Six Coaches Inducted Into ISCA Hall of Fame As Members Of The Class Of 2020/21

At the 2022 ISCA Swim Coaches Summit in St. Petersburg, Florida, six coaches were inducted into the International Swim Coaches Association Hall of Fame as the Class of 2020 and 2021. These coaches were honored as one class this year because summits in 2020 and 2021 could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The coaches inducted included Ernie Maglischo, Jon Urbanchek, Maureen Sheehan, Bob Steele, Steve Bultman, and Jack Simon. This year marked the eleventh time that the event had been held.

Ernie Maglischo

Ernie Maglischo was a swim coach for 38 years, coaching NCAA teams such as Oakland University (1979-81), Cal State Chico (1981-83), Cal State Bakersfield (1983-93), and Arizona State (1993-1998). Throughout his career, he has led both Oakland and Cal State Bakerfield to NCAA DII Championships, amassing a total of 13 national titles. In 1991, he was awarded the National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Award by the CSCAA.

In addition to his coaching career, Maglischo also published three books on swim technique titled Swimming Even Faster (1994), Swimming Fastest (2003), and A Primer for Swimming Coaches: Physiological Foundations (2016).

Jon Urbanchek

Jon Urbanchek is best known for his work on the University of Michigan men’s swim team. After swimming there from 1959-1961 and becoming an All-American, he then went on to coach the Wolverines from 1982 to 20o4. In his coaching tenure, he led the team to 13 Big Ten championships (including nine in a row from 1986 to 1996) and an NCAA title in 1995. Some prominent Michigan Olympians that were coached by Urbancheck included Mike Barrowman, Gustavo Borges, Tom Dolan, Brent Lang, Tom Malchow, Eric Namesnik, and Marcel Wouda.

In addition to coaching for Michigan, Urbanchek was also a coach on the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic teams. After his retirement from collegiate coaching, he continued to coach at Club Wolverine, Michigan’s club swimming affiliate. In 2010, he moved to Southern California to direct the FAST Swimming club, and trained Olympic medalists Tyler Clary and Matt McLean up until the 2012 Olympics.

Maureen Sheehan

Maureen Sheehan was the head coach of the Lake Forest Swim Club in Lake Forest, Illinois from 1984 to 2018. She was the age group coach for prominent Olympic swimmers such as gold medalists Connor Dwyer and Matt Grevers. In 1986, she was named onto the USA Swimming national team coaching staff, and was a two-time national team head manager for the 1997 Junior World Championships and the 1999 FINA Short Course World Championships.

Bob Steele

Bob Steele was head coach at Northwestern from 1970 to 1973, Southern Illinois from 1973 to 1984, and California State from 1997 to 2004. At Cal State, he won five NCAA DII titles and was named DII Coach of the Year four times. In between his Southern Illinois and Cal State tenures, Steele was a director of athlete/coach development for USA swimming from 1984 to 1995. He is also a prominent public speaker, having presented to coaches at FINA, LSC, and high school swimming coaches associations.

Steve Bultman

Steve Bultman began his coaching career at the Nashville Aquatic Club before coaching at the Greater Pensacola Aquatic Club and putting swimmers Beth Barr, Andrea Hayes, and Daniel Watters on the 1988 Olympic Team. After a stint with the Dynamo Aquatic Club in Georgia, he went to become an assistant coach at the University of Georgia from 1995 to 1999.

However, Bultman is best known for his role on Texas A&M women’s swim team where he is still the head coach. There, he led the Aggies to four Big 12 titles (2007, 2008, 2010, 2012), and four straight SEC titles from 2016 to 2019. In 2017 and 2018, he helped the team place third at NCAA championships, their highest finish ever. Bultman coached many notable Olympic and World Championship medalists such as Beryl Gastadello, Sydney Pickrem, Alia Atkinson, and Camille Adams. He was on the Estonia Olympic coaching staff in 2008 and the Mexico Olympic coaching staff in 2016, and Team USA’s coaching staff for the 2013 FINA World Championships.

Jack Simon

Jack Simon coached for 46 years, leading clubs in countries such as the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Phillippines, and Thailand. He was on the U.S. National Team coaching staff for 20 years. In his career, he has coached multiple world class swimmers such as former 50 free world record holder Bruce Stahl, as well as Olympians Paul Hartloff and Joe Hudepohl.

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Max
1 year ago

What are the requirements to be considered for induction?

NM Coach
Reply to  Max
1 year ago

ISCA has a panel that goes over the names that have been submitted.

Geoff Hanson
1 year ago

Bob Steele is an absolute legend of our sport. His continued commitment to Southern Illinois University, where he swam and coached for so many years, is unbelievable! Thank you and CONGRATS Bob!

Grunge Rally
Reply to  Geoff Hanson
1 year ago

Geoff, with all due respect, I would make the case that now is probably not the best time to attach your name (or your program’s name) to Bob’s given some of his recent comments on the internet.

It’s one thing to disagree with Lia Thomas participating in women’s swimming. But some of the things Bob was posting on Facebook….no decent human being should be saying about another person, unless said person, I don’t know, killed their grandmother?

Figured you might have missed that, so just tipping you off. You’ve had enough underserved and unfair attention thrown at you lately, thought you might want to avoid some more.

Hope you’re well

-An old friend

Eugene Price
Reply to  Geoff Hanson
1 year ago

Careful Bob. We have all had the pleasure of hearing you speak, however your recent outbursts on social media have been a little rough.

applesandoranges
1 year ago

Glad to see Jax Simon’s name on the list!!!

Texas A&M Swim Fan
1 year ago

Congrats to all but particularly to Coach Bultman👍. The guy is a “legend”👍👍

About Yanyan Li

Yanyan Li

Although Yanyan wasn't the greatest competitive swimmer, she learned more about the sport of swimming by being her high school swim team's manager for four years. She eventually ventured into the realm of writing and joined SwimSwam in January 2022, where she hopes to contribute to and learn more about …

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