[Rally]

I've been traveling for work and too busy to keep up with the various Stanford sports, so I only just now looked at the PAC-12 All Century teams for swimming & diving.  Diving is a great sport, but I'm only going to focus on swimming.

As you may have seen, Richard Quick (Stanford) was given Coach of the Century for Women's Swimming.  Quite appropriate.  My brother swam in high school against him.  I was in age-group swimming on a competing team when he coached in Houston, and was at UTexas-Austin when he did so well there, and we both came to the Bay Area at the same time.  He was genuinely nice and technically brilliant and innovative.  He was head coach of the Olympic team 6 times.

TRAVESTY ALERT:  The PAC-12 Women's Swimming Coach of the Century isn't in his own school's Hall of Fame!!


But I was disappointed in the choice for Swimmer of the Century.  Certainly Natalie Coughlin (C.al 2001-2003) was a great swimmer, and has been a great representative for swimming.  However, in 60 years of watching swimming, I've seen one swimmer (male or female) that was far and away the best swimmer at her event: Janet Evans (Stanford 1989-1991).  It took 18 years to break her 400M Free world record, and 19 years to break her 800M and 1500M world records.  There have been other swimmers that were more versatile or that were world champions for a longer time, but she dominated her events as no one else ever has.  (Yes, those records were set just before she came to Stanford.)


I also beg to differ on the coach of the century for men's swimming.  Certainly Peter Daland was a legendary coach.  He coached at Unbelievably Spoiled Children forever (1958-1992).  In those 35 years, he won just under half the PAC-12 titles. As the PAC-12 release indicates, he finished 1st or 2nd at the national championships 57% of his years.

On the other hand, Skip Kenney led a Stanford dynasty from 1980 to 2012 (33 years, all within the century).  After his first two years, he never lost a PAC-10/12 title.  That's an outstanding 94% (to Daland's 49%).  Coach Wooden was there when Kenney blasted past his 14 consecutive conference titles.  Yeah, Daland's teams won 91.7% of the dual meets, to Kenney's 85.9%, and edged out Kenney 57% to 51% for finishing first or second at nationals.  But, that 31-year dynasty is by far a conference-best, which should have won the PAC-12 Men's Swimming Coach of the Century for him.

Well, I agree that Kenney's record is extraordinary, and on paper he should have been named.  But Daland was much more of a character, in the mold of John McKay.  Plus he traveled the world with Olympic teams and clinics.  Heck, he once took his entire team with him to Australia to hold a coaches clinic; the story I was told is that he was paid big bucks (for those days,) the swimmers had a blast, and he got donors to pay the expenses.  Even his wife, Corky, was an outspoken character (and, according to my sources, the brains of the operation.)  He was larger than life in his world and that probably tipped the scales.  What sets Kinney and Daland apart was their remarkable success over such a long span.

As for Swimmer of the Century . . . There are so many deserving candidates you could call the entire team Swimmers of the Century.  Same is true on the men's side.  Except for outliers like Spitz, Schollander, etc., Olympic teams, especially men's, would have been empty without PACn (I like that :) swimmers.  Your could say the same thing for men's water polo. 

[Rally]

I've been traveling for work and too busy to keep up with the various Stanford sports, so I only just now looked at the PAC-12 All Century teams for swimming & diving.  Diving is a great sport, but I'm only going to focus on swimming.

As you may have seen, Richard Quick (Stanford) was given Coach of the Century for Women's Swimming.  Quite appropriate.  My brother swam in high school against him.  I was in age-group swimming on a competing team when he coached in Houston, and was at UTexas-Austin when he did so well there, and we both came to the Bay Area at the same time.  He was genuinely nice and technically brilliant and innovative.  He was head coach of the Olympic team 6 times.

TRAVESTY ALERT:  The PAC-12 Women's Swimming Coach of the Century isn't in his own school's Hall of Fame!!


But I was disappointed in the choice for Swimmer of the Century.  Certainly Natalie Coughlin (C.al 2001-2003) was a great swimmer, and has been a great representative for swimming.  However, in 60 years of watching swimming, I've seen one swimmer (male or female) that was far and away the best swimmer at her event: Janet Evans (Stanford 1989-1991).  It took 18 years to break her 400M Free world record, and 19 years to break her 800M and 1500M world records.  There have been other swimmers that were more versatile or that were world champions for a longer time, but she dominated her events as no one else ever has.  (Yes, those records were set just before she came to Stanford.)


I also beg to differ on the coach of the century for men's swimming.  Certainly Peter Daland was a legendary coach.  He coached at Unbelievably Spoiled Children forever (1958-1992).  In those 35 years, he won just under half the PAC-12 titles. As the PAC-12 release indicates, he finished 1st or 2nd at the national championships 57% of his years.

On the other hand, Skip Kenney led a Stanford dynasty from 1980 to 2012 (33 years, all within the century).  After his first two years, he never lost a PAC-10/12 title.  That's an outstanding 94% (to Daland's 49%).  Coach Wooden was there when Kenney blasted past his 14 consecutive conference titles.  Yeah, Daland's teams won 91.7% of the dual meets, to Kenney's 85.9%, and edged out Kenney 57% to 51% for finishing first or second at nationals.  But, that 31-year dynasty is by far a conference-best, which should have won the PAC-12 Men's Swimming Coach of the Century for him.

Well, I agree that Kenney's record is extraordinary, and on paper he should have been named.  But Daland was much more of a character, in the mold of John McKay.  Plus he traveled the world with Olympic teams and clinics.  Heck, he once took his entire team with him to Australia to hold a coaches clinic; the story I was told is that he was paid big bucks (for those days,) the swimmers had a blast, and he got donors to pay the expenses.  Even his wife, Corky, was an outspoken character (and, according to my sources, the brains of the operation.)  He was larger than life in his world and that probably tipped the scales.  What sets Kinney and Daland apart was their remarkable success over such a long span.

As for Swimmer of the Century . . . There are so many deserving candidates you could call the entire team Swimmers of the Century.  Same is true on the men's side.  Except for outliers like Spitz, Schollander, etc., Olympic teams, especially men's, would have been empty without PACn (I like that :) swimmers.  Your could say the same thing for men's water polo.