{"id":365332,"date":"2019-04-20T07:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=365332"},"modified":"2019-04-20T02:46:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T09:46:59","slug":"richard-doc-hunkler-passes-away-at-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/richard-doc-hunkler-passes-away-at-83\/","title":{"rendered":"Passages: Richard \u201cDoc\u201d Hunkler, Leading Proponent of Women\u2019s Water Polo, Passes Away at 83"},"content":{"rendered":"

As much as anyone over the past 40 years, including top-tier coaches like Monte Nitzkowski<\/strong>, Pete Cutino<\/strong>, Bob Horn<\/strong>, Bill Barrett<\/strong>, and the recently deceased Ted Newland<\/strong>, Coach Richard Francis \u201cDoc\u201d Hunkler<\/strong> shaped the sport of water polo in America. Hunkler, who passed away last week at the age of 83, changed the perception of women competing in sports, and helped elevate polo not only in the East, but nationally as well.<\/p>\n

[Passages: Ted Newland, Coach Emeritus of UC Irvine Men\u2019s Water Polo, Passes Away at 91]<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A graduate of Texas A&M, where he was an All-American swimmer for the Aggies, the newly minted Ph.D. in mathematics arrived at Slippery Rock University, some 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, in 1968, and by 1972 had launched, by some measures, one of the most successful\u2014certainly one of the more improbable\u2014varsity programs in NCAA women\u2019s water polo history.<\/p>\n

\"rocky-logo-only-black\"Not only did Slippery Rock become the first, and still the only, women\u2019s team from the East to win a national championship (1995), the man who would become known as \u201cDoc\u201d enjoyed a three-decade career as the head coach of the school\u2019s women\u2019s and men\u2019s water polo teams, as well as the Rock\u2019s women\u2019s swimming program.<\/p>\n

For his efforts, in 2000 Hunkler was named<\/a> to the USA Water Polo Association Hall of Fame, and in 2002 was named as a member of the inaugural class of inductees<\/a> into the Collegiate Water Polo Association Hall of Fame. He was also named to the Slippery Rock Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011.<\/p>\n

Doc\u2019s role in helping to establish women\u2019s water polo in the United States was critical\u2014a pioneering effort that has resulted in Team USA becoming the world\u2019s most dominant squad. In a Los Angeles Times<\/em> article<\/a> on the eve of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where women were playing polo for the first time, he quipped: \u201cI tell people if I\u2019m the father [of American women\u2019s polo], then Sandy Nitta<\/strong> is the mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

By phone earlier this week, Nitta, who now lives in Las Vegas, said of her fellow pioneer: \u201cThis fantastic man did just unbelievable things!\u201d Nitta, who was the national team coach for almost two decades (1980-1996, 1998) said that it was Hunkler\u2019s players who benefited most from his devotion to the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201c[T]he number one thing that people need to know about Hunkler is the respect and love that he had\u2014not only for the sport, but for his players. [They] were very lucky to have someone to look up to as a coach, but even more so, the life lessons that Doc left with all of his players\u2026 [he was] more like a father-figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Nitta said that loyalty was reciprocated.<\/p>\n

A passion for the game that inspired many <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cAny one of his players would have done absolutely anything for Doc,\u201d she added. \u201cThat\u2019s what kind of man he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

One is a 1992 graduate of Slippery Rock, who was a three-time All-American playing for Hunkler, Alan Huckins<\/strong>. Now an assistant coach for the men\u2019s program at the Air Force Academy, for 15 years Huckins led Hartwick women\u2019s water polo to one of the winningest records in collegiate water polo.<\/p>\n

\"hunkler-wife-apr19\"

Hunkler and wife Billie. Photo Courtesy: Lynn Kachmarik<\/p><\/div>\n

After red-shirting his first year as a transfer to Slippery Rock, Huckins was asked by his new coach to help out with the women\u2019s team. \u201cDoc ask if I would like to be his assistant coach for the women’s season. I accepted, and have loved coaching ever since,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n

