Legendary Indiana University diving coach Hobie Billingsley died Saturday morning. He was 94.
Billingsley coached at IU from 1959-89, helping the Hoosiers win six NCAA and 23 Big Ten championships. His divers won 115 national titles, 22 Big Ten championships, six Olympic medals and five national world championships.
He coached Team USA at the 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympics, and was a judge at the 1992 and 1996 Games. Billingsley founded the World Diving Coaches Association in 1968 and the American Coaches Diving Association in 1970.
Among the divers Billingsley coached were Cynthia Potter, who won bronze at the 1968 Games in Mexico City and still owns the American record with 28 national titles, and Olympic gold medalists Lesley Bush, Kenny Sitzberger and Mark Lenzi.
"It is clear that Hobie's main focus was on the development of his athletes, in both mind and body," said Sandy Searcy, a former IU swimmer and Director of Sports at the National Federation of State High School Associations, at a 90 th birthday celebration for Billingsley in July, 2017. "The lessons learned served them for life as it set the foundation for discipline, facing fear, determination and persistency.
"Many consider Hobie as a father figure."
The Erie, Pa., native won the NCAA 1- and 3-meter championship as a freshman at Ohio State in 1945, then joined the Armed Forces, where he served in Japan.
He returned to Ohio State and was an All-American diver from 1948-50 and was a teammate of swimmer James “Doc” Councilman. Councilman became IU’s swimming coach in 1957, and together with Billingsley built one of the strongest college programs in the nation. The Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center is named after the duo.
A nine-time national coach of the year, Billingsley was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1983. The following year , he was enshrined in the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame. In 1994, he won the Sammy Lee Award, the world’s most prestigious amateur diving award.
