William Bachrach (May 15, 1879 in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois – July 1959) was an American swimming and

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

coach.

Early life

Bachrach was Jewish, and one of 16 children born to Charles and Leonora Bachrach in Elgin, Illinois, 40 miles west of Chicago. In the 1890s, he was a competitive swimmer. He served in the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

Coaching career

Imposing and somewhat demanding as a coach, the 6 foot tall Bachrach weighed 300 pounds in later life, though his students enjoyed and welcomed his guidance, referring to him as “the beloved tyrant.” He began as a swimming instructor at the Chicago Central

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

. He later moved to the Illinois Athletic Club (IAC). There, Bachrach coached swimming and water polo from 1912–54. His 1914–17 IAC water polo teams won the U.S. national championship for four straight years. Impressively, his 1914 team won every Men's National AAU Championship event. At the IAC, he coached

Jam Handy Henry Jamison "Jam" Handy (March 6, 1886 – November 13, 1983) was an American Olympic breaststroke swimmer, water polo player, and founder of the Jam Handy Organization (JHO), a producer of commercially sponsored motion pictures, slidefilms (l ...

Harry Hebner Harry Joseph Hebner (June 15, 1891 – October 12, 1968) was an American competition swimmer and water polo player who competed at the 1908, 1912 and 1920 Summer Olympics. Hebner swam for the Illinois Athletic Club under Hall of Fame Coach Wil ...

, Mike McDermott,

Perry McGillivray Perry McGillivray (August 5, 1893 – July 27, 1944) was an American competition swimmer and water polo player who represented the United States at the 1912 Summer Olympics and 1920 Summer Olympics. In the 1912 Olympics he competed in the 100-m ...

Norman Ross Norman DeMille Ross (May 2, 1895 – June 19, 1953) was an American competition swimmer who won five events at the Inter-Allied Games in June 1919, held at Joinville-Le-Pont near Paris, and three gold medals at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwer ...

, Bob Skelton,

Johnny Weissmuller Johnny Weissmuller ( ; born Johann Peter Weißmüller, ; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was a Hungarian-born German American Olympic swimmer, water polo player and actor. He was known for having one of the best competitive-swimming records o ...

(later famous in Hollywood as "Tarzan"),

Arne Borg Claes Arne Borg (18 August 1901 – 7 November 1987) was a Swedish swimmer. He is best known for breaking 32 world records and winning five Olympic medals in the 1920s. In 1926 Borg won the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal, shared with Edvin Wi ...

Sybil Bauer Sybil Lorina Bauer (September 18, 1903 – January 31, 1927) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder. She represented the United States at the 1924 Summer Olympics, where she won the gold medal in t ...

Ethel Lackie Ethel Minnie Lackie (February 10, 1907 – December 15, 1979), also known by her married name Ethel Watkins, was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder. Lackie was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 10, 19 ...

, and others. His swimmers won 120 National AAU Championships.

'24, '28 Olympics and Olympians

Bachrach was also head coach of the 1924 Olympics and

1928 Olympics 1928 Olympics may refer to: *The 1928 Winter Olympics, which were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland *The 1928 Summer Olympics, which were held in Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of t ...

U.S. men's and women's swim teams. His swimmers won 13

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

s in Paris in 1924, and 10 gold medals in Amsterdam in 1928. He developed four swimmers who won gold medals at the 1924 Olympics: Weissmuller (100m and 200m freestyles, and 800m relay), Skelton (200m

breaststroke Breaststroke is a human swimming, swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to the swimmer's head being out of the water a large portion of the time, and ...

), Lackie (100m freestyle and 400m relay), and

(100m

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

). Weissmuller also won two gold medals at the 1928 Olympics (100m freestyle and 800m relay. He also developed

, who won gold medals in the 400m and 1,500m freestyles and 800m relay at the

1920 Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (; Dutch language, Dutch and German language, German: ''Antwerpen 1920''), were an international multi-sport event held i ...

in Antwerp. Legend has it that Bachrach was the first to tryout Weissmuller at the Illinois Athletic Club, where Weissmuller broke a world record, and shortly after set a record for the 100 yard freestyle of 49.8 seconds, one of Weissmuller's best known athletic feats."Weissmuller to Depart Amateur Swimming Ranks, Final Showing", ''The Dispatch'', Moline, Illinois, pg. 16, 26 December 1928

Honors

In 1994, Bachrach was inducted into the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (IJSHOF) () is the international hall of fame for Jewish athletes and special contributors to the world of sport. The purpose of the IJSHOF is to honor Jewish individuals, worldwide, who have accompli ...

. He was inducted into the

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...

in 1996, and in 2002 he was inducted into the American Swimming Coach's Hall of Fame. He died July 16, 1959 at Veteran's Research Hospital in Chicago.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachrach, Bill American swimming coaches American diving coaches American water polo coaches 1879 births 1959 deaths Jewish American sports coaches American military personnel of the Spanish–American War Swimming at the 1924 Summer Olympics Swimming at the 1928 Summer Olympics Sports coaches from Chicago Olympic coaches for the United States International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees

Early life

Coaching career

'24, '28 Olympics and Olympians

Honors

See also

References