Quote of the Day

The greatest justice in life is that

your vision and looks tend

to go simultaneously.

Kevin Norwood Bacon

Quote of the Day

I've always said that money corrupts,

whether it's men's or women's athletics.

Dr. Donna Lopiano

Spinning Out of Control

In addition to being an expert on Title IX, Erin Buzuvis is also a top-notch "spinner".  Read more here.

The law definitely struggles with an image problem, because when universities do have to cap or curtail men's opportunities, there's this sort of easy story that, "Well, it’s because of Title IX that we had to do this." While I believe that is a misleading statement, it is a story that gets told.

Enlighten us then, Erin. Why, when budget cuts are made, do men's sports like wrestling, gymnastics, swimming, track, etc. take the hits?

Hall to Hall

Sprinter Gary Hall Jr. will be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in July.  Hall swam briefly for the Longhorns (1994).

Jenny Thompson is also a member of the HOF Class of 2012.  Six years ago, Thompson showed her support for New Hampshire's dumped men's swim program by refusing an award.  Catch up here.

Read the press release with all inductees here.

Quote of the Day

Ah, summer, what power you have

to make us suffer and like it.

Russell Wayne Baker

Quote of the Day

Patriotism is supporting your country all the

time, and your government when it deserves it.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain

Coach Button

Leon's first head coaching gig.  Looks to be a busy summer with coaching, training for triathlon, and - of course - fishin'!

Quote of the Day

When I was a boy I was told that

anybody could become president.

Now I'm beginning to believe it.

Clarence Seward Darrow

Quote of the Day

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in

the memory as the wish to forget it.

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

We can't rewind, we've gone too far...

Quote of the Day

If I create from the heart,

nearly everything works;

if from the head,

almost nothing.

Marc Chagall

Lift Regulations Update

The feds are backtracking on pool lift regulations.  Read more here.

On Thursday, acting just ahead of the Memorial Day weekend that marks the traditional opening of many outdoor pools, the department went a step further and said the rules apply chiefly to future pools. Existing pools will only need to comply if it’s easy to do so.

“Readily achievable means that it is easily accomplishable without much difficulty or expense,” the department said. “This is a flexible, case-by-case analysis, with the goal of ensuring that ADA requirements are not unduly burdensome, including to small businesses.”

So, we've got some gray area...just what the government needs to hire on a few thousand more bureacrats...

Opportunities?

As the conference shuffling among NCAA schools continues, shouldn't the discussion go beyond football and basketball?

For example, UTA will become a member of the Sun Belt Conference.  Read more here.

They've had a swim program in the past.  They still have the facility.  The Metroplex produces outstanding high school swimmers.  Wouldn't it make sense to revive the sport in Arlington?

UTSA will join Conference USA.  Read more here.  The San Antonio/Austin area has plenty of swimming talent to help the Roadrunners become competitive right away.

Maybe TISCA & TSA can get together and lobby these universities on behalf of their athletes.  Finding more in-state opportunities for our swimmers is important, isn't it?

Quote of the Day

There's always some kind of blacklist

throughout history.  But the difference

is, in America they usually let you live.

Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn, Jr.

Quote of the Day

Life is pleasant.  Death is peaceful.

It's the transition that's troublesome.

Isaak Yudovich Ozimov, a.k.a. Issac Asimov

Quote of the Day

Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant

as a young man who has just discovered

an old idea and thinks it is his own.

Sydney J. Harris

Quote of the Day

If there's anything unsettling to the stomach,

it's watching actors on television

talk about their personal lives.

Marlon Brando, Jr.

Quote of the Day

There is no monument dedicated

to the memory of a committee.

Dr. Lester J. Pourciau

Quote of the Day

I despise the pleasure of pleasing

people that I despise.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Quote of the Day

I don't care if I'm beautiful;  I

don't care what I am on the outside.

It isn't about the outside.

LaDonna Adrian Gaines, a.k.a. Donna Summer

Quote of the Day

Writing is the only profession where

no one considers you ridiculous

if you earn no money.

Pierre-Jules Renard

Quote of the Day

Every crowd has a silver lining.

Phineas Taylor "P.T." Barnum

Quote of the Day

He was a self-made man who owed

his lack of success to nobody.

Joseph Heller

First is the Worst

Second is the best.  Third is the one with the hairy chest.  Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Back to the title of the post.

