ISHOF Coach Ray Bussard RIP

Coach Ray Bussard passed away last evening in Knoxville, Tennessee. If anyone had the pleasure to know Coach Bussard, he was a very colorful, loud, and gracious man. His opponents both feared and loathed him. He was always looking for a loophole in the rules to gain an advantage. Respected and loved by his swimmers, he will be missed. "The strong oak bends to sudden wind, and strengthens in the calm. But you my friend must climb those limbs, and pluck the fruit from spoil." Rest in peace Coach Bussard. Ray Bussard is considered by many including myself to be the greatest sprint swim coach in the 1970's. He was the first coach that I can remember back then that didn't put a lot of emphasis of the swimmer's ability to do a lot of yardage. When he recruited swimmers for his college program, he went a different way than other coaches who wanted an endurance base built up to handle 8,000 to 10,000 yards a day in a two-workout program. He did not believe in the traditional methods of that time period in building up the aerobic base for a substantial part of the college season. He had immediate success at the college level and his teams were in the top 4 and won the 1978 NCAA Championship. In that meet, he had 4 swimmers in the final of the 50 Free and that was the first time any school had ever put 4 swimmers in the finals. Andy Coan, John Newton, Bob Sells, and Tom White were those swimmers. They were favored to win in 1979 but did not swim well and were 4th. In 1978, of the top 15 swims ever recorded in short course, Tennessee had 7 men in the 50 Free. In the top 15 swims ever recorded in the 100 Free they had 6 and that was more than any other school at that time. His swimmers did not have the success in the International Long Course Meters format as they did in the National Short Course format. His big 3 sprint swimming starts were David Edgar, John Trembley, and Andy Coan. There was no 50 Free in the Olympics when those 3 swam and perhaps one if not all of these swimmers would have won gold in that event had it been offered. I think these 3 were great swimmers in history that just missed international success. He also had other stars in Matt Vogel, who was the 1976 Olympic 100 Fly gold medalist and Lee Engstrand, who was the American Record holder in the 200 yard IM. He also managed to recruit Gram Windeatt, who was the silver medalist in the 1500 Free in the 1972 Olympics behind Mike Burton in one of the best races of that Olympics. He did not do as well here in the NCAA format. Ray had a track background so he brought a lot of concepts from that sport and applied them to swimming. He was one of the first coaches that really got into the theory of turns and swimming between the walls and studying maximum turnover rate and measuring maximum speed per meter. With David Edgar and John Trembley he measured there meters per second swimming and coming out of a turn. Both swimmers swam about 2.0 meters per second and he found that both could swim 3.5 meters per second, pushing off the wall from a turn. They found from these studies that a deeper turn was better with less drag than a shallow one on the surface especially in turbulent water in a sprint race of a 50 or a 100. Ray was also a very controversial coach back in the day. His teams had a "us versus them" attitude when they swam and you had to be into what he was doing to be successful. I know many swimmers that liked him and didn't like him when swimming for Tennessee. He was kind of like the Bobby Knight of swimming back then. I have linked some articles from the past and you can be the judge of that. sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.../index.htm sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.../index.htm sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.../index.htm www.govolsxtra.com/.../ forums.usms.org/showthread.php

Coach Ray Bussard passed away last evening in Knoxville, Tennessee. If anyone had the pleasure to know Coach Bussard, he was a very colorful, loud, and gracious man. His opponents both feared and loathed him. He was always looking for a loophole in the rules to gain an advantage. Respected and loved by his swimmers, he will be missed. "The strong oak bends to sudden wind, and strengthens in the calm. But you my friend must climb those limbs, and pluck the fruit from spoil." Rest in peace Coach Bussard. Ray Bussard is considered by many including myself to be the greatest sprint swim coach in the 1970's. He was the first coach that I can remember back then that didn't put a lot of emphasis of the swimmer's ability to do a lot of yardage. When he recruited swimmers for his college program, he went a different way than other coaches who wanted an endurance base built up to handle 8,000 to 10,000 yards a day in a two-workout program. He did not believe in the traditional methods of that time period in building up the aerobic base for a substantial part of the college season. He had immediate success at the college level and his teams were in the top 4 and won the 1978 NCAA Championship. In that meet, he had 4 swimmers in the final of the 50 Free and that was the first time any school had ever put 4 swimmers in the finals. Andy Coan, John Newton, Bob Sells, and Tom White were those swimmers. They were favored to win in 1979 but did not swim well and were 4th. In 1978, of the top 15 swims ever recorded in short course, Tennessee had 7 men in the 50 Free. In the top 15 swims ever recorded in the 100 Free they had 6 and that was more than any other school at that time. His swimmers did not have the success in the International Long Course Meters format as they did in the National Short Course format. His big 3 sprint swimming starts were David Edgar, John Trembley, and Andy Coan. There was no 50 Free in the Olympics when those 3 swam and perhaps one if not all of these swimmers would have won gold in that event had it been offered. I think these 3 were great swimmers in history that just missed international success. He also had other stars in Matt Vogel, who was the 1976 Olympic 100 Fly gold medalist and Lee Engstrand, who was the American Record holder in the 200 yard IM. He also managed to recruit Gram Windeatt, who was the silver medalist in the 1500 Free in the 1972 Olympics behind Mike Burton in one of the best races of that Olympics. He did not do as well here in the NCAA format. Ray had a track background so he brought a lot of concepts from that sport and applied them to swimming. He was one of the first coaches that really got into the theory of turns and swimming between the walls and studying maximum turnover rate and measuring maximum speed per meter. With David Edgar and John Trembley he measured there meters per second swimming and coming out of a turn. Both swimmers swam about 2.0 meters per second and he found that both could swim 3.5 meters per second, pushing off the wall from a turn. They found from these studies that a deeper turn was better with less drag than a shallow one on the surface especially in turbulent water in a sprint race of a 50 or a 100. Ray was also a very controversial coach back in the day. His teams had a "us versus them" attitude when they swam and you had to be into what he was doing to be successful. I know many swimmers that liked him and didn't like him when swimming for Tennessee. He was kind of like the Bobby Knight of swimming back then. I have linked some articles from the past and you can be the judge of that. sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.../index.htm sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.../index.htm sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.../index.htm www.govolsxtra.com/.../ forums.usms.org/showthread.php