Bruce Wigo - (Author)

The Story of Charles Jackson French: A Hero For Our Time As the United States Olympic Trials took place in Omaha, Charles Jackson French was honored for his heroics decades earlier. Here is the story of this honorable man whose true recognition is hopefully still to come. On January 19, 2020, the Un...

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: 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,...

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...

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 ...

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...

Stan Tinkham, the 1956 USA Women’s Olympic Team swim coach has passed away in suburban Maryland at the age of 87 on April 9, 2019. He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years. Stan Tinkham was Born on Nov 24, 1931 in Yankton, SD. When he was seven years old his family relocated ...

Thompson Mann passed away on April 4, 2019 after suffering from failing health for several years.  He was 76 years old. Dr. Harold Thompson Mann was born on Dec. 1, 1942, in Norfolk, Virginia. He moved with his family to Richmond at the age of 4, started swimming and subsequently swam for the Countr...

The International Swimming Hall of Fame is saddened to announce that Bob Duenkel (Robert “Bob” Duenkel), a long time employee of the organization, has passed away this morning after a long illness. He was 74 years old. Bob Duenkel had a love of swimming for most of life. He began swimming for the YM...

Black History Month Commentary by Bruce Wigo Black History Month is a time for us in the aquatic community to reflect on why more African Americans and people of color don’t swim.  Especially because for at least 400 years (the period from from 1451 - 1860), People of African descent, Native America...

Commentary by Bruce Wigo Black History Month is a time for us in the aquatic community to reflect on why more African Americans and people of color don’t swim.  Especially because for 400 years (the period from from 1451 - 1860), Africans, Native Americans and the indigenous populations of Oceana “e...

Shane Gould is arguably the greatest female Olympic swimmer in the history of our sport. Now at the age of 61, she holds a check for $500,000 as the winner of the Australian edition of Survivor. As the oldest competitor on the show, Shane attributed her win not just to her experience as an elite ath...

By Bruce Wigo. Richard Bruce Hunter, 1960 Olympian and All-American swimmer from Harvard died on July 6, on his 79th birthday. He is remembered not only being one of the best American sprinters of his era, but for one of the great demonstrations of sportsmanship in competitive swimming history. Six ...

On Sunday, June 10th, the first PanAm Sports / UANA Swim Camp visited the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) for a tour. The visit, hosted by Azura Florida Aquatics and coach Gianluca Alberani, brought swimmers and coaches from 20 different Caribbean, South and Central American nations to s...

Passage by Bruce Wigo, ISHOF. Olympic diving champion Robert (Bob) Lynn Clotworthy passed away peacefully at his home, in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 1st. He was 87 years old. Born in Westfield, New Jersey, Bob attended the Ohio State University where he won 11 Big Ten, NCAA, and National AAU Champ...