BEFORE TITLE IX, WOMEN SPORTS AND THE AIAW AND NCAA WOMEN’S SPORTS AT TEXAS WERE BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION AT THE INTER-MURAL AND INTRA-MURAL LEVEL. I HOPE WITH TIME THIS SITE CAN ADD SOME HISTORICAL INSIGHT AND TELL THE FULL AND COMPELLING STORY OF THE LONGHORN Swimming TRADITION.
WETS (Working Exes For Texas Swimming) in 1968 Organized A Group Of Former Longhorn Swimmers, Divers, And Coaches, Headed By Tex Robertson, Met To Promote University Of Texas Aquatic Excellence. The organization's Initial Goals Were To Honor The Past Accomplishments Of UT Swimmers And Divers; Promote The Present And Future Success Of Texas Swimming And Diving; Provide A Common Forum For All Former Texas Swimmers, Divers, Coaches, and Fans To Gather And Stay Connected. Their Site Information Is Listed Below.
http://www.wetswim.org/news/wets-2016-newsletter/
The link to the Texas Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame is below
A condensed bullet point history of Texas Longhorn Swimming follows. Please go to the "credit" section of this website to view books you can purchase from many fine book stores about Texas Longhorn Sports.
No other Longhorn sports program comes close to the success of Longhorn Swimming.
Longhorn women's Swimming has won Nine National Championships
1981 AIAW, Coach Paul Bergen
1982 AIAW Coach Paul Bergen
1984 Coach Richard Quick
1985 Coach Richard Quick
1986 Coach Richard Quick
1987 Coach Richard Quick
1988 Coach Richard Quick
1990 Coach Mark Schubert
1991 Coach Mark Schubert
Rosemary Slacks
In 1963 Rosemary Slack coached and sponsored the synchronized "Turtle Club" founded by Anna Hiss.
In 1969 Rosemary became the first swim coach for the women's swim team and won the first SWC championship held at UT-Arlington.
Coach Quick is a tornado over water. He recruits well and funnels his team talent into 5 National Champions.
Coach Richard Quick - 1982-1988
Betsy Mitchell remembers her Texas college coach Richard Quick, saying to the whole team,
“You guys have talent. It’s yours to harvest.”
He was right, and many Longhorn National championships followed.
HOH in 2004
Teams win five straight NCAA titles from 1984-88
Coaches 17 UT Olympians, 25 individual NCAA Champions, and 11 NCAA relay titles
Coaches two swimmers of the year
Five-time NCAA Coach of the Year
Head coach of U.S. Olympic teams in 1988, 1996, 2000 and 2004
Named National Swim Coach for women and men through 1988. He was coach of the World Championship in 1986 and the Pan American Games in 1987.
Coach Quicks Longhorn swim eams from 1983-1986 had the best GPA of all Longhorn women’s sports
Coach Quick's Olympians who represented the USA
1983 – Bergen resigned to return to club coaching. Sippy Woodhead also left Texas, and Linehan decided to take a semester off and returned to Florida. A new Coach ,Richard Quick, left Auburn for the job at Texas. He did not inherent an ideal situation. In January, with some smooth talking by Quicks Linehan and Borgmann rejoined the team and another national championship looked promising. Later in the season Pennington alson returned to the team after a two-year hiatus. The team finished 3rd at the NCAA meet. Sterkel captured two individual national titles.
Tiffany Cohen also wins the National Championship in the 500 free and 1650 free.
Tracy McFarlane Wins The National Championship In The 100 Breast In 1985, 1987, And 1988.
Leigh Ann Fetter wins the National Championship in the 50 free in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and the 100 free in 1989 and 1990. All American 24 times
Tori Trees wins the National Championship in the 200 back.
Kim Rhodenbaugh three time NCAA champion and 10 time All American in the 200 IM and 200 breast.
Betsy Mitchell also wins the National Championship in the 100 and 200 back in 1986, 1987, and 1988 and the 200 IM in 1987. All American 20 times.
Betsy Mitchell receives a NCAA post-graduate scholarship.
Debbie Risen wins the National Championship in the 100 back
1982 AIAW National Champions
1983- Coach Richard Quick (pending)
In 1983 Pennington scored 58 points at the NCAA meet and won the U.S. swimming comeback Swimmer of the year award.
AIAW folds as the NCAA Takes over Women's Athletic's. Lopiano said, " From a philosophical and financial standpoint, we (Texas) are not eager to conduct our program under NCAA rules" Women athletes "will lose considerable protection and due process which they now enjoy with the AIAW." "Our coaches will now " be forced to hit the road and spend considerable time recruiting off-campus and thus spend less time teaching and guiding the college experiences of athletes currently on campus." Lopiano ended her interview by saying, "for all practical purposes, the AIAW was dead, and therefore, UT had no choice but to follow everyone else into the outstretched arms of the NCAA."
Karen McGrath receives an NCAA post-graduate scholarship. (no picture)
1984 - National Champions coach Richard Quick
1984- won the SWC 16 returning letter winners and a great recruiting class .
Quick signs Debbie Risen a backstroker and says “she is a mystical emotional boost for the Horns”. There were 11 freshmen on this team and one of them, Patty Sabo, helped Texas win the national championship. There were only 2 seniors on this team.
Richard Quick is National Coach of the Year
Agneta Eriksson wins the National Championship in the 100 free. All American 7 times
Carrie Steinseifer is an Olympian in 1984
1984- 1985 - National Champions coach Richard Quick
1984-1985 – Beverly Bowes wins the Intercollegiate National Indoor Championship
There were 9 All Americans on the 1985 team.
