A Fast History of Alabama Swimming & Diving
The John Foster Years
The University of Alabama swim program started with the 1960 season when John Foster came from coaching an age-group swim team in the Atlanta area and working in the Georgia Tech Physical Education department to be the Crimson Tide's first head coach.
For the next 14 years, Foster was the Tide's task master, nurturing the fledgling program into a perennial SEC contender and bringing Alabama to the national level. In addition to his duties with the swim team, Foster also served as the Natatorium Director, Supervisor of Intramural and Recreational Swimming and assistant professor in the Department of Physical Education.
Foster was responsible for cultivating swimming not only at the collegiate level but on the high school and age-group swimming level as well, organizing high school and junior high school state swimming championships and running clinics around the state – anything to get Alabama's youth involved in swimming.
Foster's hard work paid big dividends. During his tenure, Alabama finished no lower than third at the SEC Championships after its first two seasons and finished runner-up four times. Tide swimmers won 21 individual SEC titles under Foster's direction. That number includes the three won by Ralph Wright in 1967, when he became the first man in Alabama history to sweep his events at the SEC Championships. Wright's feat would not be matched for fifteen years.
On the national level, Foster coached the Tide to its first NCAA Championship placing in 1973 when the team finished 28th. Five swimmers won All-America honors under Foster.
After compiling a 124-40 dual meet record to go along with his record in the SEC and NCAA, Foster left coaching following the 1973 season. Foster's team was the winningest of all that competed at the Capstone during his 14-year run, outside of football.
The Don Gambril Years
Don Gambril led his first Alabama team into the 1974 season, a year that saw the Tide post an 8-1 dual meet season, a fourth-place finish at the SEC Championship meet and its first NCAA top-20 finish, taking 19th.
Alabama jumped two places in the SEC the next year and an astounding 14 places at the NCAA Championships, giving Alabama a fifth-place finish. The '75 squad was the first to produce an individual national champion when freshman Jonty Skinner won the 100 freestyle in an NCAA and U.S. Open record time of 43.92.
Alabama produced the first 400 freestyle relay in history to break the three minute barrier. Skinner, Mike Curington, Scott MacDonald and Jack Babashoff combined in the prelims of the 1975 NCAA Championships to swim a 2:59.98.
The 1976 squad posted the Tide's first undefeated season, snapping Tennessee's string of 85 dual-meet wins, which spanned seven seasons, along the way. Alabama won the meet 65-48. The 1976 squad also produced a single-season record of nine SEC individual and relay titles on its way to reprising its fifth-place finish in the NCAA. The 1977 season proved to be one of the program's high watermarks as the Tide posted its highest NCAA finish to date, taking second behind Southern California. Casey Converse shone that year, winning the NCAA 1,650 freestyle title in an NCAA and American record time of 14:57.30. Converse's time made him the first man in the history of the sport to go under 15 minutes in the 1,650 freestyle.
Freshman Wayne Chester won the 1978 NCAA 1-meter diving competition and Carlos Berrocal won the 1979 100 backstroke title.
Alabama won its first SEC team championship in 1982. Gregg Higginson added the points of three SEC titles to the Tide's team total, making him the second man in Tide swimming history to win all his races at the SEC Championships. Alabama went undefeated during the 1983 dual-meet season with a 12-0 slate on the way to a runner-up SEC finish and a fifth-place NCAA finish. Senior Glenn Mills won the 1983 200 breaststroke title.
The Tide returned to the top of the SEC team standings in 1987.
In addition to going undefeated in 1990 with a 12-0 record, the Tide captured nine SEC individual and relay titles matching the team record set in 1976 with junior Jon Olsen becoming the third man in Tide history to sweep his events at the SEC Championships, bringing home three individual titles.
