When Stan Tinkham moved to 20th and H Street in Northwest Washington, local swimming was a much different scene. Kids swam almost exclusively at YMCA pools, and there were few organized swim teams or meets or leagues.
That was 1940.
Today, 5 a.m. practices and Saturday meets at the local pool are the norm for the thousands of swimmers in the area, many of whom would find themselves watching Saturday morning cartoons if not for the efforts of Tinkham.
Tinkham helped found the Montgomery County Swim League in 1959 just three years after he established himself as one of the best coaches in the world, leading the U.S. Olympic women’s swim team to the ’56 Games in Melbourne. Tinkham, 77, still coaches elite prep swimmers at Sea Devil Swimming, which boasts over 700 members at seven locations in the greater Washington region.
“Swimming in this area wouldn’t be what it is without Stan Tinkham,” an MCSL parent said in July, when Tinkham was one of 33 people inducted into the MCSL’s Hall of Fame.
Tinkham also helped found the Northern Virginia Aquatic Club, which after 21 years in operation, closed in the early 1990s. He also was a longtime coach of the Walter Reed Army Hospital civilian swim team, as well as the head coach of the military swim team from 1954 to 1958. Under Tinkham at the 1956 Olympics, the U.S. women won six medals.
“The most outstanding thing was the Olympics certainly,” Tinkham said. “It was beyond my dreams, it was really great.”
Tinkham’s road to the Olympics was a short one — he was only 24 when he was named as coach for the Melbourne Games. Tinkham, who learned how to swim in South Dakota prior to moving to the District, was an All-American swimmer in high school and at the University of North Carolina. He joined the Walter Reed swim team as a civilian coach in 1946, and from there, was selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee to coach the women’s Olympic squad. He said that he was selected because of the number of quality swimmers he had at Walter Reed.
“Out of 8 swimmers on the team I had 5 of them [from Walter Reed],” Tinkham explained. “The coach at that time didn’t have any swimmers of his own so he quit, and then they appointed me coach.”
More than the Games themselves, Tinkham remembers the practices leading up to the Olympics. His swimmers, including Shelley Mann, who led a U.S. women’s sweep of the 100-meter butterfly, were highly competitive and took to his difficult regimens with enthusiasm. Both with his Walter Reed team and his Olympic team, Tinkham focused on sprints in practice. Every swimmer practiced every stroke every day.
“We had everybody competing against everybody,” Tinkham recalled. “These were all-out sprints. I think that way the swimmers just enjoyed it more, and I think they just went with it.”
After the Olympics, Tinkham returned to the Walter Reed military team for two years, before becoming manager of the Connecticut Belair pool in Silver Spring. While at Connecticut Belair, he helped found MCSL, and after the end of the MCSL season in August, Tinkham started the Northern Virginia Aquatic Club in September of 1959.
“We won the national championships at Walter Reed, and quite frankly my goal was to bring the Northern Virginia Aquatic Club to that level,” Tinkham said.
He built a standard 25-yard indoor pool to house the team initially, and then added a second 60-foot-by-30-foot outdoor practice pool when the club grew. At its peak, the team had 350 swimmers, but a rusted roof eventually spelled doom for Tinkham’s team.
“After 21 years of operating, the roof, which was a steel roof, rusted, and it was $300-400,000 to put the new roof on, so at that point, we just had to give it up.”
The International Swimming Hall of Fame recognized Tinkham’s successes in 1989, inducting him into the Hall along with 14 other swimmers and coaches. He has kept a relatively low profile since then, especially after the demise of the Northern Virginia Aquatic Club.
Though he has coached at the highest levels of swimming, Tinkham said he still enjoys his daily sessions with Sea Devil Swimming.
“It is such a thrill,” Tinkham said. “I certainly have had a great time with it.”
“You gotta wanna” was the saying my sisters always remembered from swimming for him at NVAC in the 70′s. I was too young for his group at the time, but I know he is an outstanding coach and symbol of excellence for swimming in this area. It’s good to hear he is still going strong.
Great Story!
The first ever DC area Masters Meet (AAU) was held in the NVAC pool in May, 1972. I’m sure Stan had a hand in that. Some of his swimmers from the ’56 games swam for DC Masters in the mid 70′s. Glad and amazed to see he is still coaching.
Stan Tinkham is the most humble, caring, funny man I’ve ever known. He was my age group coach at NVAC. Fast forward many years I feel blessed enough to swim with him once a week with his Masters group.
Thank you for this beautiful story of a man who has changed countless lives for the better. He simply makes your day a better one.
