Bauerle Gala Honored The Man And His Impact

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

On and on, the Jack Bauerle stories and tributes poured in Friday night inside of Georgia's Payne Indoor Athletic Facility, on-stage and off, with almost 1,000 former swimmers, colleagues and friends gathered together to celebrate the extraordinary life and career of Georgia's legendary swimming coach.

This was no memorial, for the man or his career. He's still here, living well and sharing his zeal for life with others.

What happened inside the House of Payne was pure joy, pure celebration, pure appreciation for one hell of a man who has lived and is still living one hell of a life. While Bauerle may have retired last June after 43 years coaching at his beloved alma mater, he remains at his core a coach, a teacher, a leader and an inspiration.

"I wanted to compete for Jack. How can you not?" Georgia diving coach Chris Colwill said on stage. Colwill won three NCAA titles during his Bulldog career (2004-08), was the SEC Diver of the Year three times and competed at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Bauerle recruited and coached extraordinary swimmers and student-athletes, doing his best to make them all better in the pool today than they were yesterday. At the same time, he also wanted you to be a better person and student today than you were yesterday.

Few people ever have had the gravitational pull that Bauerle does; seemingly everyone that gets anywhere near him will become a dear friend. As Eddie Reese, Texas' legendary men's swimming coach, said Friday, Georgia easily could have brought in another 1,000 or so people to celebrate with Bauerle. And he would have loved every second of it.

His smile Friday as he watched wave after wave of his best and brightest, many of them Olympians, all of them champions in the pool or in life, take to the stage to share their favorite stories or memories, it was the smile of someone thankful for and delighted by all of the fascinating people that have populated his extraordinary life.

Up on the stage was Carol Capitani, an assistant coach for years (she said 14, he said 16) before she finally left a little more than a decade ago to become the head coach of the Texas women's program. Super talented and tough as nails, Capitani spoke of how much Bauerle loved to compete — at everything. But, she said, he always wanted to have fun while he competed, and then get back to being the best of friends when the competition was over.

On stage later was a quintet of stars in the pool: Gunnar Bentz, Colwill, Allison Schmitt, Chase Kalisz and Nic Fink. Schmitt is Georgia's greatest international swimmer ever, with 10 Olympic medals, and Kalisz is the reigning Olympic men's 400-meter individual medley gold medalist. Not on stage but out in the crowd Friday was Jay Litherland, who finished second to Kalisz, his former teammate and training partner, in the 400 IM in Tokyo, giving the Bulldogs a 1-2 Olympic finish.

Bauerle was there in Tokyo that night in 2021 for his crowning moment, seeing two of his guys beat the world in one of swimming's toughest events. He almost retired after that, knowing that was the perfect cherry on top of a spectacular career, but Bauerle came back for one more year. He wanted to soak in one last season on deck inside Gabrielsen Natatorium and to spend one more year with his swimmers and staff.

Now and forever after, the swimmers will compete in Bauerle Pool inside of Gabrielsen Natatorium. Josh Brooks, Georgia's J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics, made that announcement Friday. Nobody has done or will do more for Georgia swimming than Bauerle, so his name is now rightly on the joint.

And finally, when it was Bauerle's turn to talk, and we all settled in because it was quite possible that he'd be up there sharing memories and thanking people until 4 a.m., the man who came to Georgia from Philadelphia in 1970 and found a home and a university and a community that loved him back every bit as much as he loved them, that man looked around the sea of faces and mentally checked off each of them.

In each face he could see stories he'd love to tell. In each face he could see experiences shared, championships won, moments of tremendous joy and sadness cherished and endured together.

There to the right were two of the first professors he ever had as a freshman — two men, he said, that helped remind him in those early days far from home that he was supposed to be getting an education. And with their help, an English major was born.

There in the back were some of his best friends from childhood who made the trip down from Philadelphia. Bauerle became a Bulldog, one of the greatest there ever was or will be, but he never forgot where he came from or the people who made him the man he became.

There were two members of the 1985 Georgia men's tennis team, Allen Miller and George Bezecny, who helped that Bulldog squad win the program's first NCAA team title — the first NCAA title ever won by a Georgia team in any sport. If Dan Magill and men's tennis could do it, Bauerle once said, why the heck couldn't Georgia's swimmers be the best in the country too?

Endlessly curious and endlessly positive, Bauerle will talk your ear off with stories about anything and everything. And then he'll ask about you for an hour. Friday was a perfect example.

Earlier in the day, inside the Tate Center's Grand Hall, UGA held its annual Alumni Awards banquet. Receiving the Young Alumni Award was Schmitt, who, along with being a four-time Olympian and nine-time NCAA champion, is a passionate and outspoken advocate for mental health awareness. On his big day, Bauerle was there for her special honor. He wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Bauerle said it to everyone Friday night, and he texted it me on toward midnight: as great as it was to stand on that stage and look out at a thousand women and men about whom he cares deeply, and who feel the same about him, it was also frustrating. Why? Because he only had a few minutes on stage, and what he really wanted to do was spend 10 minutes talking about each and every person in the crowd.

All that he achieved as a coach — the SEC and NCAA titles, the Olympians, the tight-knit family that his program became — he didn't do it alone. He did it surrounded by incredible people every step of the way, which is exactly how he wanted it.

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.

University of Georgia Athletics

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