Jon Urbanchek, who died last week at 84-years old, was a special coach.
Winning an individual NCAA title and two team individual titles as an athlete at Michigan and then leading the Wolverines to an NCAAA title as a coach in 2004 already puts him in rare company in the sport.
But that’s not what makes Jon Urbanchek a special coach. Among all of the great coaches that swimming has seen, Urbanchek stands out as one of the most-beloved coaches in American swimming history, if not world swimming history.
That was, in part, because of his infectious demeanor. As was demonstrated by the outpouring of love after his passing, there was really no limit within the sport to the number of people Urbanchek touched. It really is quite jaw-dropping, in an era of polarization, for one coach to be so universally revered by the swimming community.
Urbanchek was a model for all coaches of his era and all eras. He was proof that you could work athletes to the brink of extinction during a workout and still have them laughing at the end of it.
That personality, when combined with his innovation, made him one of the most-influential coaches in American swimming history. He was able to influence people because he was so universally loved, and because he was smart enough to come up with really good ideas about swim training.
People don’t have to like you for you to influence them, but it makes it a lot easier. And your ideas don’t have to be that good
For those too young to remember, Urbanchek was the coach who popularized* the T30 test and created the famous 400-pace color charts (download the Excel sheet here). Urbanchek did as much as any coach in the last 50 years to change the way that swimming and swim training happen.
*As with most things in sport, there’s debate about who ‘invented’ a training like this, but most people we spoke to from his generation agreed that this was ‘Urbanchek’s thing’.
Sports are constantly evolving, the training and the technique and the science is constantly changing. But each evolution and change is built upon some other foundation, and understanding those foundations is inseparable for innovating the future.
RIP Coach
Interesting factoid:
-Matt Mann coached Gus Stager to an NCAA
team title.[sorry…before I was born]
-Gus Stager coached Jon Urbanchek to an NCAA team title (1960).
-Jon Urbanchek won an NCAA team title as the UofM coach (1995).
-Mike Bottom coached UofM to an NCAA team title.(2013)***
***while at USC 1974…
Jon made good swimmers great people.
The more I read and see about Jon, the more I hope he knew what a tremendous impact he had across his years.
I think a lot of times we don’t tell the people who have the biggest influences just how much they matter. Hoping he knew just a little of the good he did.
Is the spreadsheet link broken for anyone else?
It’s a little finnicky because it’s a very old link. Right click, open a new tab on your browser, and paste the URL.
Braden: one of the best pieces you’ve written for SS. Thank you.
I truly enjoyed all the time I shared with Jon.
I think that Jon won the team title as a coach in 95
In the 90’s I coached w/ Ann Arbor Swim Club. Our Team would be getting in the water as Michigan was getting out. Watching Jon and Jim, how they created relationships, build people was amazing. As a struggling young age group coach Jon would talk to me anytime I asked questions, was around the pool. I would smile and laugh at his comments to World Class swimmers, how he would chide them, love them. How is shoe was faster than they were, and so on. when working w/ the Women’s Team it would fall on me, in turn, to go get the coffee’s for the staff. What an honor. Then when seeing him at National meets he would come up… Read more »
Shawn:
We worked later than 3am!