Diving Clown Reveals Himself After Opening Ceremony

By Brent Rutemiller

MINNEPOLIS, Minnesota, March 17. OPENING ceremonies for the men's NCAA Division I Championships featured an impressive diving show on the second night of competition. It ended with a tuxedoed trumpet player blaring the star spangled banner off the 10-meter tower and then throwing himself forward off the platform and into a reverse somersault, feet-first, splash landing.

But during the show, it was a clown diver wearing a sailor's hat dressed in a colorful knee-to-neck, old time cotton suit that stole the show. Everyone watched with amazement as he performed acrobatic flips, flops, spills and thrills off various boards and platforms. Everyone cringed when he did a bellyflop off the 10-meter tower. Who was that crazy clown running up steps; jumping forward and backwards off the boards; swimming briskly back to the sides and back up a different ladder to continue his aerial assault somewhere else among the six takeoff platforms with the energy of a teenager?

Among all the children, high school, and Masters divers, the clown revealed himself as Dick Kimball – the legendary Olympic diving coach who is now 72 years young!

Listen as SwimmingWorldRadio.com talks with the 1957 NCAA Champion diver, Olympic Diving Coach and retired University of Michigan diving coach after 43 years of coaching by clicking on the button to the right.

To download an MP3 Version go to SwimmingWorldRadio.com

Read About Coach Kimball's Retirement

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