After 17 seasons, 170 wins against 21 losses, six NCAA champions, more than 60 All-Americans, 60 SEC individual and relay titles, and two SEC team titles, Don Gambril ended his coaching career with the Crimson Tide after the 1990 season. He was named SEC Coach of the Year in 1981, 1982 and 1987. In addition, he served as an assistant coach with the U.S. Olympic Team in 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980. He served as the head coach of the highly successful 1984 U.S. Olympic Team. The 1991 U.S. World Championship team was the last U.S. National Team he coached.
The Jonty Skinner Years
Jonty Skinner made the most of his tenure with the Tide, leading Alabama to four straight top-20 and one top-10 showing at the NCAA Championships.
Jon Olsen became one of the Tide's most decorated and successful athletes under Skinner's tutelage, finishing his career with five SEC titles, three school records and a runner-up finish at the 1991 NCAAs in the 100 freestyle. Olsen went on to become a mainstay of the U.S. National Team, winning five medals at two Olympics.
In 1991, Mark Rourke became the first diver to win all three boards at the SEC Championships, three years after he won the inaugural platform diving title at the 1989 SEC Championships.
Travis Myers led Alabama to a 10th-place finish at the 1994 NCAA Championships, while finishing second in the 100 breaststroke. It was the Tide's first top-10 finish since 1990.
The Chuck Horton Years
Chuck Horton led Alabama to four top-30 national finishes, including a pair of top-25 finishes in 1997 and 1998. Horton's time at the helm saw Rafael Alvarez and Brent Roberts bring home four SEC titles, with Roberts also winning Alabama's first NCAA diving title since Wayne Chester in 1978 when he took top honors off the platform in 1998. Following Horton's departure, Ed Reed served as interim coach during the 1998-99 season.
The Don Wagner Years
Don Wagner's tenure, which began with the 1999-2000 season, saw Alabama earn a trio of top-25 finishes, including a return to the top 15 with a 12th-place finish in 2003, his final year at the Capstone. Stefan Gherghel became the first Tide swimmer to win an NCAA Championship since 1983 when he took top honors in the 200 butterfly in 2002. He then became the first Alabama swimmer to repeat as an NCAA Champion when he took the 2003 title as well. Gherghel also won a pair of SEC 200 butterfly titles during his UA career.
The Eric McIlquham Years
Eric McIlquham spent nine years as the Tide's head coach, a span that included six top-25 finishes highlighted by a trio of top-15 finishes in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
The Tide bettered 18 school records during his tenure, including all five relay marks. He also saw his student-athletes claim 55 spots on the Tide's all-time top 10.
Individually, Vlad Polyakov won the NCAA 200 breaststroke championship in 2005 and 2007 as well as five SEC breaststroke titles while Aaron Fleshner won three SEC diving titles.
Alabama posted the highest team grade point average in the nation in 2011 and had six student- athletes earn nine Academic All-America honors and three NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships under McIlquham.
The Dennis Pursley Years
Dennis Pursley returned to his alma mater in the fall of 2012 and spent seven years catapulting the Crimson Tide men's program back into the upper echelons of NCAA Swimming and Diving.
Pursley's squad was named "Breakout Team of the Year" by the College Swimming Coaches Association in his second season after posting a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The Crimson Tide men went on to achieve six consecutive top-15 finishes, with four in the top 10, including a sixth-place finish in 2016, the Tide's best national finish since taking fifth in 1983.
During his Crimson Tide tenure, Pursley's men won four NCAA titles, with Kristian Gkolomeev winning a trio of titles, the most by a UA swimmer. In addition to winning NCAA 50 and 100 freestyle titles, Gkolomeev joined Connor Oslin, Pavel Romanov and Luke Kalisak to win the Tide's first NCAA relay title in school history in 2016, taking first in the 200 medley relay. In 2019, the Tide won another NCAA relay championship, again in the 200 medley relay, when Zane Waddell, Laurent Bams, Knox Auerbach and Robert Howard combined for the win.
The Tide men also won 18 SEC Championships under Pursley and accounted for two SEC Championships Swimmers of the Meet honors, two SEC Swimmer of the Year honors and an SEC Commissioner's Trophy.
