Five powerful swimmers anchored 1964 squad

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

Part Ten: The Summer of 1964

Five of the best swimmers the Inland Empire had ever boasted comprised the core of the Ritzville Swim Club in 1964. This quintet possessed 13 of the 33 all-time records still held by the club.

Tom Thomas, Tom Baumann, Bob Wood, Brian Miller and Jim Thomas were the most formidable opponents the swimmers from Spokane, Pullman and a dozen other clubs would face this summer.

Joining the team for the first time were several juniors including Tommy and Timmy Tuffield, Mike Wood, Danny Miller, Bobby and Craig Stanfield, Richie Schumann, Hal Whitman, Kevin Wyer, Allen Kaylor and Richard Little.

This was a summer for Olympic qualifications, so some of the meets were held earlier than in the past. Benner Cummings had to start training his charges with a greater intensity in the first week.

The first competition for the Ritzville Swim Club was the Spokane Chronicle swim meet in mid-July.

The local team placed third overall with Wood winning the 400-meter freestyle only five seconds behind the 1952 Olympic record. The rest of the team scored several thirds and the team exploded for second place in the 400-meter freestyle relay.

Wood entered Seattle’s famed Green Lake mile, a triangular course, swimming against 70 competitors including US and Canadian Olympians and Pan Americans.

At the half mile buoy, Wood was in the lead but on the second leg he wandered badly off course, dropping behind a dozen other swimmers.

Once he realized his position, Wood lowered his head and spurted to the finish line in a dead heat with a Portland high school star for third place. Wood graciously relinquished the medal and settled for fourth.

His performance captured the praise and interest of the swim coaches from the Universities of Washington and Oregon. This now made six schools including Washington State, Arizona State, Michigan and Indiana, already interested in the lad’s collegiate future.

Meanwhile, J. Thomas and Miller competed in the Williams Lake four-mile event. Thomas swam an incredible race cutting four and a half minutes off his own record. Miller, in spite of severe stomach cramps, also broke the old record to take second place.

“The time Thomas made in the four-mile places him among the Top 10 in the US AAU sanctioned record attempts,” Cummings told the media.

Another distance event was held on Williams Lake six days later. Wood, Miller and J. Thomas entered the one-mile race against several other competitors on the cold choppy waters following a heavy rain storm. The record was held by Steve Krause, the swimmer that had just won the Green Lake mile a week earlier.

KHQ-TV was at the scene when Wood crushed Krause’s record by nearly a full minute to set a new state and AAU open water mile mark. But the most exciting race was for second place. Miller and J. Thomas battled stroke for stroke the last 440 yards with Miller touching out J. Thomas, the reigning Ritzville mile record holder, at the pier.

“That was the most phenomenal open water race I have ever witnessed,” Cummings said afterward. “Ritzville now has three possible Olympic contenders in the mile. Bobby’s outdoor time, set in horrible conditions, was only 46 seconds off the American indoor mile record. That is amazing.”

Moses Lake was the site of numerous medals for both the junior and senior teams. Most notably was the record setting 400-meter medley relay by the team of Wood, J. Thomas, Baumann and T. Thomas.

Several thousand screaming Canadians witnessed the breaking of the Kelowna B. C. and Canadian national record for the 400-yard freestyle relay by the Ritzville tandem of J. Thomas, T. Thomas, Baumann and Wood.

T. Thomas remembered coming to the wall during his, the second leg of the race, and being blinded by a spotlight.

“I had no idea where the wall was but I made the turn, barely touching my toes, enough to push off and continue. When I reached the other end and surfaced after Tommy dove over me, I saw everyone in the stands on their feet screaming their lungs out. At the end of the race when we had won, they all remained standing and cheering. What a feeling!”

Wood had brought them all to their feet earlier when he won the B. M. Wrigley cup, first awarded in 1910, and shattered the Canadian mile record with J. Thomas on his heals for second.

Three more IEAAU and pool records tumbled at the Ritzville freestyle invitational meet in late August. This summer saw the Ritzville Swim Club establish 18 new records among the 47 all-time records now held by the local swimmers.

Ritzville’s swimmers entered its final meet of the year, the Canadian nationals and Olympic trials, in Vancouver B. C. Against the finest Canadian Olympic and Pan American relay teams, Baumann, J. Thomas, T. Thomas and Wood smashed their own 440-yard freestyle relay record by an astounding 7.2 seconds to place fifth.

To compete against world champions was an incredible experience but what the team remembers most about that trip was the private audience they had that night with Australia’s World record holder and Olympics star, Murray Rose.

Earlier that day, Rose had broken the World record for the half mile by four seconds. Benner approached him and asked if he would talk to his boys. Rose agreed.

“To sit at the feet of a man who held several World records and talk swimming for a couple of hours was about all we starry-eyed country boys could ever hope to experience,” recalled T. Thomas. “It was quite a gift that Benner gave us.”

The final honor for 1964 was the American Swimming Coaches Association award for “Team of the Year” to the Ritzville Swim Club.