Alabama Hosts Swimming and Diving Reunion Weekend
1/28/2019 4:53:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
The Crimson Tide celebrated the 60th year of the men’s team and 40th of the combined men’s and women’s program during this weekend’s reunion, as well as the latest inductees into the UA Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – More than 100 members of the Alabama swimming and diving family gathered in Tuscaloosa over the past several days for a reunion weekend that included a celebration of the men's team's 60th anniversary and the combined men's and women's program's 40th anniversary.
Current head coach and former UA SEC champion Dennis Pursley hosted a celebration of the program and all it has accomplished Saturday morning.
"I think I speak for everyone here when I say that you get so busy in your life that being able to take time out to come back and reminisce about the experiences that all of us have had here at Alabama and how much a part of our lives it has been and the lifelong relationships that have been forged, it's really been a special occasion," Pursley said.
During that celebration, Pursley and others honored John Foster and Don Gambril, the Tide's first two coaches. Foster started the men's team with the 1959-60 season, while Gambril coached the men starting in the fall of 1973, and became the first coach of the combined men's and women's program in the fall of 1979.
Harold Hagler, a member of Foster's first team, shared that the facilities he and his teammates had at first didn't quite measure up to the Tide's current surroundings and certainly not the upgraded facility that is under construction at the moment.
"When we first started in 1959, we practiced in a pond on campus," Hagler said. "It didn't matter what color your suit was when you went in, it came out green."
This year is also the 40th year of the Alabama Aquatic Center (AQC), which opened the same year that Gambril started coaching the combined program. The AQC is currently undergoing a $21-million renovation and enhancement.
Gambril built on the foundation provided by Foster and took the program to its greatest heights, including its first individual NCAA champions and its highest team finish – second place at the 1977 NCAA Championships.
"Coach Gambril is the one who built the program to the level of national prominence that we're all proud to be a part of," Pursley said. "Those of us who followed him, he's been our motivator, he's been our inspiration, and our goal is to maintain the level of excellence and the standards that he developed in his tremendous coaching career at Alabama."
In addition to celebrating Foster, Gambril and the Tide's first full-time diving coach, Bob Webster, the Tide honored those who had been added to the University of Alabama Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame since the last reunion two years ago. That list includes:
- Connor Oslin, Pavel Romanov and Luke Kaliszak, all three of which were NCAA champions, All-Americans and Academic All-Americans during their UA careers. Oslin and Romanov graduated in 2017, while Kaliszak, honored as an NCAA Today's Top Ten Award winner at last week's NCAA convention, graduated in 2018.
- Leo French, Colin Herring, Jim LaMontagne and Jeff Wade, who were the Tide's first NCAA All-Americans in 1970 as part of its 800 freestyle relay, and Randy Midkiff, Alabama's first individual NCAA All-American in 1973, were inducted as program pioneers.
- Pat Greenwell, the longest-tenured member of the UA swimming and diving staff was also inducted into the hall. Greenwell, who retired following the 2016 season, coached two individual NCAA Champions, countless All-Americans and SEC champions at Alabama. He was named the NCAA Diving Coach of the Meet in 2004 and the SEC Diving Coach of the Year six times.
"We had folks from the first team in 1960, right up through graduation last year and good representation all the way through," Pursley said. "Swimming and diving is a small world, and especially for those of us who are privileged to be a part of this special university, we all feel fortunate to have that connection."
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