A History of Oregon Masters Swimming: 1974
In 1974, Oregon Masters picked up the baton and went right at it, with a meet at the University of Oregon on February 9th and 10th. Picking a few names is difficult, but here we go: Virginia Arvidson and Don Van Rossen swam a total of 14 events, seven each, Men 45-54, Van Rossen lost the 50 Breast to Rich Shellenberger 30.78 vs. 29.63. Elfie Stevenin won the 50-54-100 Breast at 2:44.30. Alice Zabudsky won the 25-34 50 Fly in 33.37. Bill McArthur, whom we recently lost, swam and won the 50 Free 55+ in 35.82. Bill was an excellent swimmer, besides being one of the finest football coaches ever. Women's 200 Free relay was won in 2:49.51 (25+), Men's was 2:09.50. Max Strauss won the 55+ 100 IM in 1:49.67.
On April 25th, we held the Oregon Association Masters Championships at the
Beaverton Swim Center. Appeared to be 35-40 participants. Chuck Harrison
(48), made his debut in the 200 Free at 2:46.00. Skip Roggenbihl (40) won the
100 Breast in 1:28.00. Donlan Jones (44) and
Earl Walter
(52) tied in the 50
Back at 33.3.
Hazel Bressie
(65) swam the 50 Back in 1:25.4. Ron Bohlman (31)
swam the 200 Free in 2:09.1.
Connie Wilson
(39) swam the 100 Back in 1:23.
Karl Von Tagen
(30) swam the 50 Free in 23.5. Susan Snyder (25) handled the
200 Back at 2:53.1. Alan Jones (27) swam the 1650 in 28:20. More information
on Association Championships: Steve Weiss (Aquatics Supervisor at Tualatin
Hills) was Meet Director. Entry Fee-$1.00 per event plus .50 cents surcharge.
Age Groups: 25-34, 35-44, 40-54, and 55 and Up. The registration Fee at that
time was $2.50. There is hardly anything to report, regarding the
administrative work done during 1974. There is no question, but that Connie
Wilson was handling everything by herself. It appears that the first addition
of people to help Connie began in 1975.
The first international meet was held in March of 1974 at Sydney, Australia and Matamata, New Zealand. It was mostly fun and games. It became cold in the afternoon, Dawn Fraser swam the 50m Free and left. Jon Hendricks and his family were present. Jim Edwards took movies. Certificates were given for participation. New Zealand was consistently strong with 70 swimmers. Found an article by Bill Williams on his training for the 1650; he tried to average 30,000 yards a week, his 1974 record for the 40-44 age group was 18:29.52-They had a fine meet at the International Swimming Hall of Fame under the guidance of Buck Dawson. Masters of those days were divided between one-third who had never swum in competition before Masters; another third who were former high school swimmers, and a third who were college letter winners to Olympic Champions. Two time Olympian George Breen shaved down for the first time in his swimming career, "I th! ought this was silly when they did it on the 1960 Olympic team,"he said,"but this feels great!"
