Bruce Wigo - (Author)

Memorial Day Weekend: The Story of Charles Jackson French - A Hero For Our Time On January 19, 2020, the United States Navy announced it was naming a new aircraft carrier after African American WWII war hero “Dorie” Miller. The announcement came more than 78 years after the events at Pearl Harbor th...

Stroke Wars: How Breaststroke and Butterfly Emerged As Separate Strokes Today, we accept that there are four competitive strokes. But when the first rules for competitive swimming were written in the early 19th century, there was only one rule: Whoever swam the fastest from start to finish won the r...

If Not For His Swimming Prowess, Julius Caesar Would Not Have Lived to the Ides of March “Beware The Ides of March!” Had Julius Caesar not been a strong swimmer, we would never know the term – he would have died in 48 BCE and never lived to die on the Ides of March in 45 BCE. ***************** It is...

Black History Month: During General Slocum Disaster, Harry George Was a Hero The General Slocum steamship disaster was the greatest single catastrophe in New York City’s history until Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. On June 15, 1904, the Gen. Slocum was taking a group of almost 1,400 passengers,...

Shooting Mark Spitz: Through the Lens Of Legendary Photographer Heinz Kluetmeier PHOTOS COURTESY HEINZ KLUETMEIER/ISHOF ARCHIVES About Heinz Kluetmeier While swimming constitutes just a small portion of his incredible portfolio, no photographer has meant more to swimming history and the Internationa...

Queen Elizabeth II: Long-Serving Monarch Was Known As Strong Swimmer In Younger Years On Thursday, Queen Elizabeth II passed away at 96, her family by her side according to reports. The monarch served in her role for 70 years, the longest tenure in history. In this piece from historian Bruce Wigo in...

The History of Swimming: From the Maya to the Aztecs...And More Swimming is universal to all races and cultures. However, in these times, we see very few representatives from the indigenous populations of Africa, the Americas or Oceania competing in aquatic sports at the Olympic Games. This fact has...

Sportswriters and historians are constantly on a quest to rediscover a hero or event, forgotten by time, whose story could be immortalized in a book or on film. And once or twice in a decade, one of these stories captures the imagination of the public and becomes a runaway best seller—like Laura Hil...

From the April issue of Swimming World Magazine, historian Bruce Wigo examines the history of USA Diving. Get Swimming World Magazine and Swimming World Biweekly FREE When You Become A Member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame New! 30 Day Membership to ISHOF AND Digital Swimming World Subscr...

Black History Month: Historic Swimming Firsts in Black History By Bruce Wigo In recognition of Black History Month, Swimming World takes a look at some historic accomplishments in swimming turned in by athletes of African descent. Who was the first swimmer of African descent to win the Navy Medal fo...

Did You Know About Leonardo da Vinci - The Swimmer? Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452-May 2, 1519) epitomized the concept of the “Renaissance Man.” He was an Italian polymath who, while best known for his dramatic and expressive artwork, was also an inventor, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor ...

Almost fifteen years ago, my friend Lee Pitts and I created an exhibit at the International Swimming Hall of Fame entitled: “Black Splash: The history of swimming in black and white.” When we made it into a multi-media presentation for an audience, Sabir Muhammad joined us as a presenter along with ...

Memorial Day Rewind: The Forgotten Hero of WWII By Bruce Wigo. The participation of Americans of African descent in the U.S. military has a long and distinguished history, dating to the Revolutionary War.  During World War II, more than one million African Americans served in the armed forces of the...

Black Swimmer Commentary by Bruce Wigo, Historian for the International Swimming Hall of Fame Just last week, Swimmingworld.com ran an updated version of an heroic black swimmer war story of a 23 year-old black navy crew member who worked as a mess hand on the U.S.S. Gregory during a sea battle off ...

Black History Month: Tennessee State Tigersharks a Team to Remember As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, here is a brief look at a special team in history: The Tennessee State University Tigersharks finished the 1960-61 swimming season with a 6-1 record, losing only to Indiana’s Ball Sta...

Frank Legacki passed away on October 16, 2020 at the age of 81 years. The cause of death was Metastatic Prostate Cancer. Frank had an amazing life. He lived an active, interesting life, certainly a life with a great deal of panache. He gave as much, if not more than was given to him in life. Rest as...

ISHOF is sad to announce that Terry Sayring, the 2017 Paragon Award recipient for water polo, passed away on March 16, 2020, after a courageous battle against cancer. Terry was 81 years old. Sayring first became involved in water polo when, upon being discharged from the Marine Corp in California, h...

Just a few miles east of Hard Rock Stadium, where the 54th Super Bowl will be played, is the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF). Among the world’s greatest collection of artifacts and memorabilia covering 20,000 years of swimming history - from Egypt’s Cave of the Swimmers to the modern Oly...

István Szívós, Jr, Water Polo Legend, Has Died April 24, 1948 - November 10, 2019 István Szívós, Jr. - whose father was a two-time Olympic champion (in 1952 and 1956) and whose son, Marton, was a world champion and 2012 Olympian - has died in Budapest. Szívós took part in four Olympic Games and won ...

On the evening of May 11th, a special water show was held in Yingxiong Sports Swimming and Diving Hall of Zhaoqing Sports Center. The event attracted over a thousand citizens and water sports enthusiasts. The performances lit up the Zhaoqing City night sky with enthusiasm, and cheers in anticipation...