Dick Blick (swimmer)

American swimmer (born 1940)
Dick Blick
Personal information
Full nameRichard Adolph Blick
Nickname"Dick"
National teamUnited States
Born (1940-07-29) July 29, 1940 (age 84)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Height6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Weight192 lb (87 kg)
SpouseShirley
Children2
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesFreestyle mid-range, and distance
ClubNorth Central Swim Club
College teamNorth Central College 1962
CoachHal Henning
(North Central College)
Medal record
Men's swimming
Representing the United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1960 Rome 4x200 m freestyle
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 1959 Chicago 4x200m freestyle

Richard Adolph Blick (born July 29, 1940) is an American former competition swimmer, 1960 Olympic champion, swim coach, and former world record-holder. He competed for North Central College under International Hall of Fame Coach Dr. Hal Henning Jr. After his swimming career ended in 1962, he earned a Masters in Physical Education from Indiana University, and had a long career in High School education as a swim coach, math teacher, and principal in California.[1][2]

Born to German immigrants in Los Angeles, California on July 29, 1940, Blick attended Bakersfield High School, where he played football, basketball, and helped lead the Bakersfield High swim team to two league titles. Along with a few other team members, he got an edge on the competition in his Senior year by finding a motel pool to train at in the winter, as the Bakersfield area had no heated outdoor pools.[3][2][3] At the 1961 National Outdoor swimming championships in Los Angeles, he went under the standing record in the 200 freestyle, swimming a 2:01.5, though it placed him in third behind University of Southern California swimmer and two-time Olympian Murray Rose who set the new record. Rose would swim for the Australian team in 1960 and earn the bronze medal, competing against Blick's American team in the 4x200 meter relay.[4]

In international swimming competition, Blick was a member of the U.S. Pan American team from 1959-1961. Prior to his Olympic gold medal, Blick competed in the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, helping the US win gold in the 4x200 free relay.[5][2] Yale swim coach Bob Kiphuth declared Blick at 19, "the finest 200-meter swimmer ever born in the United States", and considered him a "certain member of the 1960 Olympic team".[6]

1960 Olympic gold medal

Blick qualified for the 1960 Olympics at the Trials in Detroit in August.[7] Around 1959-1960, Blick was the top rated swimmer in the world in the 200 meter freestyle event.[8]

Around his Junior year at North Central College, he competed at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, where he won a gold medal as a member of the first-place U.S. team in the men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay. The American team set a new World Record time of 8:10.2, beating the Japanese team by 3 seconds, who were closely followed by the Australians. Swimming anchor for the U.S. team, Jeff Farrell, possibly the fastest 200 metre swimmer in the world, performed up to expectations, though he had been recovering from appendicitis during the Olympic trails in Detroit.[5]

North Central College swimmer

Blick secured a swimming scholarship to Napierville, Illinois's North Central College where he started classes in Fall 1959 and was trained and managed by Hall of Fame Coach Dr. Hal Henning Jr. As a high point in his collegiate career, he helped lead North Central to two National championships in 1961 and 1962.[3] As a world class swimmer at North Central, he won 11 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) titles which included the 100-yard freestyle in 1959, and from 1961-62. .[3] He also held titles in the 220-yard freestyle from 1959-62, which he considered his best event, and the 440-yard freestyle from 1959-62.[5] Graduating North Central College in 1962, Blick set the American record in the 220-yard free, set both world and American records in the 200-meter free, and as part of an 800-meter free relay team, set a new American record. As of 1972, Blick remained the only North Central College athlete to ever win an Olympic gold medal.[8]

Educator and coach

After completing his degree at North Central, Blick received a masters’ in Physical Education from Indiana University in 1962, and decided to retire from competitive swimming. Beginning his career in education around 1963 after moving to California, he coached swimming and taught school at Foothill, Bakersfield, Lynbrook, San Jose, and Pioneer High Schools. His wife Shirley taught Elementary School.[9][3]

Blick taught math and physical education for a long stint at Lynbrook High School in Cupertino, California and after 1990 at Kingsburg High School in Kingsburg, California. He served as the principal in the 80s at Los Gatos Christian. From 1978-1990, he served primarily as a High School administrator, likely in addition to teaching. In all, he spent over 30 years in California teaching math, and physical education, administering High School, and coaching swimming. In 1990, he coached the Ripon Sea Lions, an age group team in Ripon, California, in the Greater Modesto, California area.[5][10][11]

As a coaching highlight, in 1976 he coached the San Jose Area's Lynbrook High School swim team to a perfect season, and was subsequently named California Coaches Association Coach of the Year. From 1964-1977, he coached 25 Prep All-Americans, in both swimming and water polo.[2] He later coached teens, children, and a masters group at Crusader Aquatics in Modesto, California.[12]

He is now retired in San Jose, California with his wife, Shirley, whom he married in 1962, and had a son and daughter. At 79, he continued to swim regularly at the Fremont YMCA pool, in Fremont, Nebraska, where the couple also spent part of the year during their retirement to be with their son and grandchildren.[3][13][5]

Honors

In 1977, he was elected to the Bakerfield area's Bob Elias Kern County Sports Hall of Fame, and in 1976 was a California Coaches Association Coach of the Year.[2] An exceptional collegiate swimmer, in 2004 he was inducted into the North Central College Sports Hall of Fame.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "International Swimming Hall of Fame, Dr. Harold Henning". ishof.org.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Richard Blick First Swimmer in Elias Hall", The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California, 27 January 1977, pg. 39
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Omaha Magazine online, "From Oceanside to Riverside", November/December 2019". www.omahamagazine.com.
  4. ^ Kahn, Alex, "4 World Swim Marks Fall", The Fresno Bee, Fresno, California, 20 August 1961, pg. 55
  5. ^ a b c d e "Olympedia Bio, Dick Blick". olympedia.org.
  6. ^ Lancaster, Dale, Rounsavelle Mate Biggest Swimmer", The Daily Breeze, Torrence, California, 30 August 1959, pg. 19
  7. ^ "Chris, Lynne, Break Swim Marks", The Register, Santa Ana, California, 6 August 1960, pg. 11
  8. ^ a b c "North Central College Cardinals Hall of Fame, Dick Blick, 2004 inductee". northcentralcardinals.com.
  9. ^ Rambulat, Vince, "Kingsburg Schools Welcome New Teachers, Kingsburg High", The Selma Enterprise, Selma, California, 29 August 1990, pg. 13
  10. ^ "Kingsburg Pool to Offer Fall Programs", The Selma Enterprise, Selma, California, 11 September 1991, pg. 14
  11. ^ Moved to Kingsburg in 1990 in "Sea Lions Seek Coach", The Ripon Record, Ripon, California, 20 February 1991, pg. 6
  12. ^ "Swimming", The Modesto Bee, Modesto, California, 16 August 1989, pg. 40
  13. ^ "1960 Summer Olympics – Rome, Italy– Swimming" Archived 2007-09-04 at the Wayback Machine – databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on April 30, 2008)
  • Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Dick Blick". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2009-06-01.
  • North Central College Cardinals Hall of Fame, Dick Blick, 2004 inductee
  • Olympedia Bio, Dick Blick
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Olympic champions in men's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay
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Italics: Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.


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