Jim Ellis was inducted into the American Swimming Coaches Association (Hall of Fame) at the annual ASCA World Clinic in Dallas, Texas earlier this month. Ellis was notably the subject of the 2007 Hollywood film Pride, starring Terrence Howard as Ellis.
For nearly 50 years, Coach Ellis’ leadership has provided and developed competitive swimming opportunities to a diverse and inclusive community of children, challenging them to meet their potential and bringing to fruition in them his acronym for what once was known as the Philadelphia Department of Recreation and translate it into his values of: PRIDE, DETERMINATION AND RESILIENCE. As the movie Pride recounts, Ellis took a job in an impoverished neighborhood and founded the P.D.R. (Philadelphia Department of Recreation) Swim Team, based at the Marcus Foster Recreation Center in the Nicetown section of Philadelphia, in 1971.
Over the past 36 years, Ellis has been introducing competitive swimming to inner city youth and their families. His coaching and mentoring has provided a healthy and stimulating environment in which the young athletes can grow and compete. Through travel to various competitions, the program exposes swimmers to other parts of the country and different lifestyles. Today, P.D.R. is a nationally recognized competitive swim team, the nation’s best predominately African-American team, and has become a model for urban swim programs around the country. Over a hundred of his swimmers have attended college on swimming scholarships.
Fantastic job Coach Ellis!
Donald Moody
Detroit Northern High Seals
Detroit Swim Club Dolphins
Tenn. State University Tiger Sharks
Congratulations Coach Ellis. The recognition is well deserved. May you continue your journey in competitive swimming inspiring and providing opportunities for our youth.