The years have robbed legendary Utah swim coach Don Reddish of eyesight — the numerous former swimmers who stopped to say hello to him at poolside needed to lean in for him to be able to recognize faces — but his mind remains a steel trap.
The Utes honored Reddish, who turns 94 next week, with a video tribute commemorating a career spanning more than four decades, prior to Saturday morning’s alumni meet at Ute Natatorium. Reddish couldn’t make out the images in the slideshow, but when they were relayed to him by a reporter, Reddish had stories upon stories about swimmers going back to his first team.
“I can’t recognize them, but the names — I remember all of them,” Reddish said. “We were a big family. They were more like family. I never did get married so I didn’t have any kids. They [the swimmers] were, I guess, you might say my kids. … It was something I loved to do. It never really was a job. I just enjoyed doing it.”
An estimated 200 swimmers from across the country as well as some who traveled internationally attended the event, which included several outings during the week leading to the Utes’ home meet against Stanford on Friday and the alumni meet on Saturday. The swim program’s director of operations Tami Johnson began coordinating the event last winter.
Current members of the Utes team also introduced themselves and thank Reddish for the work he’d done for the program.
Reddish, who resides in Holladay and continued swimming up until shoulder problems forced him out of the pool last winter, coached the men’s swimming and diving team from 1949-90 and won 17 conference titles while compiling a dual-meet record of 267-84-6 (.701).
Dating to his first team, he coached championship teams in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
For a time he also coached a club team of teenage swimmers during summers in order to raise money to help recruiting and bringing in out of state swimmers. Former swimmers from one of his original club teams stopped by to catch up with Reddish, and the coach remembered details of their interaction like it was yesterday.
Anders Bladh, who swam for the Utes from 1984-89, came from Sweden to be in Salt Lake City this week.
“I think I missed a couple of reunions, life, working, but this is a big part of my life and influenced me a lot in my life,” Bladh said. “I went back to Sweden coaching, teaching because it’s important, I think. I realized that this is where I became the person I am today.”
Since graduating, he has coached and taught back in Sweden, including at the junior national and national levels.
“He really cared about us guys,” said Bladh, who recalled Reddish coming Sweden to recruit him in a snowstorm. “We had a good program, but he cared about us guys, that made a big difference. That made us feel special. He’s a special coach.”
Reddish’s coaching career began by accident. Following a stint in the service during World War II, he had remaining college credits to finish. Then Utah athletic director Ike Armstrong called to offered a job in the athletic department finding jobs around campus for football players to earn money during in the era prior to scholarships.
Reddish took on the swim coach job as a fill-in basis for a year the coach at the time went on sabbatical. With the exception of two years when he served in the Korean War, he’s never left until he retired at the age of 68. After retiring, he served as an assistant athletic director for several more years.
“I came up for Don, but I do have season football tickets — I give those to my kids mostly,” said Brent Larsen, who swam for Reddish from 1969-73 and is now an attorney in Las Vegas. “ He’s a great coach, a great legend, records nobody could touch.”