Before the Dynasty: Eddie Reese as the Visionary of Auburn’s Swimming Success

Eddie Reese is arguably the most successful American swimming coach in history. In 41 seasons as the head coach of the Texas men, he has led his team to 14 NCAA team titles, 12 NCAA runner-up finishes, and 33 top-three finishes at the NCAA Championships. He is a 3-time CSCAA National Coach of the Year, 8-time NCAA Coach of the Year, 4-time ASCA Coach of the Year, has coached Texas to 40 consecutive conference titles and 40 consecutive top 10 finishes at the NCAA Championships, and through the 2018-2019 season has coached athletes to 73 NCAA individual titles and 50 relay titles.

The Eddie Reese era alone, considering only swimmers, at Texas ties the USC men as the 4th most successful men’s program in history in terms of NCAA event titles.

And while it seems like Reese has been at Texas forever, there was a time where he wasn’t the head coach of the most successful men’s collegiate program of the last 4 decades.

Reese started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Florida, while earning his master’s degree. A standout swimmer for the Gators, Reese was part of 3-straight SEC Championship teams for Florida in 1961, 1962, and 1963. As a co-captain his senior year, Reese became the first Florida swimmer to win 5 SEC titles in a single year when he won the 200 breast, 200 IM, 400 IM, 400 free relay, and 400 medley relay.

Like many swimmers then and now, he was able to use his reputation in the pool to quickly climb the coaching ladder. After spending 2 years as a teacher at Roswell High School in New Mexico, he returned to Florida where he spent 6 seasons as an assistant from 1967 through 1972. There he was part of a Florida rebuild that saw the team climb 14 spots in the national rankings during his tenure.

NCAA Finishes by season, University of Florida:

  • 1967 – 21st (tie)
  • 1968 – 18th
  • 1969 – 9th (tie)
  • 1970 – 17th
  • 1971 – 14th
  • 1972 – 7th

At the time, Florida was just forming into the powerhouse program that we know it as today, and the 7th-place finish in 1972 was the team’s best-ever placement at the NCAA Championships.

That effort earned Reese his first-ever collegiate head coaching job at SEC rivals Auburn University.

What Texas is to the 2010s, auburn was to the late 90s and 2000s: an absolutely dominant program. Starting with a title in 1997 and 1999, the Auburn men won 8 titles in 13 seasons, with Reese’s Texas men winning 3 of the remaining crowns in that span.

But, when Eddie Reese took over in the 1972-1973 season, the Auburn Tigers are not the powerhouse we know them as today. The program swam at its first SEC Championship meet in 1970, where the Tigers scored 70 points to finish in last place. The next-lowest scoring team was Georgia with 99 points, and Reese’s former Gator team won the title. They weren’t much better in 1971 or 1972, finishing 8th out of 8 teams in each of those seasons.

In 1972, Auburn was so bad that they didn’t qualify a single individual swimmer for the championship or consolation final at the SEC Championship meet.

But when Reese took over the program, it was as if a switch was flipped. Auburn suddenly jumped up to 4th place in the conference in 1973. A year later they were 3rd. The Tigers would remain in the top 3 of the conference every year until 1986.

Auburn Finishes at the SEC Championships, Eddie Reese era:

  • 1973 – 4th
  • 1974 – 3rd
  • 1975 – 3rd
  • 1976 – 3rd
  • 1977 – 3rd
  • 1978 – 2nd

The climb at the NCAA level was even more remarkable. The Auburn men made their first NCAA Championship appearance in program history in 1974, finishing in 17th place, and in Reese’s last season in 1972, they were the national runners-up behind Tennessee. The SEC held 4 of the top 7 places at that year’s NCAA Championship meet, with Florida 6th and Alabama 7th.

Auburn Finishes at the NCAA Championships, Eddie Reese era:

  • 1973 – Did Not Participate
  • 1974 – 17th
  • 1975 – 8th
  • 1976 – 8th
  • 1977 – 5th
  • 1978 – 2nd

Now, at Florida and Auburn, two programs today that are known among the best in the country, where Reese had a direct hand in their construction.

In the 1978-1979 season, he began what turned out to be his final program build at the University of Texas. The Longhorns weren’t in as poor of a position as Auburn was when Reese took over. In 1978, they finished tied with Stanford for 18th place at the NCAA Championships.

