Reprinted with Permission from U.S. Masters Swimming

Bruce Wigo (on the right) and Prince Albert of Monaco viewing historical exhibits at the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Photo: Ivonne Schmid 14 /// usms.org History’s KeeperBy ElaInE K. HowlEy Masters swimmer and International Swim- ming Hall of Fame CEO Bruce Wigo has become the oracle of swimming history and a staunch advocate of water safety. hen we try to pick “I was very nervous. I’m up out anything by there thinking, ‘Geez. What do itself, we find it I do?’” he smiles bashfully. “Whitched to everything else in the Although Wigo may have Universe.”— John Muir been tentative about his recent Just as all water is connected, return to Masters competition, so is all history. Streams of past there’s zero hesitation in his voice endeavors and future genera- when he talks about the mission tions merge and diverge, be- of the International Swimming coming tributaries of the racing Hall of Fame, the organization waters of human history. At the he’s helmed since 2005. source of these streams running “Studies show that every- through the history of aquatics body should be swimming, and stands Bruce Wigo. that’s the mission of the Hall Tall and fit, with a thick of Fame—to inspire people to shock of sandy, gray hair, the swim. For all the reasons: health, 62-year-old Wigo cuts a hand- recreation, the 20 million things some figure as he strides across you can do from snorkeling, the pool deck for the start of his surfing and sailboarding that get 50-meter freestyle event during you out and active instead of sit- the 3rd Annual Rowdy Gaines ting on the couch,” he says. “I’m Masters Classic meet held last afraid that we’ve become a na- October in Orlando, Fla. tion of spectators and beer guz- This splash and dash is Wigo’s zlers instead of participants. And first race since 2009. A swimmer the one thing that everybody with the Blu Frog Team in Flori- should do is swim.” da and CEO of the International But it’s not really us Masters Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort swimmers he’s trying to reach; Lauderdale, Wigo recently un- we are already the converted, derwent extensive arthroscopic and ISHOF has been recognizing surgery and rehabilitation on Masters swimmers since 2003. his shoulder. Though a seasoned “More for their healthy swimmer and accomplished busi- lifestyles, not so much for their nessman, Wigo admits to feeling times,” Wigo explains. “You look the pressure of this return to at the people we recognize in the competition after more than two Masters Hall of Fame, and good- years away. ness! These people don’t look j a n u a r y - f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 2 /// 15 like the average American. These equate access to places to take the Early Entry Water Polo. In 1991, the organi- people are fit, in shape and have a plunge—to start swimming. Wigo’s passion for the water zation was struggling with finan- zillion friends. That’s what Mas- “We can inspire competitive and what it can do for people cial and management issues and ters is about.” swimmers to be better swim- stems from being an active partic- hired Wigo to help turn things But for the rest of the country, mers by telling them the stories ipant in aquatics for most of his around, a stint that was sup- Wigo sees a real urgency in en- of the great swimmers, but life. “I’m glad to be a swimmer. I posed to last about six months couraging would-be recreational what we really want to do is don’t know what I would do if I but ended up as his career for the swimmers—and an even greater inspire everybody to swim be- weren’t a swimmer,” he says. next 13 years. need to reach children in minority cause you live longer, you live Wigo started swimming at the During his tenure, member- groups, who often don’t have ad- healthier and happier.” Germantown, Pa., YMCA when ship grew from 7,000 to 30,000, Bruce Wigo and his family at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga., where he was five. His family also sum- through the introduction of better eldest son Wolf Wigo (rear, center) played for the USA water polo team. mered at the Jersey Shore, so be- benefits and services to member- ing competent in the water was a ship. “We had to make it about safety issue. “Swimming was just more than just joining to play. We a part of our life,” he says. had more events, better publica- In his teens, Wigo lifeguarded tions and educational materials, in Ocean City, N.J., alongside so that there would be a reason some of the greats such as Sid for people to join.” Cassidy and John