As an advocate for women\u2019s participation in polo, Hunkler was second to none, which his former player acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoc pushed hard for women\u2019s water polo to be recognized by the NCAA,\u201d Huckins said. \u201cHe would talk to a lot of men’s coaches about starting a women’s team, and usually got some response like: Water polo is a game for men\u2014blah blah, blah\u2014but this never deterred him. He finally won his battle, as he usually did.\u201d<\/p>\n

After almost three decades, the bond between coach and athlete remains strong. \u00a0\u201cI can honestly say I loved that man and his wife Billie as much as I have loved anyone.\u201d Huckins wrote. \u201cHe is part of who I am today. He will never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

That devotion is echoed by Lynn Kachmarik<\/strong>, who also played for Hunkler at Slippery Rock from 1976-80. One of the few players from the East to make the roster of the U.S. national team, in 1986 Kachmarik became the first-ever woman leading a men\u2019s water polo team when she took the coaching reins at Bucknell following Dick Russell\u2019s<\/strong> retirement.<\/p>\n

[The Fighting Flamingos: Ready To Play For 40 Years]<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Throughout her long and varied career\u2014from player to coach to a consultant seeking to improve sport culture at the youth, high school, and collegiate level\u2014Hunkler has remained an inspiration to Kachmarik.<\/p>\n

\u201c[M]y journey on the national team as the only female outside of California for most of my ten years at times was lonely, hard and not always fair,\u201d she wrote in an email. \u201cIf I had shared some of the truths with my parents, they would not have allowed me to return each year. Doc counseled me, called me, coached me, loved me, made me laugh and cry at the right times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Huckins, Kachmarik also underscored Hunkler\u2019s tenacity when it came to fighting for what he believed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis integrity to stand up for what was right and fair regardless of the personal impact on himself was life-changing,\u201d she said. \u201cI stood next to him time and time again and watched him fight for women, men, rules, the tougher path, the right rule changes, demanding honesty from our sport leaders, demanding integrity from our sport leaders, demanding equality from our sport leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"hunkler-reunion-apr19\"

In 2016 photo, Hunkler with former players Tracy Best Grille, Lynn Kachmarik and Cindra Mirales. Photo Courtesy: Lynn Kachmarik<\/p><\/div>\n

Even those whose contact with Hunkler was limited were still greatly impressed by the unassuming coach. As a high school player, Mark Gensheimer<\/strong> was coached by Hunkler, and those lessons lingered, even as he chose Bucknell for his collegiate playing career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was able to get so much out of all of us because we knew that he knew the game so well, he cared so much about us and we wanted to win for him so badly,\u201d Gensheimer said in an email. \u201cEven though I went to Bucknell and he coached Slippery Rock, I would sit with Doc between games at college tournaments and we would talk about things on which I needed to focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Identifying a quality often cited about the great coaches, Gensheimer said, \u201cI felt like I had a special relationship with Doc, but I realized that I wasn\u2019t alone. He\u2019d do the same for any of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A modest yet tenacious and inspiring man, Doc Hunkler left his mark on American polo\u2014now and forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As much as anyone over the past 40 years, including top-tier coaches like Monte Nitzkowski, Pete Cutino, Bob Horn, Bill Barrett, and the recently deceased Ted Newland, Coach Richard Francis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4875,"featured_media":365337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[65800,77744,20140,63327,63466,73351,73353,77746,7457,19654,1249,77745,17707,77747],"class_list":["post-365332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-water-polo","tag-alan-huckins","tag-bill-barrett","tag-bob-horn","tag-bucknell-water-polo","tag-dick-russell","tag-doc-hunkler","tag-lynn-kachmarik","tag-mark-gensheimer","tag-monte-nitzkowski","tag-pete-cutino","tag-sandy-nitta","tag-slippery-rock-water-polo","tag-ted-newland","tag-usa-water-polo-association-hall-of-fame"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nPassages: Richard \u201cDoc\u201d Hunkler, Leading Proponent of Women\u2019s Water Polo, Passes Away at 83 - 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