Masters Nationals Turn 30, by Michael J. Stott
This is a menu of the topics on this page (click on any): In the Beginning . . . John Spannuth Ransom Arthur Ken Kimball June Krauser Ted Haartz Edie Gruender Hamilton Anderson Grass Roots High Plains Racers Mike Milliman False Start Selling the Concept Robert Beach Hal Onusseit Fast Forward Tracy Grilli Tom Mack George Quigley Mel Goldstein Doug Church Laureen Welting Andrea Luallen Amy Meinholz Paul Hutinger Leaving a Legacy Ray Taft Nancy Ridout Tom Lane .
In May 1970, at the time of the first Masters national short course championships, the Virginia Slims "You've come a long way" campaign was in full flower. Now, at age 30, Masters swimming can say the same thing. Though the resulting organization didn't attain official status from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) until 1972, the original 46 competitors in Amarillo, TX set in motion a movement and lifestyle that today benefits more than 37,000 U.S. registered members.
Through
the years the genesis of Masters swimming has been well chronicled. Like nearly
all active bodies, it owes its success to the vision and vigor of a chosen few
leaders and a passel of willing and dedicated disciples. A casual peek into the
archives repeatedly reveals the names of
John Spannuth
,
Ransom Arthur
, Richard Rahe,
Ken Kimball
,
June Krauser
,
Ted Haartz
,
Edie Gruender
,
Hamilton Anderson
, et. al.
What follows is an abridged version of how the first national meet and Masters swimming evolved into the legacy that lives today. Not surprising a number of those first converts are still competing.
Conversations and correspondence about competitive swimming for adults had floated since the mid-60's between Arthur, Kimball, Spannuth and others. It coalesced in early 1970 when Spannuth, president of the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA), and Arthur, a commanding officer of the Navy Medical Neuropsychiatric Research Unit and swim coach of a San Diego Navy team, agreed to hold a meet.
"The basic premise is still there," says Ted Haartz, an early advocate, "and that was by using competition as a tool, swimmers of all levels could improve their lifestyles by working out on a regular basis, maintain a better physical condition and thereby lead a longer, healthier and active life."
"It was a difficult thing to organize and get going," says Spannuth, who started by placing a small block ad in Swimming World. Sponsored by the Amarillo Aquatic Club and in cooperation with ASCA, preregistration was required, "but people just showed up and swam," remembers Kimball.
Sunny skies, clear nights, warm hospitality and a competitive environment were the order of the day. "There was rivalry going on mano a mano," says Mike Milliman , then secretary and treasurer of ASCA and now aquatic manager of the Oakwood Athletic Club in Lafayette, CA and winner of the 100 fly, back and IM in the 35-44 age group. One reason was that "we finally had competition we could beat in our own age group," remembers Kimball, rather than having to take on age groupers in open divisions as was the AAU custom.
Kimball's expectation in 1970 was "that there wasn't anyone in my age group who could touch me. Turns out there was," says the man who finished tied for second for high point in the 35-44 category.
For beginners Arthur showed up leading a Navy physician/swim contingent that had been training under his command in San Diego. The group also brought in medical equipment to conduct tests on participants before and after swimming, a critical step in the ultimate selling of the program's value to the AAU.
Spannuth remembers it as a fun, less pressured meet punctuated by the starter, Amarillo dentist Richard Archer. "In the very first heat there were three or four overweight individuals on the starting blocks. "The cement blocks were slanted and two men fell in when Archer told them to take their marks. The pressure was really on, but when the starter said ‘gentlemen, I'll give you 10 minutes to get out of the water and get up on the boxes again,' I knew the pressure was off. From there on throughout the meet, the fun aspect was in the program and it helped tremendously."
Of course, people were keeping score and taking times. One of the assisting age groupers was 16 year-old Donna Tunnell. "It was like, I can't believe these old people are racing. My parents never worked out. It was foreign and strange." These days she swims Masters herself in Scottsdale, AZ.
But race they did. Taking home top team honors with 361 points was the Maverick Club, followed by cross-town rival and host Amarillo Aquatic Club (205). The Navy team was third with 178. Spannuth tips his hat to Maverick leader Dennis Fosdick, now water polo coach at Occidental College, who recruited and urged training for the parents of his age groupers prior to the meet. "They made it a fun thing. He recruited more parents than I did."
Plaques were awarded to individual winners and high point honors went to Ann Martinez and Harold Coulston (25-34), Ellen Dawson and Mike Milliman (35-44) and Billie Vogt and Hamilton Anderson (45 & older).
Afterward the throng retired to the home of a well-to-do doctor. "The social aspect was very important and built in from the start," says Spannuth, recalling that for years swimmers at nationals were assessed a specific fee at entry to cover a meet social designed to develop friendships and promote fun. "The spirit of Masters really started at that meet," says Milliman.
From Amarillo the word went forth with a lot of help from Spannuth in his multi-faceted capacities with the AAU. "John Spannuth was our angel. Every time we seemed to need something, he'd moved to the next level," says Kimball. Spannuth quickly grasped the significance of physician involvement and recruited Arthur as an apostle, using him at executive committee meetings to espouse the cause of physical fitness and healthy lifestyle through competition. "Arthur's presence as a medical doctor was crucial to the establishment of Masters," says Spannuth.