Academically, an Alabama swimmer was named the CoSIDA At-Large Academic All-American of the Year three times in four years, with Anton McKee earning the honor in back-to-back years in 2016 and 2017, while Laurent Bams earned the honor in 2019. In 2017, for the first time in the history of the honor, Alabama became the first school to put four student-athletes on the CoSIDA Academic All-America At-Large Team in the same year and all four student-athletes were swimmers with all four earning first-team honors, giving Alabama swimming and diving nearly a third of the 15-member first team. In all, the UA men earned 15 Academic All-America honors during Pursley's tenure. McKee became the first UA swimmer to be named the H. Boyd McWhorter Southeastern Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2017.
In 2019, Luke Kaliszak became the first UA swimmer to earn the NCAA Today's Top Ten Award as one of the nation's top-ten senior student- athletes regardless of gender, sport or NCAA division.
The Gary Illman Years
The University of Alabama added women's swimming to its roster of sports in 1975. Gary Illman served as the women's inaugural coach, leading the Crimson Tide through its first three seasons, posting a 14-5 dual meet record during his time at the Capstone. With Illman at the helm, 13 swimmers earned All-America honors.
It was also under Illman's tutelage that Vicky Stanley and Christina Jarvis became the Tide's first national champions in 1976. Stanley won the 1976 AIAW 50 freestyle title, setting an AIAW record in the process.
Jarvis touched first in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke, becoming the AIAW champion in both events. A year later, Jarvis successfully defended her titles from 1976 and add the 50 breaststroke title as well, giving her a two-year total of five national titles.
While Illman was at the helm, the Tide finished 29th in 1975, fourth in 1976 and ninth in 1977, at the AIAW Championships.
The Harold Lanier Years
Illman was followed by Harold Lanier in 1978. Lanier's teams produced a two-year slate of 11-3 in dual-meet competition and 15 swimmers earned All-America status.
In the AIAW Championships, the Tide finished 16th and 11th in 1978 and 1979, respectively.
During Lanier's tenure, Marla Brooksbank started a career that made her one of the most successful swimmers in Alabama history. As a freshman in 1979, Brooksbank finished second at the AIAW Championships in the 1,650 freestyle. The next year at the World University Games held in Mexico City, she won the 800 freestyle.
The Don Gambril Years
In 1980, Don Gambril unified the Alabama men's and women's programs, adding the women to a coaching slate that already included the men's team.
After two years in AIAW competition, which saw the Tide finish 19th in 1980 and 18th in 1981, Gambril's squad made the jump to NCAA competition beginning with the 1982 season.
It was in 1981, Gambril's second year as head coach of the women's team, that Barbara Logan earned the Tide's first individual SEC title. Logan won from both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards.
The 1983 season saw Angelika Knipping win the SEC 200 breaststroke title. She went on to win the NCAA 50 breaststroke crown that year in championship record time. The 1983 season also saw the Tide earn its highest NCAA finish to date, taking fifth after producing a 10-1 dual-meet record and a second-place finish at the SEC Championships.
In 1985, Alabama became the first SEC team to beat the University of Florida in a dual meet on its way to posting its first and only undefeated dual- meet season, going 12-0. Alabama added another first to its growing list by becoming the first team to unseat Florida as conference champions. The Tide won out over the Gators in the University of Georgia's Stegeman Hall, breaking Florida's string of four SEC titles.
Alabama won six individual SEC titles and two relay titles in 1985. Kim Nicholson won the 50 freestyle and the 100 backstroke in 1985, upping her career total to four. Alabama's eight total SEC titles in 1985 rank as the most in a single year for the Tide.
Overall, Gambril produced a career dual-meet record of 100- 26 over the 11 years he coached the Tide women, making him one of the few coaches in collegiate swimming history to coach both a men's and women's team to 100 or more dual-meet wins each.
Jonty Skinner took control of the women's program in the spring of 1990 when Gambril left coaching to become an assistant athletic director at Alabama.
