New pool spawned more wins in 1955

The coming weeks will be devoted to one of this city’s sport’s heroes, coaching legend Benner T. Cummings. Here is the second installation. — M. M. Athey & The Ritzville Swim Club­

Part Three: The Summer of 1955

A new swimming pool, wading pool and bathhouse were constructed by the City of Ritzville, the Lions Club and the Jaycees for $40,000. Half of that cost was the 4,000 hours of in-kind-services provided by the volunteer labor of most of the local citizens.

The process included tearing down the old bathhouse and building a wading pool where it stood. The shell of the old pool was extended to a full 50 yards and deepened at the west end to 10 feet where new diving boards were placed. A new bathhouse and containment area for water pumps, filters, chlorinators and heaters were constructed along the north side.

The project chairman was Eddie Kiehn. The community now had one of the finest aquatic amenities of any small town in the country.

The men of the Ritzville Swim Club were elated with their new facilities. It meant that we now had the ability to accelerate our swimming and diving prowess to new heights. We still had only 10-12 weeks of training time each summer but the new pool length and depth significantly leveled the playing field against our big city competition.

I confess that some of us were saddened to see the old bathhouse fade into our memories. The bathhouse rafters were where several of Ritzville’s male youth got their first real look at a mature naked female body, one that did not belong to our sister. A highly secret entrance into the rafters of the men’s side could place you in a position to look over the dressing room dividing wall into the women’s side. Unless you were not blessed with stealth qualities, you could enjoy the view undetected. The penalty for getting caught was a one-week dismissal of swimming privileges. A second offense incurred the severe penalty of permanent disbarment for the remainder of the swimming season. I recall one relentless young spy missing most of three consecutive swimming seasons.

The pool was originally scheduled to open on Sunday, June 13, but equipment delivery delays cost the Ritzville swimming community another month before it finally opened on July 10, 1955, to over 400 anxious and excited swimmers. Season ticket prices were $2 for children 11 and under and $3 for 12 and older. Daily admission was 25 cents for 11 and under and 50 cents for 12 and older.

Coach Cummings commented on the new facilities and what they meant to the swim club, “They may still have more time to train but we now have an environment that is equal to theirs.” He followed with the excitement of a man that had just won the Olympic gold medal, “Plus...we have one more advantage...we have heart!”

From my point of view, we not only had heart, we had Benner T. Cummings.

The delay of the pool opening had put a significant wrench in the training schedule of the Ritzville Swim Club. However, Benner was a very resourceful man. He made arrangements with the Lind swimming pool for some training time there during the four-week-hiatus. The team also spent time at Williams Lake. Training conditions were not at all ideal but we trudged through them, anxious for our first meet of the year, the Pasco Water Follies.

With only three days of workouts in the new pool, the small swim squad of Gordon Gering, Arnie Moeller, Vern Kiehn, Tim Kiehn and coach Cummings competed against a field of 14 other teams on Sunday, July 17. Because of harvest and baseball playoffs, the team was without Sonny Allert, Grayson Hand and Danny Schwisow.

Vern Kiehn placed third in the 100-meter butterfly, Tim Kiehn took third in the 400-meter freestyle and the 400-meter freestyle relay team of both Kiehns, Gering and Cummings took fifth among eight finalists. It was apparent that the Ritzville club was still a couple of weeks from peak conditioning.

Two weeks later Benner’s boys including Hand, Gering, Al Vermeer, Vern Kiehn and Tim Kiehn won seven trophies at the AAU meet at Spokane’s Comstock pool. Then, just one week later, the Ritzville Swim Team journeyed again to Spokane to compete against 200 competitors in the Inland Empire Junior Olympics AAU meet at the West Valley swimming pool.

And compete they did! Vern Kiehn won three firsts setting three pool records: the 100-yard butterfly, 100-yard breast stroke and 100-yard freestyle. Tim Kiehn set a pool record with his first place finish in the 200-yard freestyle. He also garnered two seconds in the 50-yard and 400-yard freestyle.

On Aug. 21, Ritzville, the smallest team at the Yakima Valley Junior Championships, took first place. Swimming against over 300 competitors, the 4-man team of Hand, Vern Kiehn, Tim Kiehn and Gering, captured four firsts and numerous seconds and thirds to retain the men’s division title it had captured the year before. The team also won both relay races in pool record times.

The new swim pool dedication took place on Aug. 28. As part of the dedication ceremonies, Ritzville hosted its first major AAU outdoor swimming championships. Nine teams from Spokane, Pasco, Kennewick, Yakima, Moscow, Idaho, and The Dalles, Ore., competed.

Ritzville captured three individual first places. Schwisow won the diving competition. Vern Kiehn won the 100-yard breast stroke and Vermeeren took first in the 100-yard butterfly. On the last race of the day, the Ritzville 200-yard freestyle relay team of Schwisow, Tim Kiehn, Vern Kiehn and Hand edged out The Dalles swim team to tie them for the overall point total and share first place.

Cummings’s young guns didn’t start competing until mid-July in the swim season of 1955, but by the end of summer they were the undeniable Champions of the Inland Empire.

Benner T. Cummings lives in San Clemente, Calif., with his wife, Mary. Among his hobbies are surfing and poetry. He is the author of a poetry book on surfing, Down Along The Sunset. He has written numerous articles on swimming, surfing, track and cross country for a variety of publications and is a permanent staff writer for the San Clemente Journal, a quarterly communications magazine.

On October 21, 2001, the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum formally inducted Professor Benner T. Cummings as its official Poet Laureate.

For the past 20 years, San Clemente High School has bestowed the Benner Cummings Aquatic Athlete of the Year Award. Patrick Gudauskas, a past recipient of this award, is a highly rated professional surfer who credits Benner as one of his most important models, “my family, surfing coach Tim Dowell and Benner Cummings have been my inspiration.”