It’s great to see that Stan is still teaching the joy of swimming to new generations. I swam for Stan at NVAC in the early 60′s and also worked for him as a lifeguard. The lessons I learned are still being put to use as a master’s swimmer nearly 50 years later.
I spent close to 6 years at NVAC swimming for Stan. I wonder if he still all the team trophies that lined the upper walls of the lobby. I can still see Stan pacing the sides of the pool with his black stick that resembled a bull whip. “Head high, chest high, elbows high”. Saturday morning practices out at Haines point. “Kick a mile, pull a mile, swim a mile” for warm ups, then onto the sprints.
My parents were visionaries and signed up at the NVAC right after it opened. My brothers and I took swim lessons from Stan’s staff and we used to see him there all the time fiddling around with the chlorine, pumps, and filters. I’m still swimming, thanks Stan! Too bad about the steel roof.
I was blessed to swim for Stan in 1961-62 at NVAC and fondly remember his very understated, almost formal style of motivation that clicked with me. Robyn Johnson was a veteran Pan Am swimmer I tried to emulate. When my family was transferred to Honolulu in ’62, I was a sophomore in high school and tried my best to find a way to stay with a swim family and keep my coach. Pretty sure I would have been a much better swimmer. As it was, I swam at USC and later did the Channel at 42.
Stan…you shaped my life and I will always be grateful!
Bill Dick
As I remember it, in 1956 at age nine I was taking swimming lessons on Saturday mornings at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pool along with the children of soldiers stationed in the area. One Saturday I found out that the US Womens’ Olympic Swimming Team was going to train in our pool after we finished our lessons! I was very excited. I found the coach and said to him: “Please, please, please can I be on the team?” It took him a long moment to response, but he told me to come back to the pool at 1:00. I ran out to the car where my Mother was waiting and told her to come back later because “I’m on the team. I’m on the team!” At one o’clock the team gathered at the pool. The coach, whom I have only just now figured out was Stan Tinkham, told us to line up in the water parallel to the edge of the pool about 6 feet out in the water. He then proceeded to pace back and forth along the edge of the pool while he talked about swimming for fifteen minutes. Now, the other girls all were considerably older than I was and, thus, were significantly taller. This meant that they were all able to touch the bottom of the pool and just stand while they listened. I, on the otherhand, could not reach the bottom of the pool due to my lack of height and was forced to dog paddle the whole time. By the time the coach stopped talking and was ready for us to start swimming I was so exhausted I could barely climb out of the pool let alone swim laps. Sadly, I was compelled to quit the team. I never really knew Stan Tinkham, but feel I can testify that he was wonderful with children and had a great sense of humor.
Marta Brennan – August 5, 2012 – Redondo Beach, California
What stories, memories of my time before Stan Tinkham, at Walter Reed Swim Team, and NVAC. By the time that the Olympic Girls got back from Australia and the ’56 Olympics, I had worked my way into the top work-out group, where I remember swimming with Shelley Mann, Wanda Werner, and all on Saturday morning work-outs…goose bumps. Rookie me even swam over the Oly Bkst champ, no lane lines nor lines on the 40 yd pool ceiling…2 lanes over and just stroking away. When WRSC shut down, I moved to Congressional Country Club, until NVAC opened, then moved back to Stan. It was there I met Suzi, Robyn, and Chris Johnson, with Suzi, and Robyn trying to make the ’60 Oly team.
At the time with Stan, I had not realized that he had done all of the swim development around the DC area. It is great that he is still demanding his swimmers to exceed their best, through competition. Yes, we had a lot of competition during those workouts, even the 1 mile butterfly, with a flutter kick, breathing every other stroke. The photo above reminds me of the “kick the wall back” drills…keep kicking while Stan keeps talking, then turn, push off, and sprint to the other end.
I’m glad I found this article on Stan, brought back lots of memories…now if I can track down Stan.
What a great article! My sister and I swam on a summer pool team, coached by Shelley Mann. She suggested we move to NVAC since she would not be coaching at our pool in the future. Even having learned from Shelley, Stan was quite unique. I remember the exercises beside the pool for what seemed like an hour ( to a 4th grader) before getting in the pool for the endless relays! Stan had a wonderful, kind and equal treatment toward each of us and though I certainly remember the pacing, i also remember his ability to stand for an amazingly long time on one leg with his other foot propped on his standing leg, what I now realize is a yoga pose! His cross training philosophy – jogging along the canal, crewing, and most especially the foreign water polo Olympian he brought in to train us seemed normal at the time but I now realize was quite progressive. I remember Suzi, Robyn and Chris Johnson, though they were older than I, as well as so many more wonderful people. We moved to Georgia in 1963, but those years and the wonderful team Stan developed created fond memories and long term habits. Thank you Stan.