Capitalizing
on the success of the 1970 meet, the second Masters nationals returned to
Amarillo the following May. There 108 swimmers showed up (Buster Crabbe among
them), including many who were to carry the flag far into the sport's future:
i.e. Judge
Robert Beach
, Doc Counsilman, Ted Haartz, Jack Kelly,
Hal Onusseit
,
Bob Patten
, Edie Gruender and Dot Ressigue, among others. They not only swam,
but recruited. By the time the third meet hit San Mateo, CA 325 people had
signed up, including the likes of June Krauser, who had been active since 1971
when Spannuth asked her to write the first Masters rules for presentation to
the AAU.
Krauser's role in Master's is legendary and symbolic of the zeal with which members have embraced the cause. Her resume includes AAU presentations to make Masters swimming a separate Sports Supervising Committee, four years as USMS president, director of five national championships, 20 years as editor of the first Masters newsletter, 22 years as rules chairman, member of the FINA Masters Committee, the Rules Committee and chairman of the International Committee.
She is the only USMS athlete to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and receive the USMS National Championship Meet Award given by the Raleigh Area Masters for outstanding contributions to USMS national competitions.
"I never thought I would still be in swimming when I started at age 45. However, I enjoy it as much as I did back in 1972. It keeps you young, healthy and energetic and the best part is that no matter what the age of the swimmers, we all have something in common. My son has been swimming the last several years and this year was my roommate at Indianapolis," says Krauser.
Indianapolis 2000 offered some stark contrasts and pleasant similarities to the first Amarillo experience. Though new at the time, the Amarillo Aquatic Club was in the middle of a field while the downtown complex at I.U.P.I.U. is the site of this year's Olympic Trials and considered one of the world's fastest aquatic venues.
Now the training required to gain nationals (because of qualifying times) is on a whole new level as is the knowledge of physiology and equipment technology. "There was a lot of experimenting with suits this year," says USMS executive secretary Tracy Grilli , "people looking for an edge." Long-sleeved to long-legged, non-absorbent and paper-like suits were in abundance, she reports.
"No matter how old we are, we always want to be faster. You want that edge and if you think you can get it with a new suit, you'll try it." She still chuckles at NEM swimmer Tom Mack , who has his sights set on Worlds in Munich. A lifelong dinky suit and no cap guy, Mack is considering moving to knee-length attire.
"As always the meet was well run and well organized. It went off with out a hitch," she says of the structure provided by meet directors George Quigley , Mel Goldstein and Doug Church . And fast. National records tumbled like the walls of Jericho with many winners emerging from the upper ends of their age groups. For instance, in the women's 30-34 category, 34-year-olds took eight first places: Laureen Welting (four), Andrea Luallen (three) and Amy Meinholz (one).
Unchanged was the camaraderie, which, for some, is the only reason for Masters participation, says Paul Hutinger , an avid past and present competitor. Last year Edie Gruender says she was "so busy chatting that I missed my event when I had a chance at a first." How much of that occurred at Indy is unreported, but a welcome component was the addition of an Executive Committee Challenge Relay (8 x 25 free) that pitted the ruling body against officer teams from the zones. The purpose was to give swimmers some exposure to the Executive Committee. Grilli notes the race didn't exactly foster domestic tranquility since her husband was on the winning Colonies squad while her Executive team finished third.
"I meet people all the time who tell me how swimming has changed their lives," says Kimball, who works out five times a week going 1500 meters a session. "I still do interval training, hard enough to get my pulse up pretty good." He also makes 12-to-14 meets a year and is headed to Worlds in the 70-74 age group to strut his stuff in the backstrokes and distance freestyles.
"My goal was to do well, but since I've had prostate cancer my aim now is to not be embarrassed. Hopefully, I will place in everything. I'm not going to miss a championship just because of a little cancer," he says.
For hundreds of thousands Masters swimming has altered the perspective of aging. "Old is someone 10 years older than you are," says Kimball. "People who consider themselves old, talk themselves into it."
Kimball, Milliman and others are striving successfully to stay ahead of the aging curve. Hutinger, professor emeritus of Exercise and Anatomy Physiology at Western Illinois University, has done research that shows a loss of physical capability for trained swimmers between the ages of 45 and 65 to be as little as one percent every three years. Other data for Masters swimmers indicates a loss of only about one per cent per year after the age of 70.
"I've seen the benefits so much. The vigor and quality of
life of these people is inspirational.
Ray Taft
is a great example," says
Milliman, who is currently working on a second Masters degree, this one in
gerontology. He plans to do research on the beneficial effects of competitive
swimming on aging.
"We are an organization of 37,000 people whose main focus is fitness," says USMS president Nancy Ridout . "Competition is an important part of the mix. We attract people because we offer them a way to stay fit, have a healthy lifestyle, something they can come back to. Those pioneers were extremely important to Masters swimming," she says.
Clearly they laid the groundwork for the sport as we know it today. They got the AAU, the medical community and the population at large to recognize the enduring benefits of lifelong fitness and set in stone the tenets of fun, fitness and competition.
For the past five years, whenever Milliman goes to
national championships he wears a T-shirt which reads, "Masters Swimming -- the
last one alive wins." For him, living and swimming past 100 is a goal.
Observing San Diego's
Tom Lane
swim at 101 was the motivator. "I always thought
swimmers could go longer than other athletes," says Hutinger.
And farther than anyone would have imagined..