In winning the SWC the team members win 18 of 24 events and set 11 SWC meet records. 12 horns qualify for the NCAA Championships. 17 swimmers and one diver qualify for the 1985 National championship swim meet. Tiffany Cohen McGrath and Risen each qualify in 5 individual events.
Kim Rhodenbaugh
The breaststroke is the women Longhorns strongest event with Rhodenbaugh and McFarlane leading the way. Cohen sets a new NCAA record in the 1650 and 500 meters. Risen sets a pool record in the 100 back and Tori Trees wins the 200 back.
The Horns logged 5 of the fastest times in the nation in 1985.
Tiffany Cohen is named Collegiate Female Swimmer of the Year.
1986 - National Champions coach Richard Quick
Richard Quick Is National Coach Of The Year
Longhorns this year lose dual meets to Florida and Stanford and the team is week in sprint freestyle events but the Horns still qualify for 50 swimming events.
Debbie Risen wins the National Championship in the 100 back.
Patty Sabo wins the National Championship in the 400 IM. All American 14 times and HOH inductee.
1987 - National Champions coach Richard Quick
1987 National Champions – 9-0 in dual meets crushing Stanford 92-48. Texas qualified an unprecedented 22 swimmers for the NCAA tournament. Mitchell and McFarlane excelled at the NCAA meet.
Mitchell, MacFarlane, Drolsom and Eyles set the seasons fastest time in the 400 yard relay.
Jodi Eyles
Mitchell was named the NCAA Swimmer of the Year. Mitchell set
TEXAS POOLED ITS TALENT
The Longhorn women beat Florida and the men followed suit
By Hank Hersch
February 02, 1987
The women's swimming team from the University of Texas rolled into Florida last Saturday top-ranked but with plenty to prove. The Lady Longhorns had one eye on the future: Florida and Stanford, co-rated No. 2, figure to be their biggest obstacles to a fourth straight team title at the women's NCAA championships in Indianapolis in March. And another on the past: The Lady Gators routed Texas at the U.S. Open in Orlando two months ago.
The Lady Longhorns weren't at their best either, arriving at O'Connell Center in Gainesville without Betsy Mitchell, the world-record holder in the 200-meter backstroke, who had the flu, and Tiffany Cohen, 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the 400-and 800-meter free-styles, whose right shoulder was ailing.
But coming hard, wave after wave, the deep and spirited Texans swamped Florida 67-46, behind a pair of formidable freshmen, Carrie Steinseifer and Andrea Hayes. In the process they served notice that there was nothing idle about their chant of "Orange Tower '87"—an allusion to the tradition of illuminating the campus tower in orange whenever Longhorn teams win national titles—and that they are worthy successors to the '84, '85 and '86 Texas championship teams.
On Saturday morning the Lady Longhorns had crammed into coach Richard Quick's Holiday Inn room and were munching Raisin Bran. But the eating stopped as soon as Quick flicked off the cartoons and began announcing the day's lineup. Rhythmic handclaps punctuated the reading of the names. Looks intensified. Three hours before the showdown, battle cries filled the air. The Longhorns credit such camararah-derie for their success. "Everyone pushes each other, but we're close-knit," says Steinseifer, an '84 Olympic gold medalist in the 100 freestyle. "Nothing's more important to Richard than us."
The Texas women entered O'Connell Center cheering and never stopped. Steinseifer and sophomore Stacy Cassiday finished one-two—the winning time was 1:48.86—in the 200-yard freestyle. And Hayes ably filled in for Mitchell by bagging the 200 back (2:01.67) and for Cohen by placing second behind Florida's Tami Bruce (9:44.64) in the 1,000 free. With three events to go, the Horns had finished in the money 17 times to Florida's 11, and they led 49-39.
After the three-meter diving, the Longhorns' lead narrowed to 52-45, but they could still clinch by winning the next event, the 200 breaststroke. Florida sent out a formidable obstacle in the person of last year's NCAA champ, Cindy Ounpuu. But Texas junior Tracey McFarlane out touched her in 2:19.13. "When we get out there and race, we surprise people," McFarlane said. Florida coach Randy Reese lamented, "We just didn't get it done."
Reese's troubles weren't over. He also coaches the Gators' No. 1-ranked men's team, and later he lost the annual family showdown with his older brother Eddie, who coaches the No. 4-ranked Texas men. Texas ran up 16 uncontested points when Florida failed to enter the diving competition, but even so, the Gators could have pulled the meet out by winning the last event, the 400 free relay. But on the final leg, Longhorn freshman Doug Gjertson, swimming against Florida's Paul Wallace, erased a lead of nearly a body length, to win it for the Horns in 3:01.01, a microthin .01 ahead of Wallace. That gave Texas the meet 56½-54½.
The Lady Longhorns weren't on hand to cheer the men on, having left the center curiously subdued. "We didn't want to rub it in their face," Quick explained. Ex-Gator great Tracy Caulkins had caught an eyeful from the stands, however. "With the depth they have, they'd really have to blow it not to win the NCAAs," she said.
1988 - National champions coach Richard Quick
Team won its 5th consecutive championship. 17 Longhorn swimmers and qualified for the NCAA meet. Texas had a qualifier in every event. Many records were broken. Betsy Mitchell won the 100 and 200 backstroke. This team had 5 freshman who produced points.
1987-1988- Ann Grousbeck is the #1 ranked player on the Texas team.
Texas wins as a team by consistently placing 1,2,or3 people in the finals of every event. Texas won its 5th consecutive national championship banner
Longhorns qualify 17 for the NCAA meet. A swimmer in every event except the 100 butterfly. Tracey McFarlane gets hurt after her first event, and Coach Quick thinks it might hurt the team’s chance of a National Championship.
