Have Outperformed the Men
Today, March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day. As a tribute to the women who have contributed to, grown and defined excellence in the sport, Swimming World will run several features throughout the day which celebrate some of the great women and achievements in swimming history.
Unlike competitive pool swimming, marathon swimming provides opportunities for women to outperform and beat the men in three key aspects of the sport: Solo speed records, endurance records and head-to-head races.
As far as solo speed records are concerned, here are classic courses that featured female record-setters.
English Channel (33 km/20.5 miles): Gertrude Ederle** (1926); Lynne Cox** (1972); Penny Lee Dean** (1978-1995).
Catalina Channel (mainland to the island 32.3 km/20.1 miles): Penny Lee Dean (Held since 1976)
Times in these swims depend on conditions during the swim (tides, temperature, waves, etc.). It is impossible, however, to rationalize that Penny Lee Dean might have had a couple of days of “perfect conditions.” Her records had and have staying power!
Here are the endurance records currently held by women for the longer distances.
Sarah Thomas*: Longest lake swim (168.3 km /104.6 miles) in 67 hours and 16 minutes; and the only four-way English Channel swim (132 km /82.5 miles) in 54 hours and 10 minutes.
Chloë McCardel*: Longest current neutral sea swim (124.4 km /77.3 miles) in 41 hours and 21 minutes
There is some medical discussion about the physical advantages which women might enjoy (or not) over men at these distances. However, the archives show that women hold 14 of the longest 23 current neutral endurance records.
Here is a glance at some great head-to-head races, which every competitive pool swimmer can relate to a bit better.
The biggest marathon race in 1958 was the Butlin International Cross English Channel Race of 33 km/20.5 miles. This brought together the world’s greatest marathon swimmers (seven women and 31 men) from 18 countries. Six of these swimmers have since been inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF) and three with future success in the Channel. From those who did not win in 1958: One won in 1959, one became the “King of the Channel” in 1960 with the most crossings and one set the speed record in 1960 and held it for 16 years. So, there is no question about the quality of the competition for the 1958 race.
Greta Andersen**, the gold medalist for Denmark in the 100-meter freestyle in the 1948 Olympics, finished first in 11 hours and 1 minute, beating the next swimmer (a man) by nearly four hours. Only five swimmers finished, one exited on a pier (DQ) and the rest were pulled (for their own safety) or quit. Her victory was not a fluke as that same year, she also won the prestigious Lac St. Jean race of 26 km/16.1 miles.
In a 1962 race of 80km/49.7 miles across Lake Michigan, Greta again beat the men. While this race consisted of only a few swimmers, the prize was one of the richest in the history of the sport: $25,000 (in 2021 terms, $215,000).
In watching the 70-year-old video (no sound) of the 1958 race, one should note that a few things have changed. Nowadays, the swimmers use 5% as much grease and stroke rates are generally much higher. Some things haven’t changed: The water is rarely calm, no assistance is permitted while swimming or getting out and the swim may end on those (still dangerous) rocks.
Greta wasn’t the only woman to beat the men. More than 30 years, later Shelley-Taylor Smith** beat the best men in the world in the 1991 and 1992 races around Atlantic City, a distance of 36.6 km/22.7 miles. This was a prestigious race and 11 of her competitors went on to be inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF).
These wins still happen. In September 2021, the first two finishers in the FINA World Cup Capri to Naples were women. While a COVID-19 year restricted the competition, they did shatter the speed record for this 36km/22.3 miles race.
*Honor Swimmer in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF)**Honor Swimmer in IMSHOF and the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF)
Happy Birthday George Haines !!!
GEORGE HAINES (USA) 1977 Honor Coach
FOR THE RECORD: Coached for 26 years; U.S. Women’s Olympic Team Coach (1960); U.S. Men’s Olympic Assistant Coach (1964); U.S. Men’s Olympic Team Coach (1968); U.S. Women’s Olympic Assistant Coach (1972; Recipient of the National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy; A.S.C.A. “Coach of the Year” 1964, 1966, 1967, 1972; Swam for Huntington (IN) YMCA under Coach Glen Hummer; Coached Santa Clara Swim Club and now at UCLA; Recipient of 1965 AAU Swimming Award.
George Haines won 35 National AAU Team Championships — 26 Women’s and 9 Men’s with the Santa Clara Swim Club. He began swimming for Glen Hummer at the Huntington (IN) YMCA, got tired of waiting for Kalamazoo College to build its pool after the war and moved to Santa Clara where he coached 25 years before moving on to his first college job, not at Kalamazoo but at UCLA. Among his hundreds of National Champions, World and American Record holders at Santa Clara was his own daughter, Kerry. His superstars included Chris Von Saltza, Steve Clark, Claudia Kolb, Don Schollander, and Donna deVarona.
On this day in 1879, British Water Polo Player George Wilkinson was born!!! Read his story:
GEORGE WILKINSON (GBR) 1980 Honor Water Polo Player
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1900, 1908, 1912 gold; On Great Britain’s International Water Polo Teams from 1901 to 1922.
George Wilkinson (1887-1947) was the first superstar of English and world water polo. The English invented the game and Wilkinson made the rest of the world believers. He won his first Olympic gold medal at 20 and his third at 32. The Manchester Osborne team who had dominated English water polo since 1894 took him to Paris on their 1900 Olympic Team without even a trial match. On moving to Hyde in 1903 he joined, then captained the Hyde Seal Club which won the English Championships nine more times. From 1901 until 1922 he played in international competition with the Great Britain team which he captained to a gold medal in 1912 at the Stockholm Olympics. One can only speculate on the almost certainty that he would have won a record five straight Olympic gold medals but for Great Britain’s failure to compete in 1904 and again when WWI cancelled the 1916 games. During his playing career before packed baths, he delighted all audiences with his skills.
