ATHENS, Georgia, January 17. REID Patterson, Georgia’s first national champion and Olympian in swimming, passed away earlier this week. He was 81.<\/p>\n
“We lost a great man,” Georgia coach Jack Bauerle said. “We lost one of the greatest athletes in the history of UGA and one of our greatest people. He was a humble gentleman and he was always quite competitive. He loved his Bulldogs and he had a wonderful relationship with our program. I will miss seeing him at all our events. He and (his wife) Anna never missed an opportunity to be in Athens.”<\/p>\n
Patterson was a native of Pineville, Ky., and swam for the Bulldogs from 1951-54. He won the individual national title in the 100-yard freestyle in 1953, setting the American record during the meet. Patterson also claimed seven SEC titles, including three in the 100-yard freestyle.<\/p>\n
Patterson represented the United States in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. He finished fourth in the 100-meter freestyle final after setting the Olympic record in the event during the prelims. Patterson later held the world records in the 50-meter freestyle and on the 200-meter freestyle relay and the American records in the 400-meter freestyle and on the 400-meter medley relay.<\/p>\n
During the 1950s, Patterson was dubbed “America’s Fastest Man In The Water.”<\/p>\n
Patterson was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1984 and Georgia’s Circle of Honor in 1997.<\/p>\n
Patterson’s grandson, Nathan Bibliowicz, was a Georgia swimmer from 2005-08. Bibliowicz was a seven-time All-American for the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ATHENS, Georgia, January 17. REID Patterson, Georgia’s first national champion and Olympian in swimming, passed away earlier this week. He was 81. “We lost a great man,” Georgia coach Jack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":46994,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[24853,449,707,105,185,248,1521,8848,25483,106,20758,25485,25484,25482,19138,24693,87,142,8817,62],"class_list":["post-46993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college","tag-allison-schmitt","tag-america","tag-athens","tag-australia","tag-coach","tag-georgia","tag-jack-bauerle","tag-kara-lynn-joyce","tag-mary-mohler","tag-melbourne","tag-nathan-bibliowicz","tag-patterson-companies-inc","tag-pineville","tag-reid-patterson","tag-ryan-lochte","tag-sports","tag-swimmer","tag-swimming","tag-the-1956-olympics","tag-united-states"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n