The team had placed as high as tied for 5th in 1939 at the NCAA Championships, albeit in a very different era of swimming. They scored a few other top 10 finishes in the 1950s, but for much of the 1960s and 1970s were a non-scoring team at the NCAA Championships. In fact, at the time Reese took over, the University of Texas-Arlington was the state’s dominant swimming program (the school was part of the Texas A&M system until 1965 before shifting to the University of Texas system).

Once again, though, Reese worked his magic to turn the program into a dominant program. In 1979, Reese’s first season leading Texas, they finished 21st at the NCAA Championships. By year 2, in 1980, they were 2nd, just 14 points behind Cal (with whom their primary modern rivalry is). A year later they won the whole thing in a 70-point runaway ahead of UCLA (2nd) and Florida (3rd). Reese’s current and former employers held 3 of the top 5 spots at the NCAA Championships that year, with Auburn placing 5th.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

The remarkable career of Eddie Reese as an NCAA swimming coach is the thing of legends. Careers like that don’t get forgotten. He has had success throughout eras where the sport has changed and where the athletes have changed. Among that change, his success has been a constant.

It’s one thing to take over a historically-successful program and continue that success, and another to build a legendary program from scratch. Reese was a part of that 3 times.

39
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

39 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Reid
4 years ago

Has there ever been an all-time or all-century team compiles for NCAA swimming? Would be an interesting discussion as long as we’re delving back into the annals of swimming history. Looking back at the record book you see lots of multi event winners that aren’t really widely known these days, like Dave Edgar, Roy Saari, and Yoshi Oyakawa:
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/swimming_champs_records/2013-14/2013md1_swim.pdf

SECfan
4 years ago

“The auburn tigers are not the powerhouse we know them as today” they haven’t been a powerhouse in a hot minute

Captain Pajama Shark
4 years ago

Best thing about Eddie is when he is referring to his time at Auburn to when “he was a good coach”

ISpeakTheTruth
4 years ago

The GOAT in and out of the pool. No question.

OLDBALDIMER
4 years ago

The amazing part is Eddie has stayed at UT for 40+ years and not hopped around like some of the other great coaches mentioned. I think it is a lot harder to stay with one team for so long, be great every year and be a consistent winner year in and year out. Eddie has taken great talent to greatness, but he has also developed good swimmers into great ones. The amazing thing I find living in Austin and seeing a lot of his ex swimmers on the pool deck either coaching or swimming masters practices, is the fact that every swimmer speaks so highly of him. And not just of his coaching skills but also how he developed his… Read more »

olde coach
Reply to  OLDBALDIMER
4 years ago

That’s really the end game. Ten years down the road no one really cares how fast you were, just what kind of person you are.

Swimpop
4 years ago

Two years in Roswell, explains soo much.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Swimpop
4 years ago

lol

PsychoDad
4 years ago

Eddie in 2005: “I have always said that out of 100% of good swimmers in our sport, 80% of them like to win, 20% of them hate to lose, and 95% of the Olympic team comes from the group that hates to lose. So you have got 80%, well, they don’t have killer instincts, and they are not great racers.”

PsychoDad
Reply to  PsychoDad
4 years ago

Eddie in 1997: “Generally, if we’re pushed, we’ll resist the push. If the push gets stronger, we get stronger.”

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  PsychoDad
4 years ago

Eddie in 2020: “This virus sucks.”

PsychoDad
Reply to  PsychoDad
4 years ago

Eddie in 2019: “I just talk to them. During practice, before, after. When (volunteer coach) Patrick (McCloskey) first started, he asked what am I supposed to do? I said to stand over a lane and talk to them. That’s all anybody needs in this sport. ”

And, that is THE secret of Eddie’s magic. Well that and relentless pursuit of perfection in swimming technique. Watch any meet and you will see a lot of coaches standing there and swimmers coming to them. You watch Eddie, Wyatt, or Patrick and they are everywhere, talking to swimmers, most often at the warm up pool. Eddie told me he almost missed the famous 6 fliers final at Iowa City because he was at… Read more »

Ayyyyeeee
Reply to  PsychoDad
4 years ago

Eddie in 2020: Exact same quote lol

He Said What?
4 years ago

Wasn’t Eddie the reason why Rowdy chose Auburn, but then Eddie left for Texas and Rowdy was left with a new coach who created his own history – Richard Quick? Correct me if I am wrong.

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  He Said What?
4 years ago

With head pointed due north, Rowdy couldn’t breathe to his left.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »