PHOTO BY JOHN FRYMAN / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
WORLD RECORD ANNIVERSARY … Sixty years ago, six Bryan swimmers established a new world record in 1966 for the continuous swimming relay, and on Sunday, July 12, the City of Bryan proclaimed it as World Record Continuous Swimming Relay Anniversary Day at Moore Park Pool. Taking part, from left, were relay members Mark Kelly, Paul Gotshall and Terry Kuehne, and Jodi Irving, who represented her late uncle Bill Hoffman, who also took part. Two other relay members, Kent Cotter and Ken Engstrom, were unable to attend.
By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
It was sixty years ago when six Bryan Swimming Team members, Mark Kelly, Paul Gotshall, Terry Kuehne, Bill Hoffman, Kent Cotter and Ken Engstrom, attracted attention in establishing a new world record at the Moore Park Pool.
Kelly, Gotshall and Kuehne were honored along with Jodi Irving, who represented her uncle, the late Bill Hoffman, with a proclamation by Bryan Mayor Carrie Schlade declaring it as World Record Continuous Swimming Relay Anniversary Day in a ceremony prior to the conclusion of the Greater Northwest Ohio Aquatic Conference Meet held on Sunday, July 12, at Moore Park Pool.
Cotter, who resides in California, and Engstrom, who resides in Arkansas, were unable to attend the ceremony. Kuehne resides in Bryan.
Gotshall, who currently resides in Wichita Falls, Texas, had read an article in the “Swimming World” magazine regarding a record for the number of laps set by relay swimming.
“We came up with the idea that I actually read it in the Swimming World magazine about 1,000 swimmers swam 100 miles in a couple of days by a relay race,” Gotshall said.
“I said that I think we can beat that. I got with Bruce Coleman, our swim coach, and we picked out six guys and put a team together.”
With the support of parents and the Moore Park pool management, and after obtaining the okay to forgo the curfew regulations, they figured out the required number of laps each would have to swim in order to reach the record of 117 miles.
“They were doing it a lot that summer and two or three years in the 1960s, were doing all of these marathon swims,” said Mark Kelly, who currently resides in Tampa, Florida.
The record-setting effort began on Sunday, August 7, 1966, when they embarked on a 70-hour, 36 minute and 43 second endurance test covering 120.01 miles before finally ending on Wednesday, August 10, 1966.
They had broken a previous world record of 117 miles set in May 1965 by a group of 1,763 swimmers.
Gotshall and Kelly each swam 1,440 laps, followed by Engstrom with 1,420 laps, Cotter with 1,410 laps, Kuehne with 1,320 laps and Hoffman with 682 laps.
Kelly mentioned there was an official timekeeper and official lap counter and had it all notarized and submitted it to Swimming World magazine, where they got their picture with their record and were proud of that.
It started out with six swimmers, but Hoffman had suffered a shoulder injury, and Kuehne then got the chills, and it ended up with four swimmers completing the record-setting effort.
“We ended up swimming from 20 laps each to 30 laps to give us a break time in between,” Gotshall said.
The weather also became a factor according to Gotshall, where the temperatures went down to the low 50s on two nights and it was also rainy, but fortunately they didn’t have any thunder or lightning to deal with.
“What was neat was in the middle of the night during those cold dreary nights, people were walking over here from the houses around here just to check on us,” said Gotshall. “They would bring us hot chocolate, and it was a whole community deal.”
The entire Bryan community also came together and supported the record-setting relay team.
“We had corporate sponsorship from ARO Corporation, which had a big computer at the time, and they put together all the data, the meters and figured how far we had to swim and how many laps,” Gotshall commented.
“Lester’s Diner brought us food, and A&P Market gave us pretty much an open shopping cart to go get what we wanted, and it was great.”
The event also drew lots of media attention, including WBNO Radio of Bryan, WANE-TV of Fort Wayne, and the late J.P. McCarthy, morning host of WJR Radio in Detroit, who reported it.
Gotshall, who would eventually jump into the pool with the younger swimmers following the proclamation ceremony for a couple of laps, said the record-setting achievement meant a lot back then.
“I hope the kids today can just see that you set a goal, and you can reach it,” he said. “It’s a memory that I had for sixty years.”
