Dear Texas swimming and diving enthusiasts,
Hope you had a wonderful holiday season. The TSDHOF was finally allowed to have our 2020 Induction ceremony in Austin in October, and it was our best and most entertaining to date. If you missed the event or you want to relive it, check it out HERE! Better yet, come to our next event April 8th to honor our latest class of Texas Aquatic Legends. Register Here!
Because of outstanding support, we have grown each year since our inception in 2008. We have been able to host some great events and honor outstanding contributors to aquatics in Texas. Please visit our museum at the Jamail Texas Swim Center in Austin to enjoy our many displays and memorabilia including our new interactive video kiosk. We hope you will follow the lead of those that contributed in 2021!
Our Pool needs your liquid assets in 2022!
We need your support to continue our goal of PRESERVING the PAST to HONOR the FUTURE of Texas Swimming and Diving.
Please send in your 2022 contribution ONLINE or by mail: 601 3rd St. Cuero, TX 77954
2. The new Kiosk will honor more than 75 great Texas aquatic legends and teams via stories and photos of each of them. Check out several short biographical videos that have already been created to honor legends such as Jane Kneip Patterson and Cynthia Potter. A fundraising effort is being established to produce more as donations come in. Each film is costing us a little over $1,000.00 to produce. If you are interested in sponsoring this project or to help the TSDHOF in 2022, visit Support Us! — Texas Swimming & Diving Hall of Fame (tsdhof.org)
Nominate a worthy candidate for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. Nomination Form
Add your team’s history or website address to our archive HERE!
Check out the latest news: A Blast from the Past Splash News #1-6 and now 7 are up! http://www.tsdhof.org/splash-archive
6. Please like and follow US on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
7. Come to the dinner April 8th.
You’re invited to The Legends Dinner Honoring the 2022 Class of Inductees
Ryan Berube, Wayne Chester, Austin DeLong,
Bryan Jones & Susan Spice Nelms
Lifetime Achievement Award: Roger Graham
Distinguished Team: Fort Worth Teams
Presented by: Progressive Commercial Aquatics
When: Friday, April 8th, 2022
Reception 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Dinner and Induction: 7:30 pm
Where: Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center (social hour) & The San Jacinto Ballroom (Dinner and Induction)
Cost: $50/person (Additional donations are always appreciated.)
ASCA Clinic participants receive a 20% discount
RSVP Via our WEBSITE (preferred method) www.TSDHOF.org
Or contact
Toni Schramme: Tschramme@dciresources.com
2084 Bella Vista
Canyon Lake, TX. 78133
713.823.1690 phone
Sign up early as this event will likely be a sellout before the April 1st deadline (no fooling)
Accommodations: We have a group Rate at the AT&T Hotel Reserve HERE
Parking: Information about parking and our event will be emailed & updated periodically at: www.TSDHOF.org
2022 Texas Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame Inductees
Ryan Berube is a 26-time NCAA all-American swimmer. Berube finished his senior year at Southern Methodist University by being voted 1996 NCAA Swimmer of the Year after winning the 200 individual medley and the 100 and 200 backstroke. Internationally, he won relay gold medals at the 1993 World University Games and 1995 Pan American Games. His career culminated with an Olympic gold medal anchoring the 1996 4x200 freestyle relay in Atlanta, Georgia. Berube spent more than 20 years volunteering within USA Swimming before stepping aside to focus on philanthropic endeavors in Dallas. He is currently the chairman of the Dallas chapter of Swim Across America, worked on the team that spearheaded the fundraising for SMU’s new aquatics facility, serves on the board of the southwest chapter of US Olympians, and manages to find a little time to coach young children in the pool. Berube is currently a wealth manager at UBS focused solely on entrepreneurial families, helping them grow and protect their assets. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Michele, and two sons, Jack and Rush.
Wayne Chester is a native of Fort Worth and attended Arlington Heights High School. As a teenager, he was discovered by Fort Worth diving legend Cal Loock at the Ridglea country club and encouraged to join the Panther Boys Club, where he became one the best age group divers in Texas history. He posted a perfect record in city and regional meets and closed a standout prep career with a Texas state championship in his senior year. Chester’s success earned him a scholarship at the University of Alabama. While in Tuscaloosa, he earned all-America status three times, claimed the 1978 NCAA 1-meter title and was a Southeastern Conference champion and earned SEC Diver of the Year honors in 1981. Wayne returned to his hometown of Fort Worth to coach at TCU for 22 years (1996-2018) earning Mountain West Diving Coach of the Year in 2006.
Austin DeLong is a Texas native who graduated from Cypress Creek High School in 2007. Notable high school accolades include four appearances in the water polo state finals, winning twice; three-time selection to first team all-state; and winning state MVP his senior year. He later attended the University of the Pacific where he was a four-year starter, team captain as a senior, academic all-American, and led the team to an eventual top-five ranking during the 2010 season. His career collegiate statistics include 79 goals, 103 assists, 95 drawn ejections, and 227 combined steals and blocks. After graduating from Pacific he played professionally for the Nordek club team in Canberra, Australia, before moving back to the United States to pursue a non-aquatics career. Recognized as the most accomplished male player in Texas water polo history, DeLong now lives in San Francisco. He occasionally plays at the masters level of USWP.
