Swim Coaching Legend Don Gambril Speaks Out On Cecil the Lion Controversy

Don Gambril, a legendary coach in the Olympic and U.S. collegiate canon, voiced his opinions to a local newspaper about the worldwide controversy surrounding a dentist who allegedly shot a famous lion illegally in Africa.

Gambril, a member of several prominent Hall of Fame lists and a five-time Olympic coach, spoke with AL.com about his history of hunting big game, including killing a lion in the mid-1990s. He said he was “excited” about the kill, but said he has never killed another lion since then.

“I enjoyed the hunt, but I wouldn’t want to do it again,” Gambril said. “I wouldn’t say I felt bad, but all of a sudden there’s a big animal that’s dead.”

Walter Palmer, a dentist based in Minnesota, is under fire for paying money to participate in a safari with the express intent of killing a lion. He and his hunting party reportedly lured Cecil, a lion famous among locals in Zimbabwe who was being tracked through a GPS chip in his body for research purposes, out of the protected reserve and shot him with an arrow. The hunting party found Cecil the lion about 40 hours later severely wounded but alive. Palmer and his Zimbabwean guides then shot Cecil, skinned him and decapitated him.

Palmer has since gone into hiding, closing his dentistry business in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing, but his office has been the site of heavy protests and the African guides are expected to be charged with illegal poaching.

Gambril said he is not against others hunting lions, but is against the methods by which Palmer killed Cecil, adding that protected and endangered animals should be off-limits to hunters.

“Any poaching or any illegal hunting of any type of any animal is terrible, I think, and I hope they catch them all,” he said. “Somebody like that, I hope they’re caught and persecuted to the utmost of the law.”

Gambril coached at the University of Alabama from 1973-1990, guiding such athletes as Jonty Skinner, Glenn Mills and Jon Sieben to the Olympics, with many more earning NCAA All-America status in his 17 years in Tuscaloosa.

AL.com article

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Anita Steins

8 years ago

there is no reason to just kill something just because you can. There is no reason for trophy hunting. It is not sport. It is slaughter. As I started to read the article I had hoped Don Gambril would use his notoriety to come out against trophy hunting. Sadly not so. Shame.

Donald P. Spellman

8 years ago

Who in their right mind looks at another living thing and thinks about killing it for any reasons beyond providing food or safety?

Bill V

8 years ago

What on Earth could have possessed Swimming World to publish this article?
Bad choice- another one!
Best stick to swimming…

8 years ago

Reply to Bill V

I’m with Bill V.
I could maybe see the rationale for publishing this article if Gambril had come up with some interesting new angle on the problem of big game hunting in impoverished African states. As it is, we might just as well have rung up the chair of the local high school’s second violin section and asked for comments.

Courtney Carson

8 years ago

Very disappointing. :-(.

Christopher Harris

8 years ago

disappointing to say the least. sickening is a more apt feeling.

Amy Lynn

8 years ago

Not reading this. We are getting enough of this story elsewhere. Let’s stick to swimming.

Karen Howells

8 years ago

What has this got to do with swimming? Poor choice of article

Lane Four

8 years ago

Really, Don? I just lost all respect for you.
“I enjoyed the hunt, but I wouldn’t want to do it again,” Gambril said. “I wouldn’t say I felt bad, but all of a sudden there’s a big animal that’s dead.”

Enough.