Mickey Vogt, New Jersey’s Oldest Masters Swimmer, Passes Away at 97

Linda Brown-Kuhn

PRINCETON, NJ. MICKEY (Maxwell) Vogt, age 97, long time Masters swimmer, popular coach and mentor to numerous Olympic, national and local champion swimmers and divers passed away on Sunday, March 10, 2002.

Vogt was Athletic Director at the Newark Athletic Cub for 25 years and Freshman Swimming Coach at Princeton University from 1954 until his retirement in 1969. After moving to the Toms River area, he continued coaching youth swim teams. During the summers he coached the Toms River Country Club and Mecedeconk River Yacht Club. He retired from coaching in 1994.

He was an active swimmer and the story goes (we couldn’t confirm this) that while swimming in college he and a teammate originated the flip turn!

Mickey set many Masters records, was ranked in the national top ten and earned All-America honors over the years and completed his last swimming workout on Friday, March 8, 2002, at the Ocean County YMCA.

Masters swimmer Judy Ramirez met Mickey initially because he coached in the swim league that her kids swam for. "We became friends simply because he was a great person. He had a lot of swimming knowledge and was willing to share it with the kids. He was always friendly and was the type of person you enjoyed being around. He told good stories about past events, yet he was humble. He will be missed."

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