The Jonty Skinner Years
Jonty Skinner posted a short, but highly successful tenure as Alabama's head coach. Under his direction, Alabama brought home three SEC individual titles. Ragga Runolfsdottir won the 200 breaststroke title in 1991 while Katherine Rhodes won it in 1994. In between, Jennifer Mahaney won the SEC platform diving title on her way to setting an SEC record. As a team, Alabama posted its first top-10 national finish in seven years under Skinner's direction when the 1993 team finished 10th.
The Tide enjoyed its best year under Skinner in 1994, breaking 12 different school records and posting a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. In addition to winning the SEC 200 breaststroke title in 1994, Rhodes set the Tide's first SEC swimming record since Angelika Knipping set the 50 breast record in 1983. For his work with the 1994 squad, Skinner was named SEC Coach of the Year.
Skinner left Alabama in August of 1994 to become the head coach of the U.S. Resident National Team.
The Chuck Horton Years
Following Skinner's departure, former Tide assistant coach Chuck Horton was chosen to coach Alabama. His tenure ran from 1994 through August of 1998 and included a trio of top-25 national finishes.
During his tenure, Amy DeVasher, Ann-Sofie Joensson and Jill DeVasher all earned prestigious postgraduate scholarships. Amy DeVasher and Joensson earned NCAA scholarships and Jill DeVasher's came from the Southeastern Conference. Ed Reed served as interim coach for the 1998-99 season, and Don Wagner was hired in March of 1999.
The Don Wagner Years
Don Wagner's tenure, which began in the fall of 1999, saw Alabama return to the top 20, including a 15th-place finish in 2003, his final year at the Capstone, as well as finishing 16th and 18th in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Under his tutelage, Anne Poleska set the SEC record in the 200 breaststroke and posted a trio of top-three finishes in the 200 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships. Poleska also won five SEC breaststroke titles under his direction while diver Lane Bassham won the 2002 SEC 3-meter championship. There were 11 school records broken under Wagner, including all five relays.
The Eric McIlquham Years
Eric McIlquham spent nine years as head coach of the women's program, marking the second-longest head coaching tenure in Tide history, trailing only Gambril's 11 years at the helm.
Alabama bettered 11 school records during McIlquham's tenure, including four of the five relay marks. He also saw his student-athletes put 60 swims on the Tide's all-time top 10, including seven of the all-time top 10 in the 200 individual medley and five of the top six in the 100 backstroke.
Individually, diver Lane Bassham won the 2004 NCAA 3-meter Championship after winning the SEC 1-meter and 3-meter titles that same year. Anne Poleska won the 2005 SEC 200 breaststroke while Carrie Dragland and Elizabeth Hughes won the SEC 3-meter and platform diving titles respectively in 2009.
Alabama enjoyed tremendous success in the classroom under McIlquham, posting the highest team grade point average in the nation in 2012 after finishing runner-up the previous year, while Hughes earned First-Team Academic All-America honors in 2010.
The Dennis Pursley Years
During his seven-year span as Alabama's head coach, Dennis Pursley certainly upped the speed factor at his alma-mater. The Crimson Tide women broke 12 of 14 individual school records and all five relays during Pursley's stint in Tuscaloosa, with the vast majority of those falling multiple times. In all, Pursley's swimmers held 95 spots on ton Alabama's all-time top 10.
Kaylin Burchell led the way on the Southeastern Conference front, winning the 100 and 200 breaststrokes at the 2015 SEC Championships and earning the SEC Championships Female Swimmer of the Meet. That same year she would go on to take second in the 100 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships, the highest individual finish of Pursley's tenure at the Capstone.
In Pursley's final season leading the Crimson Tide, Kensey McMahon became the first UA woman to break the 16-minute barrier in the 1,650 freestyle.
On the academic side of the program, the Crimson Tide women were consistently among the nation's leaders in terms of team GPA under Pursley and Temarie Tomley would earn Academic All- America honors in 2018, becoming the first member of the women's squad to earn the honor since Elizabeth Hughes in 2010.
