James Edward "Doc" Counsilman (December 28, 1920 – January 4, 2004)
Published by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' on 2004-01-05; retrieved 2010-03-29. was an Olympic and hall-of-fame swimming coach from the United States. He was the head swimming coach at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. * Indiana Univers ...

(IU) from 1957 to 1990.2009-10 Men's Swimming Media Guide
p.123, from the IU Hoosiers website; retrieved 2011-02-02. He served as head coach for the USA's Olympic swim teams for

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

and 1976; and was inducted as an Honors Coach into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1976.

Early career

Counsilman was born in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, but grew up and learned to swim in St. Louis, Missouri.
More about Doc page
' from the ''Doc Counsilman: Making Waves'' page of the WTIU; retrieved 2011-02-02. He swam collegiately for

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...

under coach Mike Peppe, and while in college set world-records in the 50 and 300 yard breaststrokes. During World War II, Counsilman served in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

in Italy as a

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models d ...

pilot with the 455th Bomb Group of the

Fifteenth Air Force The Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. It was reactivated on 20 August 2020, merging the previous units of the Ninth Air Force ...

. Post Ohio State, Counsilman went on to earn a master's degree at the University of Illinois (1947), where he also served as an assistant coach, before pursuing a doctorate degree in physiology from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

where he was also the assistant coach under David Armbruster(1948-1951).Counsilman's bio
from the SUNY Cortland Hall of Fame; published in 2005, retrieved 2011-02-02. It was at the Iowa that Counsilman coached his first two Olympians- Wally Ris and Bowen Stassforth. Following award of his doctorate, the now-dubbed "Doc" began teaching and coaching at Cortland State University, where he stayed from 1952 to 1957, before beginning his career at Indiana University. While at Cortland State, he coached freshman George Breen in 1953. Breen was molded by Counsilman into a standout athlete, and broke the world record for the 1500 meter freestyle. Breen, qualifying for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, set another world record in the 1500 meter freestyle with a time of 17:52.9 during the preliminaries, but was unable to match the time in the finals and received only a Bronze medal. Once at Indiana University, he continued to train Breen for the 1500, an event for which he would receive a second bronze medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Ultimately, Counsilman was credited with molding Breen into one of the finest Olympic distance swimmers in United States history.

Tenure at IU (1957–1990)

At IU, Counsilman coached the men's team to 6 consecutive

NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships The NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships are annual college championship events in the United States. The meets take place in a 25-yard pool, except for the Division I meets in 2000 and 2004 which were swum in a 25-meter compet ...

(1968–1973), and 20 consecutive (1961–1980) and 23 total Big Ten Conference titles. While at IU, Doc coached over 60 Olympic swimmers, including

Mark Spitz Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the Lists of Olympic medalists#Medalist with most medals by Olympiad, most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympi ...

. He served as the Men's Head Coach of the USA's swimming team at the

1964 Olympics 1964 Olympics refers to both: *The 1964 Winter Olympics, which were held in Innsbruck, Austria *The 1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held fro ...

(where the USA men won 9-of-11 events) and at 1976 Olympics (USA men won 12-of-13 events). In 1961, he was named Coach of the Year by the American Swimming Coaches Association. In 1964, he led the Indiana team to its sixth straight USA national championships ( AAU at the time). In 1979, at the age of 58, he briefly became the oldest person to swim the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or (Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kan ...

. Swimmers who swam for Counsilman include: Jim Montgomery, Gary Hall, John Kinsella, Mike Troy, Charlie Hickcox,

Larry Barbiere Lawrence Edward "Larry" Barbiere (born March 6, 1951) is an American former competition swimmer and Olympic athlete. Barbiere represented the United States as a 17-year-old at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. He competed in the men's 10 ...

, Don McKenzie, Chet Jastremski, Wally Ris, Bowen Stassforth,

Tom Stock Tom Stock (born c. 1942) is retired American backstroke swimmer. During his career that spanned from about 1956 to 1964 he set several world and 14 national records. He missed the 1964 Olympics due to illness and was not selected for the 1960 Gam ...

, George Breen, Mike Stamm, Alan Somers,

Ted Stickles Edward Arnold "Ted" Stickles (born April 7, 1942) is an American former competition swimmer and former world record-holder. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1995 and into the Indiana University Hall of Fame in 1998. ...

, John Murphy,

Bill Heiss William Conrad Heiss Jr. (April 25, 1923 – May 27, 2020) was an American football player and coach of multiple sports. He served as the head football coach at Adams State College (1948–1949), St. Cloud State University (1950), Colorado Coll ...

Fred Tyler Frederick Daniel Tyler (born March 15, 1954) is an American competitive swimmer and aquatics coach, winner of several high school and college championships and a gold medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the 1972 Summer Olympics and aut ...

, John Waldman, Tom Hickcox, and

Post IU

Doc Counsilman is known as one of the greatest swimming coaches of all time. He was also an innovator in the sport, pioneering underwater filming, and even watching swimmers underwater, as can be seen in Royer Pool at Indiana University today. He was also the instigator of hypoventilation training, a training method which consists of swimming with reduced breathing frequency. Counsilman died in Bloomington, Indiana, in 2004, after suffering from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

. He has been inducted into various Hall of Fames, including: the International Swimming Hall of Fame (1976), Ohio State Varsity "O" Hall of Fame (1988), IU Athletics (2001), the American Swimming Coaches AssociationCounsilman's entry
from the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame subpage; retrieved 2011-02-02. and SUNY Cortland (2005).

References

Bibliography

* ''The Science of Swimming'', by James E. Counsilman, Prentice Hall, Juni 1968, * ''The Complete Book of Swimming '', by James E. Counsilman, Atheneum, 1977, * ''Competitive Swimming Manual for Coaches and Swimmers'', by James E. Counsilman, Counsilman Co., 1977, * ''The New Science of Swimming'', by James E. Counsilman and Brian E. Counsilman, Prentice Hall, April 1994,

External links