1978
History of Master Swimming 1978
Hamilton Anderson
, National Master Historian
1978 completes our ninth year of Master swimming with nine Short Course Nationals & seven Long Course National Master Swimming Championships Meets. Master swimming continues to grow with new swimmers entering all divisions; it appears that the largest number is in the Men's 25 through 39 years divisions. The majority of local Master meets are held annually with a number of new meets to draw more Master swimmers.
The Long Distance National Master meets are growing with new interest. This year all divisions were represented with 24 women & 57 men, a fine tribute to Cliff Brown, a founder. There is also a Postal Meet. The Master Diving is now drawing divers in most of the age groups, & now has a Master Diving Magazine.
F.H. "Ted" Haartz is our third Master National Chairman, following June Krauser. A new Rule change is: all short course meet times close with the Short Course Nationals & the Long Course times close with the Long Course Nationals, rather than Sep. 15, as in the past. The times should be in the hands of the National Tabulation Chairmen a month after each National Master Meet.
The Short Course Master Nat'l Meet was held in San Antonio with over 500 contestants. E.E. "Bud" Dallmann was meet Chairman. A number of German Men joined the International swimmers, who continue to swim in U.S. Nationals. The Long Course Master Nat'l Meet was held in Providence, Rhode Island with 527 swimmers. Enid Uhrich was Meet Director. The meets were smooth running, but we are saddened by the loss of Bob Lawrence after the L.C. Meet. This is the 1st year since 1971 that Walt & Annetta Pfeiffer & Robert Beach have missed the Nationals.
The first Senior Division Aquatic Competition was held in Canada with 410 swimmers from 10 countries;Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, United States & Venezuela, competing in Swimming, Diving, Water Polo & Synchronized Swimming in a 50 Meter Olympic sized pool. Germany has had Senior Swimming (25 & over) since World War II with approximately 2000 members. U.S. was represented in the meet with 37 women & 86 men, a total of 123 contestants. Eleven divisions (Men & Women) were represented.
