Coach Tex Robertson was a risk-taker who used personality, energy, creativity, politics, contacts, recruiting, promotion, discipline, strong will, and Business Savvy to forever change the swimming landscape for Longhorn swimmers.
TEX- The Father of Texas Swimming by Ross LuckSinger
Coach Tex Robertson tells his new swimmers “Go Swim a mile and your body teaches you” the best stroke.
Click on the link to learn more about Tex Robertson the “Texas Swimming Man of the Century.” http://www.tsdhof.org/about/
CONTACTS in Tex’s early years
1931 – Tex Robertson receives a scholarship to USC and is co-captain of the team while the head coach prepares the swimmers for the 1932 Olympics.
Robertson's coaching instructor help Buster Crabbe win Olympic gold. After graduating from USC, Buster joins Hollywood and plays Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Tarzan in the movies.
Robertson’s swim coached is Peter John Weissmuller, who is the 1924 and 1928 Gold medalist. Peter played Tarzan in 12 movies.
Tex Robertson had some special friends in Hollywood, including Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and Duke Kahanamoku ( father of modern surfing).
After the 1932 Olympics, Tex joins the Michigan team swim team on scholarship. At Michigan, part of his scholarship requires him to wash dishes. The guy he washes dishes with becomes President of the United States-
President Gerald Ford
Tex helped Adolph Kiefer master the backstroke. Adolph wins the Gold at the Olympics
After graduating from Michigan, Tex coaches Taylor Drysdale, who helps build the Manhattan Project's atomic bomb.
Creativity, risk-taking, promotion, and business savvy make Coach Robertson a one-of-a-kind.
He grew up in the 1920’s throwing metal can lid with neighborhood friends and then introduced the game of throwing the "Sa-Lo" which was also called the “flying cover game.” In The Complete Book of Frisbee by Victor Malafronte, frisbee throwing as a sport started with Tex Robertson when he was a camper at Camp Wolverine in Michigan, considered the birthplace of organized Frisbee.
In the early 30’s Tex “invents” the flip turn , but the flip turn was considered a risky maneuver so it was not used in the Olympics until 1956.
In 1935 at 24 years of age, Tex Robertson returns to Austin and tells the Longhorn Athletic Director Chevigny that he wants to be the Longhorn swim coach. Chevigny says, “ I have no intention of paying for a varsity swim coach.” Tex responds “Good, I’ll accept the job under those terms.” According to the book TEX- The Father of Texas Swimming by Ross LuckSinger, Ed Barlow, the physical education professor, convinces AD Chevigny to hire Tex as the swim coach by saying to Jack Chevigny, “Jack he is already down there coaching anyway.” Robertson starts his adventure as the Longhorn head swim coach with no budget, no scholarships, and no salary, while football coach Bible is hired for $15,000 a year ($245,000 in 2013 dollars).
1936- in an effort to raise money for his swim team he ask and receive a franchise for coke vending machines on the UT campus. When he wasn’t lifeguarding he was filling the vending machines on the Texas campus to make money for the Longhorn swim team.
Also, in 1936 he starts what will eventually be called the Aqua Carnival. The main event is a beauty contest. The Aqua-belles were initially dressed in sports clothes instead of swimsuits because of the mores of the day. It was not until 1940 that the beauties started to wear swimming suits.
Eddie Gilbert said that “They (fans) wouldn’t come to see us swimmers. They’d come to see the girls.” Kathryn Grant was one of the queens, and she married Bing Crosby. Tom Landry, a star Longhorn and head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, won the 1947 Most handsome man in the Aqua Carnival.
In 1936 the money Tex raised with his entrepreneurial drive paid for the Longhorn swim team’s first out-of-state meet in St. Louis. The team beats Washington and Kansas State but loses to Nebraska.
1939 Tex starts Camp Longhorn.
1968 WETS (Working Exes for Texas Swimming) was organized and headed by Tex Robertson. The organization promotes University of Texas aquatic excellence. The initial goals of WETS were to honor UT swimmers and divers; promote the present and future success of Texas Swimming and Diving, and provide a common forum for all former Texas swimmers, divers, coaches, and fans to gather and stay connected.
Under Coach Tex Robertson’s guidance and recruiting skills, the Longhorns in three years go from 40th to 20th to 5th best swim team in the nation.
When war breaks out, Tex Robertson joins the Navy and is instrumental in training an elite special forces unit named the Navy Seals.
To read more about Tex Robertson visit the swim section at
https://texas-lsn.squarespace.com/tex-robertson
On Aug. 27, 2007, Tex Robertson passed away, but not before writing a beautiful poem about his life, family, and wife.
“Being in wonderful overtime of life, I was ready for this, with goals complete and family bliss. Put a dent atop my grave for the rain to fall in through; intermediate freestyle, but backstroke will do. Our five (kids) and theirs made this a wonderful life, but I owe all to a wonderful wife.”
Tex Robertson