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The
last time Bill Diaz stood poolside and coached a University of Miami
swimming team was in 1985. It was a job he did for 15 years, building the
school’s program into a powerhouse before he retired.
“I
miss the competition,” he said in a recent interview. “The competition
was great. It was exciting. And all the years I was in swimming, I’ll
never forget it.” Diaz,
a UM Hall of Fame member, came to Miami in 1950 on the trail of his
girlfriend’s parents, who had migrated from New York. Diaz, a World War
II veteran who flew 20 combat missions as a gunner in a B-29, had just
graduated from New York University with an education degree and planned to
teach physical education. To his dismay, he found nothing open in the Dade
County School System. “School
started in September and I came here in January,” he recalled. “So, I
really had to get a job. I had become a lifeguard, so I figured I’d get
a job at a pool somewhere. I went to every hotel on the beach and I ended
up in Bay Harbour Islands at the community pool. I got a job there and
they put me in charge of the pool, the cabanas, the swimming lessons,
everything.” And
that interim job launched a legendary career that ultimately allowed Diaz
to coach literally dozens of high school and college All-American
swimmers, coach and manage five USA swimming teams and assemble some of
the strongest swimming teams ever. As
Diaz recalls, he was able to “get his foot in the door” of the county
school system by coaching at the new Redlands summer camp later that year
and then land a physical education teaching position at Fairlawn
Elementary. In
1953, he was assigned to Miami Jackson High School as physical education
teacher, where Athletic Director Roy French, another legend in Dade high
school athletics, convinced him to take over the school’s swimming team.
“Four
years later, we won the state championship,” he recalled. “And, then
we won it four years in a row and I don’t think anybody has done that
since.” Miami
Springs Senior High School opened in 1963 and Diaz jumped at the
opportunity to go to the new school in that booming area of town and build
a new swimming dynasty from the ground up. He added four more state titles
to his growing legend while coaching at Miami Springs. “When
I went to Miami Springs High, all the swimmers at Jackson transferred to
Miami Springs,” Diaz said. “My first year there, we won the Class A
championship for men and women and the following year we won the AA. We
had a great women’s teams there.” Diaz,
a five-time Dade County High School Coach of the Year, fondly recalls the
names of some of the swimmers on his teams, names like Bubba Tongay; Wendy
Fordyce; Louis Janos, who held the high school world record in the 50-yard
freestyle, and Penny Estes, who at age 14 won the national AAU
championship in the 200-meter freestyle. “So,
I had a lot of success with these young kids,” he said with obvious
pride. “At one time, I had five guys go to West Point on scholarships
and I had 52 high school All Americas on my swim teams.” In
1970, UM Athletic Director Charlie Tate called and asked Diaz to come and
resuscitate a struggling swimming program at the University of Miami. “I
told him I would, but he had to give me some scholarships and I wanted to
build a positive program,” Diaz remembers. “I had a good bunch of kids
at Miami Springs and I didn’t want to go to the UM unless they were
going to support the program.” Tate
promised to back the swimming team, gave Diaz an allotment of 17
scholarships to work with and the seeds of the UM swimming dynasty were
sown. “So,
I went to the University of Miami and I said to myself, ‘These are very
poor swimmers on the team,’ Diaz recalls. “But, we did have two guys
— one was Lee Hunter, he was the captain, and Doug Hartman. Both of
those guys stuck with me and we went on from there. Then I recruited this
guy John Spire out of Ransom High School, and Kenny Gross, young kids that
nobody ever heard of, but real good swimmers.” That
was the beginning. At first, Diaz couldn’t convince blue-chip swimmers
in the United States to come to the UM, so he recruited overseas and from
unrecognized swimming clubs. He went to South Africa and found several
quality swimmers, including Tyrone Tozer. He found others at the
Philadelphia Aquatic Club and then landed David Wilkie, the Scottish
silver medal winner from Great Britain’s Olympic team. “He
was from Aberdeen, Scotland and I flew him here,” Diaz recalled. “He
liked the warm weather and a blue chip swimmer finally came to Miami. In
1976, he won the NCAA title in the 100-meter breast stroke and was a
world-record holder.” In
1971, Diaz chalked up another honor by initiating a women’s swim team at
the University of Miami and making the UM the first college in the United
States to award a swimming scholarship to a woman. He then won successive
national collegiate women’s championships in 1976 and 1977. Deciding
that the UM needed a diving program, Diaz brought in former Olympic diver
Tom Gomph to set it up and coach the team. They recruited some top
collegiate talent — such as Greg Garlick, Lenny Layland and Greg
Louganis — and the team began scoring points in the NCAA. The UM became
recognized as having one of the top collegiate diving programs in the
country. As
the University of Miami began to gain recognition, Diaz began attracting
top U.S. talent, swimmers like Matt Gribble and Jesse Vassallo, both NCAA
champions, world record holders and members of the 1982 and 1986 Olympic
teams. Swimmers from South Africa, Great Britain, Columbia and Brazil
began to beat a path to the UM door. In all, Diaz coached 55 collegiate
All Americans in the course of his 15 years at the UM. Today,
Diaz lives with his wife, Martha, in their Palmetto Bay home, travels
often and works in the travel industry with VIP Travel of Coconut Grove, a
division of American Express. He doesn’t go to many swim meets, but
remains active with the University of Miami, working with the UM Hall of
Fame, it’s golf tournament and banquet. “It’s
been a success story for me to be part of swimming all the way from high
school to the collegiate ranks,” Diaz said. “I enjoyed it.”
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