Bryan Jones is a native of College Station, Texas. He was an outstanding age group swimmer for the Aggie Swim Club and Bob Leland where he won multiple TAGS championships. He was a high school all-American and a two-time Texas state high school champion. Under Eddie Reese and Kris Kubik at the University of Texas, Jones was a 15-time Big XII champion, five-time NCAA champion, and a 22-time all-American. He served as team captain of the 2000 Longhorn’s NCAA Championship team. He was also a six-time U.S. national champion, earning him a place on the USA National A team. He is a former world record holder as part of the 200 freestyle relay and set an American record in the 50-meter butterfly. Internationally, Jones was a member of the 1998 and 2001 World Championship teams, 1997 World University Games team, 1998 Goodwill Games team, 1999 Pan Pacific team, and the 2003 Pan American Games team. He gave back to the sport by serving on the board of directors of USA Swimming from 1998-2008. Jones lives with his family in Austin, Texas, and currently serves as the COO of Auctane.
Susan Spice Nelms is a native Texan, born in 1937 in San Antonio. Susan excelled at a very young age coached by TSDHOF honorees Roy and Lillie Kneip and Jack Tolar with the San Antonio Aquatic Club. She won every Texas age group breaststroke title from the age of 9 to 14. At the age of 12 she was the youngest competitor at the U.S. nationals and finished sixth in the 100-meter breaststroke. She continued competing until the age of 15 when she retired from swimming, since her high school and college did not have a swimming team. In 1973, she was inducted into the Texas Swimming Pool of Fame, which spurred her return to the sport she loved as a coach at the Dad’s Club in Houston alongside TSDHOF inductee Pete Payne where her teams won TAGS each year she was there.
Wally Pryor Distinguished Team: Fort Worth
Fort Worth area swimmers and divers have excelled in the state of Texas as well as nationally and internationally for almost a century. Early stars include Bob Tarlton in the ‘30s, world record holder Jane Dillard in the ‘40s and the pioneer of Texas diving, Carl Loock, who set the pace for teams, coaches, and athletes to shine. Roy and Lilian Knipe, along with the Loocks, got things going in the ‘40s, recruiting talent from around the city pools and lakes, including the Burger’s Lake 6-meter-high board. This led to the Ridglea Pool Association Team of the ‘50s, which migrated and integrated into the new indoor pool at Panther Boy’s Club (PBC). The resultant PBC swimming and diving team became one of the state’s top powerhouses from the mid-1950’s through the’ 70’s. Carl, Edith, Cal, Vicki and Christine Loock, Don Easterling, Doug Russell, Rick Nesbit, Theron Pickle, Ronnie Mills, William Paulus and Wayne Chester along with the Malone, Speight, Evans, Brouse, Riddell and Capper families, and many more TAGS and high school all-Americans had a part in the PBC dynasty of this era. The Frog Aquatic Swim Team (FAST) coached by Rufe Brewton grew into another strong team in the ‘70s and included stars Steve Wood and Chuck Burr. Several other Fort Worth area teams were established after 1975, including The FW Swim Club, Water Works and Tarrant County Aquatics (coached by Lucky Foreman and star swimmer Jeannie Doolan). The Fort Worth Area Swim Team was established in 1989 by Scott Colby. Ron Forrest headed up the team from 1996-2020; In this 24 year period, he coached numerous champions including Olympic gold medalist Dana Vollmer. Nationally ranked Sigma Aquatics is now in operation in the Fort Worth area offering swimming, diving, and water polo.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Colonel, Dr. Roger Graham, USAF, Ret. first became involved in swimming when his seven-year-old daughter joined the Flying Fish AAU Swim Team at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio in late 1970. By the spring of 1972 he had been certified as an official and remains active in that capacity today. He conceived and was the motivation behind the development of what is believed to be the first practical horn start system in 1974. The system was used at both the Junior and Senior Nationals in 1975- the beginning of the end for starting guns. Since late 1978 he has volunteered nearly 16,000 man-hours, not counting time on deck as an official, in support of swimming for NEISD in San Antonio. In 2019 he designed a lane strobe system which is in constant use at NEISD facilities.
Our all-volunteer and wet behind the ears, directors: Bill Robertson, President, Steve Montgomery, Executive Director, George Block, Secretary, Ricky Berens, Treasurer, Jill Sterkel, Nominations, Dotson Smith, Historian, Directors- Vanessa Said, Donn Boyd, Tom Boak, Mac McDonald, Melissa Briley Mieras, Pat Patterson, Cynthia Potter, Toni Schramme & John Vogel.