In an attempt to "scoop" the swimming media, Braden Keith took a job posting and created a headline that makes him front-runner for Jackass of the Year honors.

He has since changed "Assistant Coach Jim Henry Out at Texas" to "Jim Henry in Open Competition for Texas Assistant Job".

Keith owes Jim an apology, but don't hold your breath waiting on that...

Quote of the Day

Life can only be understood backwards;

but it must be lived forwards.

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard

Low Self-Esteem

C'mon and Swim

One of our swim parents put together a season highlight slide show/video and used this tune for part of it:

Thanks, SS!
Maybe Bobby can use this at camp...

Quote of the Day

Perhaps one has to be very old before one

learns to be amused rather than shocked.

Robert Browning

Quote of the Day

Everybody for fifty years has tried to get us to be

a bigger company...and I always like to remain

small, so that I feel like I'm a part of it every day.

Carroll Hall Shelby

Quote of the Day

It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.

Eric Hoffer

40th Anniversary: An Opposing Viewpoint

No, not the Rangers' 40th anniversary.  Remember Title IX?

While most recent pieces on Title IX have touted progress for women in athletics, few have mentioned the decline in men's sports.

Doug Robinson points out the unintended consequences of proportionality here.

Universities have been running scared ever since and become remarkably creative in the process. They've scrambled to even up the numbers because a) football has 100 or so players on the roster and there isn't a women's football team, and b) there isn't as much interest in athletics among females.

Hundreds of men's programs have been cut to even the percentages of women vs. men in participation. According to one report, between 1981 and 1999, universities eliminated 171 men's wrestling teams, 84 men's tennis teams, 56 men's gymnastics teams, 27 men's track teams and 25 men's swimming teams. For every female athlete gained, 3.6 men were lost.

Ready for the more frightening news?  Radicals spouting off on Title IX continue to tell the world "We still have a long way to go!"

I guess they won't be happy until they've wiped out a few hundred more men's programs...

Quote of the Day

I had the right to remain silent...

but I didn't have the ability.

Ronald "Ron" White

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Seeing Stars/Hearing Birds?

If it happens on a backstroke finish, subtract one (1) from your stroke count.

If it happens thirty (30) times a season on the foosball field, find another sport.

Chin-cinatti Bengal lineman Jacob "Quit Ringin' My Danged" Bell is hanging up his jockstrap over concussion concerns.  Read more about the former Ram here.

"If you're telling me 'I'm seeing stars' is some sort of concussion, then you're getting a couple a week. You're going to get a minimum 30 concussions in a season. That just gives you a ballpark figure of what people are truly dealing with."

Parent Letter

Many of you have already seen this.  In case you haven't, it's a letter from St. Louis Cardinal manager Mike Matheny to his Little League parents.  Read it here.

Closes with this:

I know that right now you are asking yourself if this is what you want to get yourself into and I understand that for some of you it may not be the right fit. I also think that there is a great opportunity for these boys to grow together and learn some lessons that will go beyond their baseball experience. Let me know as soon as possible whether or not this is a commitment that you and your son want to make.

Thanks,

Mike Matheny

Thanks, DJA!

Quote of the Day

The thing that doesn't fit is the
thing that's the most interesting.



Richard Phillips Feynman

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Quote of the Day

If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon
find yourself without it. Your life will be
impoverished. But if you invest in beauty,
it will remain with you all the days of your life.



Frank Lloyd Wright

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Can you explain this?

How did this guy get into the Rock-n-Roll HOF...



...and these guys didn't?

Quote of the Day

Though analogy is often misleading, it
is the least misleading thing we have.



Samuel Butler

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Seen This?

I got caught in the middle of one of these nerd sword fights down on the drag one day while sitting in traffic.  This one ends a little differently than the one I witnessed:




The student, Nick, is fine and was released from the hospital around 3:45PM the same day, May 4th, 2012. I also feel the need to clarify the situation to those unfamiliar with the roads around UT campus. This sword fight took place on Guadalupe St just in front of the Co-op. The "crosswalk", is understood to be the entire area in between the two lights.

Troll comment of the day: "The 4th is strong with this one"


Didn't quite stop in the nick of time...

Thanks, BB!

More Bad News

Sorry fans, but there's some downright miserable news out there.

We'll start off with a little Title IX piece.  UCLA celebrates the fourtieth anniversary:



 No mention of their dumping men's swimming, though.


