Back in the day: a social history of swimming

I swam at DePauw University in a 20-yard pool in the late 50s and early 60s. I don't remember lane lines and we certainly didn't have goggles. Many nights I would finish practice and be unable to open my eyes because of the chemical irritation. We may also have practiced without suits occasionally since there was no women's team; I'm not really sure about this. The starting blocks were home made wooden structures that extended from the deck into the gutter. It seems to me that we flipped them over (they were hollow) for backstroke starts and a teammate stood in the cavity to keep them from slipping into the pool while the swimmer in the water started. There were no backstroke flags and I can remember that two team mates would stand at each end. One would have a white towel and would extend as far out as possible over the water waving the towel for the swimmer to see while holding onto the hand of the other team mate so as not to fall into the water at an inopportune time. Charlie Erdmann was our coach and he used to take us to meets all over the mid-west. What I remember most was that he knew all of the GREAT places to eat along the way and he went out of his way to educate our tastes on these trips. I also remember the training routine. We basically blasted our brains out every practice and didn't taper. I don't think anyone on our team shaved for the conference meet during the years I was there (my first shave and taper was at 52 as a master's swimmer!). I swam AAU in the summer because it was almost the only option available for competing out of college. I say almost because I actually coached a team in my home town and we competed with a group of loosely organized teams all within about 100 miles of where I grew up. This was more like the current summer leagues in its organization and quality of swim program. I'm not sure I'd ever want to be 18 again, but the experience has certainly molded much of my life as an adult. -- mel

Remember Pete, YOU asked for it. When I was 11 or 12, swimming age group summer, a fellow 11 or 12 year old boy jumped out of the pool and proclaimed he could not swim any more due to the fact that the scab on his leg was bothering him. Coach looked at the scab on his leg (which seemed pretty damn big at the time) and ripped it off the kid's leg with his hand, in front of 50 other young and impressionables in the pool, and told him to get the hell back in the pool and start swimming. To my knowledge, not one word was mentioned, by a kid to a parent, following the event. Several kids seemed amused. Team went on to win the league championships. What would happen to coach today? If you like that, I have more. My agegroup coach once pulled a kid out of the water by his hair and ripped his necklace off of his neck....he would routinely peg loafers in the head with kickboards and pullbuoys....nobody thought anything of it back then? He also threw a six pack of beer at me in the hotel on the last night of Junior Nationals when I was a sophmore or Jumior in High school. Newmastersswimmer

Dammit Jim, you stole two of my other stories. hair pulling, kickboard throwing, pull buoy throwing, ah the good old days.:banana: Might I add the new swimmer on the team gets a swirley routine? Clean water if you're liked, not so clean if you're not.

Dammit Allen, Now you're stealing my stuff. One of my coaches used to stand behind each of us at the starting block with a kickboard and whale on us if we left too late.:groovy: I still have more. Bring it!

Yup, the wooden paddle has the kickboard beat. How bout duct taping the annoying guy, naked, feet dangling in the air, to the school stop sign just before high school opens in the AM? This right after the fall "voluntary conditioning drills" that began at 6 AM. Can't practice as a team before a certain time of year after all.

One of the things that has changed a lot is the meaning of terms 'professional' and 'amateur'. Now, the relevance of 'professional' only seems to bear on NCAA elegibility; once upon a time it meant not being eligible for the Olympics or other championships. I think I have told this before, but it illuminates the point: when I was about eleven I accepted a dare from my dad that I wouldn't swim from dock to dock at our lakeside cabin on New Year's Day. Twenty dollars was the incentive. I did it and it was reported along with a neighbour's snapshot in the local paper: someone complained to the Canadian Amateur Swimming Association about the event and I was suspended from competition for the 6 months that it took to investigate whether I had 'turned professional'. It was determined that I had taken a bet rather than accepting a fee, so that was OK. As a side note, this whole affair occurred right after I was the first person in Victoria to switch clubs; my older brother, who had stayed with the Y, but who had accepted the same dare and did it, was not complained about.

My agegroup coach once pulled a kid out of the water by his hair and ripped his necklace off of his neck....he would routinely peg loafers in the head with kickboards and pullbuoys....nobody thought anything of it back then? Newmastersswimmer My first college coach use to throw metal chairs at us...well let me clarify...he would stand at end of the pool, in front of our lanes, with said metal chair, and drop it on our fingers-head if we stayed there too long on open turns for butterfly and breaststroke. It was to encourage fast walls, and boy did it work...granted this wasnt very long ago...3 years...and i'm sure he still does it today. But he is a very old coach. My US coach would regularly throw kickboards and pull buoys at us if we werent swimming fast enough or pulled on the lane lines.

My mom grew up in SF, born in 1940, a lot was going on then. Blackouts at night, rubber recycling, victory gardens, etc. I remember her telling me about swimming the world-famous Flyshacker pool(s). She said it was amazing. Some warm pools, some cold, some freshwater, some saltwater. That was built right on HW 1 across from the ocean. I also seem to remember her telling me about a 100m long pool! I'll do more digging into that one, but distance swimmers, just imagine :agree:

One year, some mother decided that smearing vaseline around your eyes would somehow chase the chlorine away. Her kids were real fast, so the coach adopted the yucky practise; it didn't work, got in your eyes and gave the pool an oil slick. Cranking my thick cloth bathing suit through the wringer to squeeze out the several gallons of water it had soaked up. We usually had to take a ferry to get to major meets; we always ate a huge pancake breakfast on the boat about one hour before warmups. Did a lot of billeting when travelling and hosted in return, it was a great way to make new friends.

My mom grew up in SF, born in 1940, a lot was going on then. Blackouts at night, rubber recycling, victory gardens, etc. I remember her telling me about swimming the world-famous Flyshacker pool(s). She said it was amazing. Some warm pools, some cold, some freshwater, some saltwater. That was built right on HW 1 across from the ocean. I also seem to remember her telling me about a 100m long pool! I'll do more digging into that one, but distance swimmers, just imagine :agree: Are you talking about the Sutro Baths? My mom was also born/raised in SF back in the 40's and her uncle managed the Sutro Baths. I love to visit the ruins when I visit the City! I sometimes use an avatar of the Baths becase I love the idea of them.