James Edward "Doc" Counsilman (December 28, 1920 in Birmingham, Alabama – January 4, 2004 in Bloomington, Indiana) was a swimming coach for Indiana University and the United States Olympic team.
At Indiana, he coached the men's team to six consecutive NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships from 1968 to 1973. At the 1964 and 1976 Summer Olympics, his swimmers won 21 of 24 gold medals. In 1979, he became the oldest person to swim the English Channel.
Considered one of the greatest coaches of all time Doc Counsilman was known as one of the greatest coaches of all time. This was not all he was though. He asked from his swimmers one simple thing: to work harder for him than they had ever worked before. In return the swimmers became not only some of the best in the world, they also received a friend and a place in a tight knit community of happiness.
Since he started his coaching he has been an innovator in many ways. He was the pioneer of underwater filming, and even watching swimmers underwater, as can be seen in Royer Pool at Iniana University today. Many of today's machines for swimming training were at least partly due to Doc's genius.
Counsilman died in Bloomington, Indiana in 2004, after many years of suffering the torments of Parkinson's disease. He was recognized worldwide as one of the great coaches in swimming history and also as the pre-eminent visionary in the history of swimming.
Swimmers who swam for Counsilman were greats like Mark Spitz, Jim Montgomery, Gary Hall, John Kinsella, Mike Troy, Charles Hickcox, Tom Hickcox, Don McKenzie, Chet Jastremski, Tom Stock, George Breen, Mike Stamm, Alan Somers, Ted Stickles, Larry Schulhof, John Murphy, Bill Heiss, Fred Tyler, Pat McCormick, and John Waldman.
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