On the subject of dumped men's programs, here's Cal Benz on Nebraska's men's swimming rules violations:



  Read an old article here.


Ready for a positive story on men's college swimming?  You won't find one here.

Butler is dealing with Title IX issues. Read more here. Don't worry about men's swimming being on the chopping block up there, though. They dumped men's swimming long ago.

Men's swimming was dropped at Rutgers a few years ago. Doesn't look like it saved them a whole lot of money, though. The university soaks students for a grand each year to prop up their bloated athletic department. Read more here.

Take your pick on which is the most damning statement about the Rutgers athletic department, based on a report by Bloomberg News this week examining spending in big-time sports:

a) Rutgers gave $28.5-million from the university budget and student fees, or almost $1,000 per student, to finance sports during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011.

b) The $19.4-million that Rutgers allocated to athletics from its general budget would have been enough to hire about 256 assistant professors or 132 full professors, based on salary figures provided by the university.

c) Fiscal 2011 included the first losing football season in six years. Ticket sales for all sports, led by football, plunged by $3.1-million; donations fell $1.5-million; and income from royalties and licensing declined $477,558.

How about d) all of the above ?

Looking for an escaped from all the bad news?  They say this new movie's pretty danged good:

Rules Notification

Just in case you didn't get the email:


To: USA Swimming Officials, Coaches, General Chairs, LSC Officials Chairs

From: Dan McAllen III, Chair, Rules & Regulations Committee

Subj: NOTICE re: Rule 102.24.4D Adjustment for Timing System Difference

Due to technical difficulties, the Rules & Regulations Committee is postponing the effective date of Rule 102.24.4D until further notice. Those who may have downloaded the update to Hy-tek Meet Manager 4.0 sent out on April 30, 2012 should revert to their previous version of Meet Manager.

Quote of the Day

The key to ultimate success is the
determination to progress day by day.



Edmar John Mednis

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Quote of the Day

Get your facts first, then you
can distort them as you please.



Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain

Follow @texasswimblog

Quote of the Day

I do have a political agenda. It's to
have as few regulations as possible.



James Danforth "Dan" Quayle

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Title IX for Dummies!

Sure wish they'd write that one!

The avalanche of Title IX 40th Birthday articles is upon us.  What few will contain is the truth about how screwed up this well-intentioned law has become.

Proportionality has DIRECTLY resulted in the elimination of thousands of athletic opportunities for young men.  Whether it was roster caps or the outright cutting of entire programs, proportionality has destroyed coaching and athletic careers across the nation.

College Swimming has posted a list of men's swimming programs dropped in the past few decades here.


Thanks for the heads up, HN!

Quote of the Day

Most of the energy of political work is
devoted to correcting the effects of
mismanagement of government.



Milton Friedman

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Quote of the Day

Making the simple complicated is commonplace;
making the complicated simple,
awesomely simple, that’s creativity.



Charles Mingus, Jr.

Loss Shocks Swimming World

Absolutely stunning news out of Arizona.

Norway's 100 breaststoke World Champion, Alex Dale Oen is dead.  Read more here.

Thanks for the heads up, SJB.

NCAA taking first step...

...toward cracking down on athlete/coach romances. Read more here.

“Sexual relationships between coaches and student-athletes have become a serious problem,” declares the opening line of a new publication the National Collegiate Athletic Association is distributing to all its member institutions, urging athletic departments to create policies that “unambiguously and effectively” prohibit such relationships.

Of course, these relationships create conflicts of interest. But the issues run deeper than that, argue authors Deborah L. Brake, a University of Pittsburgh law professor, and Mariah Burton Nelson, executive director for the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation.

The authors state that such relationships do not necessarily constitute sexual harassment, which is unwanted. Rather, they are a form of sexual abuse (though not necessarily criminal assault) because the employee holds a position of power over the athlete – rendering an athlete’s consent, stated or unstated, illegitimate. “The public understands that children can be manipulated into ‘agreeing’ to behaviors that are inappropriate and even criminal because they are, relative to adults, powerless,” the document reads. “Whether the student-athlete is 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, or older, she or he is significantly less powerful than a head coach, assistant coach, athletics trainer, sport psychologist, athletics director, or other athletics department staff with supervisory control or authority over student-athletes.”

Quote of the Day

Up to now, American has not been a good milieu
for the rise of a mass movement. What starts
out here as a mass movement ends up as
a racket, a cult, or a corporation.



Eric Hoffer

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