Dick Kimball

Dick Kimball

University of Oklahoma University of Michigan
Medal record Representing Michigan NCAA 1957 Chapel Hill Team title 1957 Chapel Hill 1 meter diving 1957 Chapel Hill 3 meter diving

Dick Kimball (born c. 1935) is an

While at Michigan, Kimball also competed on the gymnastics team under Coach Newt Loken and won the national trampoline title.^[7] He won the Professional World Diving championship in 1963.^[2] He also finished as the runnerup at the World Acrobatic Diving Championships.

Comedy and acrobatic diving shows

In the early 1960s, Kimball toured with

He was the coach of the Michigan Wolverines diving team for 44 years from 1959 to 2002.^[10] Kimball's teams won seven Big Ten Conference championships and four NCAA championships.^[10] Four of Kimball's divers won Olympic gold medals: Bob Webster in 1960 and 1964, Micki King in 1972, Phil Boggs in 1976, and Mark Lenzi (1992).^[2] He also coached Dick Rydze to a silver medal in 1972 (Munich) and son Bruce Kimball to a silver medal in 1984 (Los Angeles). In addition he coached Ron Merriott and Chris Seufert to bronze medals in 1984 (Los Angeles). Many more divers were coached by Kimball to spots on the Olympic teams for The USA, England, Canada, Uruguay. Three others won individual NCAA championships: Matthew Chelich (1-meter in 1977; 3-meter in 1979); Ronald Merriott (3-meter in 1982), and Kent Ferguson (3-meter in 1984).^[11] The Wolverines also won two NCAA team diving championships under Kimball. He also coached three Big Ten Conference women's divers of the year: Diane Dudeck (1984), Mary Fishback (1988), and Carrie Zarse (1995).

Kimball was the first to put a spotting rig over a diving board. He developed many new dives, including many of the dives in today's optional list. He also developed the technique in spotting called "tipping". Over a very long career he has shared his techniques and ideas with anyone who wished to learn them.

Pioneer in training women at Michigan

In the years before Title IX, women were not permitted to compete in University of Michigan athletics, but Kimball circumvented the system in the 1960s to train two women, Micki King and Lani Loken (the daughter of U-M gymnastics coach Newt Loken), with the men's team. Kimball taught King and Loken to do a complete men's list off the women's tower. King recalled, “One of Coach Kimball's greatest lines was that he didn't coach men or women, he coached people. He taught me dives that no woman had ever done before. I pioneered those dives. Coach Kimball knew that we were a team of people.”^[12] King also recalled: "We used the women's pool at the CCRB. What was ironic was that the men were allowed to come into and use the women's pool but the women couldn't even come into the men's. What Kimball would do was sneak us through the back doors because the front door was right in front of the administrators. We used the spectator bathroom and used washcloths and the public sink as a shower. We thought we were lucky."^[12] King became the dominant woman diver in the United States under Kimball's coaching, winning ten national championships between 1965 and 1972. Kimball coached women divers at the University of Michigan free for 17 years before Title IX because he felt women deserved the same opportunities as men to dive in college.

Olympic team coach

In 1964, Kimball was named coach of the U.S. Olympic diving team after Texas coach Henry Chapman suffered a heart attack.^[13][14] As the games got underway, Kimball said: "We have the strongest 3-meter team ever assembled, and apparently the strongest 10-meter squad. The United States has dominated Olympic diving more than any other sport and we will not lose that dominance this time."^[15] Kimball's prediction proved correct as the US team (including Michigan's Bob Webster) won three gold medals and 8 of 12 medals awarded in diving at the 1964 Olympics. He was also the coach of the U.S. Olympic diving teams in 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1992.^[16] The U.S. team ended up boycotting the 1980 Games in Moscow, and the 1984 games in Los Angeles proved to be Kimball's proudest moment. The U.S. diving team again won 8 of 12 medals in diving at the 1984 Olympics, including two gold medals for Greg Louganis, a silver medal for Kimball's son, Bruce Kimball, and a bronze medal for Michigan diver, Ronald Merriott. In the 1988 Olympics diving competition, Louganis again won two gold medals, but the Chinese team collected six medals, one more than the U.S. team. The Chinese team won the medal count in the 1992 games as well, despite a gold medal for Kimball's pupil Mark Lenzi.

Retirement after 43 years as Michigan's coach

When Kimball retired in 2002, he was the last member of the U-M athletic staff who had been hired by athletic director

• In 1972, he received the "Mike Malone Memorial Award," given for outstanding contributions to diving by the national governing body of the sport, U.S. Diving.[2]
• He was named the NCAA Men's Diving Coach of the Year in 1984 and the Women's Diving Coach of the Year in 1988.
• He received the Fred Cady Memorial award following the 1972, 1976 and 1992 Summer Olympic games for his "sincere dedication in achieving the ultimate in coaching the sport of diving."^[2]
• Kimball was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1985.^[18]
• In 2000, Kimball received the University of Michigan's Bob Ufer Award. Since 1981, the Ufer Award has been presented each year to a Letterwinners "M" Club member in recognition for his or her outstanding service to the University of Michigan Athletic Program.^[19]
• He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1985, and in 2002 he was awarded the Paragon Award by the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
• In 1986, he became the first diving coach to receive the Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA).

Family

Kimball and his wife, Gail, have three children. Their son

• List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dick Kimball.

• Legendary M diving coach Kimball retiring^{[permanent dead link]}
• Diving area named for Kimball^{[permanent dead link]}