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Allen Stack

Personal information
Full name	Allen McIntyre Stack
Nationality	United States
Stroke(s)	Backstroke
Club	U.S. Navy
College team	Columbia Law School
Date of birth	January 23, 1928(1928-01-23)
Place of birth	New Haven, Connecticut
Date of death	September 12, 1999 (aged 71)
Place of death	Honolulu, Hawaii
Medal record Competitor for the  United States Olympic Games Gold 1948 London 100 m backstroke Pan American Games Gold 1951 Buenos Aires 100 m backstroke Gold 1951 Buenos Aires 3x100 m medley

Allen McIntyre Stack (January 23, 1928 in New Haven, Connecticut – September 12, 1999 in Honolulu, Hawaii) was a U.S. backstroke swimmer, who won the 100 m backstroke at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. From 1948 to 1951, during and after his college days, Stack broke six world and 22 American records in the backstroke.

Stack was educated at Deerfield Academy before graduating from Yale University in 1949, spent 1951 to 1954 in the Navy and graduated from Columbia University Law School in 1956. He moved to Honolulu and practiced law there until 1998.

At six feet five inches and 215 pounds, Stack was bigger than most other backstrokers. His stroke was long, looping and seemingly effortless. He would put his arm in the water pull through like a normal backstroker, but as he brought the arm to his side he would bend it a little at the elbow and push with his hands toward his feet. Stack therefore revolutionized backstroke swimming.

In the 100 m backstroke, Stack also won the gold medal at the 1951 Pan American Games in Buenos Aires. He also won ten national championships. He entered the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1979.

In 1952, Stack tried to retain his Olympic title, but just before the event he fell off a motor scooter. Swimming with a bandaged hand, he finished fourth. After the 1952 Summer Olympics, he married Elizabeth Loy Marks of Honolulu.

His two Olympics were marked by startling moments. As a friend and former Yale swimmer, Everett MacLeman, recalled in The New York Times: "Seconds before the starting gun in the 1948 final, he was in the water and pulled up his trunks. The cord broke and the trunks started to slip off. He hollered to the starter, who let him get out of the water and into new trunks that stayed up, and he became Yale's first-ever Olympic gold medal swimmer."

Stack had suffered from bone cancer for more than a year, before he died in 1999. The illness prevented him from attending the 100th anniversary of Yale swimming.

References

• Obituary in The New York Times, on Sunday, September 19, 1999
• sports-reference