B. Kelley. Wigo Wigo’s credentials for getting says he wasn’t a great swimmer the job with USA Water Polo lay when he was young—though in his own background in the he was named a high school sport and his children’s interest, All-American and swam for the as well as a law degree from Wid- University of North Carolina ener University in Chester, Pa. “I at Chapel Hill. He also was an had volunteered to be the head of accomplished diver and an avid the Northeast region as the zone water polo player. chairman—I was a water polo Wigo first came to promi- dad and was involved because my nence on the administrative side kids were in the sport.” CTS-USMS-halfpagead2-2011-July.pdf 1 7/11/11 12:46 PM of aquatic sports during his ten- Wigo’s eldest son, Wolf, is a ure as executive director of USA three-time Olympic water polo For over 35 years, Colorado Time Systems has provided premier facilities across the world with platinum quality aquatic timing, scoring and display systems. Some of which include: C Auburn University* Grosse Pointe South High School M Kino Aquatic Center in Mesa, Arizona* GW Henderson Sr, Aquatic Center Sarasota YMCA University of North Carolina Y University of California, San Diego University of Notre Dame CM University of Alaska Fairbanks The Ohio State University Campbell County School Aquatic Center Princeton University MY Cleveland State University University of Minnesota CY Clovis West High School Mira Costa High School Clovis North High School University of Missouri - Columbia CMY Georgetown University South Lyon East High School K University of Georgia University of Maryland Woollett Aquatic Center, Irvine San Diego State University University of Kentucky Colorado Time Systems is proud to partner with American Swimming Coaches Association, USA Diving, USA Synchro, USA Water Polo and now as the Ocial Timing Equipment of: 800-279-0111 www.coloradotime.com * U.S. Masters Swimming national championship event venues. 16 /// usms.org player. Wigo’s two youngest “I’d look at old magazines nette Kellerman, an early pioneer racially integrated way, gender- children—twins Drac and Jan- from the 1800s, and was just who dared sew leggings onto a mixed facilities became strictly son—followed Wolf to Stanford, fascinated about what I didn’t man’s bathing suit in an effort to segregated out of fear and hate. and all three were named All- know about the history of adhere to the letter of the law of Wigo writes, “Once whites redis- Americans all four years, “which swimming,” he says. women’s swimming attire—which covered swimming, the thought I guess must be some kind of a That interest continues to required a woman to cover her of black men interacting with record,” he shrugs. grow, and fits well with a major legs—while still achieving some white women (and vice versa) on Wigo’s daughter, Lauren, also initiative at ISHOF: to catalog the level of functionality in her swim- a beach—where erotic voyeur- played water polo, but did not history of aquatic sports. wear. For her audacity, the antipo- ism and physical contact were continue as far into the sport as Wigo has taken that directive dean sex goddess and swimming possible—stirred up the murky her brothers because of a lack of to heart with the recent comple- queen was arrested on Revere waters of sexuality and popular scholarships available to female tion of a large-format pictorial Beach near Boston in 1908. prejudices resulting in the radi- players, Wigo says. Perhaps not history book, “The Golden Age Wigo’s book is a treasure cal segregation of swimming in coincidentally, in his role at USA of Swimming.” In his book, chest of old-time photographs, America, and, for most African Water Polo, Wigo was instrumen- Wigo presents some potentially newspaper clippings, artifacts and Americans, the loss of their rich tal in having women’s water polo controversial facts about swim- postcards presenting the story of aquatic cultural heritage as swim- added as an Olympic sport. ming’s role in everything from swimming in all its many permu- mers.” Segregated swimming the fall of the Roman Empire to tations. With this work, Wigo is facilities were just another addi- An Aquatic Anthropologist the civil rights movement, even attempting to preserve the legacy tion to the list of grievances that Wigo’s interest in the his- women’s suffrage. of swimming as a cultural force, blossomed into the civil rights tory of swimming and the “The first right women won not just a sport. And he’s not just movement by the 1960s. people who have shaped it in the U.S.

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