Lane 9 News Archive: <i>The Morning Swim Show</i>: Tribute to Buck Dawson, First Executive Director of International Swimming Hall of Fame

The Morning Swim Show: Tribute to Buck Dawson, First Executive Director of International Swimming Hall of Fame -- May 12, 2008

PHOENIX, Arizona, May 12. THE Monday edition of The Morning Swim Show pays tribute to Buck Dawson, the first executive director of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

To view this show click here.

This light-hearted video was produced by ISHOF, and includes photos of Dawson with celebrities such as Greg Louganis, Mickey Rooney and Ronald Reagan.

The show tells of his younger years in college, almost flunking out of school and serving in the Army during World War II, which earned him honors such as the Bronze Star.

After the war, he wrote about his service and later met his wife, Rosemary, who sparked his interest in swimming. He and his wife organized the Ann Arbor Swim Club and served on various swimming and water polo committees.

In the 1960s, while he was running swimming camps and living in Canada, he helped envision the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, despite not really knowing how to swim.

Dawson traveled around the world to spread the word about ISHOF and spent millions of dollars to sell the concept to others.

In the early years of the ISHOF, celebrities and dignitaries frequented the many special events held there, which were often televised across the country.

This 24-minute video features hundreds of pictures and testimonials by those touched by Dawson's generosity.

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May 12, 2008 The following is a letter to the editor from Jeff Dimond regarding Buck Dawson's passing:

Rest Softly, Buck; You Will Never Be Forgotten
By Jeff Dimond

I am not ashamed to admit I cried when I learned of Buck Dawson's death. They were tears of sadness, of loss and of some of the best memories of my professional career.

When you work in the world of swimming media as I did for a decade, you quickly understand how important Buck was to the sport. He was the soul of its entrepreneurial spirit, he was the keeper of the historical flame and he was the conscience of making sure we did things the right way.

As a promoter, Buck could have held his own with P.T. Barnum and we were lucky swimming was his sport of choice. There is no doubt about how much of himself Buck poured into the sport. The only question is: how much more did the rest of us gain?

I doubt there was ever a piece of swimming trivia that escaped Buck's gaze. He knew former Philadelphia Phillies third-baseman Mike Schmidt was a great 10-and under backstroker. He could tell you whether Eleanor Holm drank champagne from her left or right shoe on the boat transporting the 1936 Olympic team to Germany and he could recite the scores of Gold medal diving performances and the splits of the 1984 U.S. men's 800 freestyle relay. His mind was one of the greatest repositories of sports trivia ever. All of us are much the poorer for his loss.

But more than his capacity for swimming trivia, Buck knew the best way to keep the sport alive was to honor and embrace its history. He would emphasize the importance of the historical foundations to the promotion of the present. He wanted today's athletes to know every time a world record fell, that swimmer's name was added to a multi-generational progression list. [Michael Phelps (1:43.86, 200m freestyle in 2007), meet Australia's Freddy Lane (2:28.6, 200m freestyle in 1908).] Buck emphasized the importance of these world and American record progressions and it was because of him the records section of the U.S. Swimming media guides were continuously expanded.

Buck and his good friend New York Times reporter Frank Litsky coined the phrase, "Sell swimmers, not swimming," and that philosophy is at the heart of promoting the sport. To this end, we worked hard at adding more bios of American swimmers to the database and we tried to find as much personal/ non-swimming information as possible to include in those bios.

More than anything, however, Buck wanted everyone to appreciate the history of the sport. He felt the strength of the swimming community came from knowing about those who had gone before. He loved that the old timing systems of three stop watches per lane and place judges had given way to the ultra sensitive touch pads of today. I'm sure he marveled at the transition in swim suits from heavy-when-wet wool to nylon, then lycra and now the ultra-sophisticated LZRs.

Today's swimmers would do well to carry a reminder of the history they represent when they step on the blocks in Beijing later this summer.

Might I suggest we issue them an eye-patch to go with their iPods?
Submitted by: Jason Marsteller

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