Tex Robertson’s
Coach Tex Robertson was a risk-taker who used personality, energy, creativity, politics, contacts, recruiting, promotion, discipline, strong will, and Business Savvy to forever change the swimming landscape for Longhorn swimmers.
TEX- The Father of Texas Swimming by Ross LuckSinger
Coach Tex Robertson tells his new swimmers “Go Swim a mile and your body teaches you” the best stroke.
Click on the link to learn more about Tex Robertson the “Texas Swimming Man of the Century.” http://www.tsdhof.org/about/
CONTACTS in Tex’s early years
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1931 – Tex Robertson receives a scholarship to USC and is co-captain of the team while the head coach prepares the swimmers for the 1932 Olympics.
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Robertson’s coaching instructor help Buster Crabbe win Olympic gold. After graduating from USC, Buster joins Hollywood and plays Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Tarzan in the movies.
Robertson’s swim coached is Peter John Weissmuller, who is the 1924 and 1928 Gold medalist. Peter played Tarzan in 12 movies.
After the 1932 Olympics, Tex joins the Michigan swim team on scholarship. At Michigan, part of his scholarship requires him to wash dishes. The guy he washes dishes with becomes President of the United States-
President Gerald Ford
Tex helped Adolph Kiefer master the backstroke. Adolph wins the Gold at the Olympics
After graduating from Michigan, Tex coaches Taylor Drysdale, who helped build the Manhattan Project’s atomic bomb.
Creativity, risk-taking, promotion, and business savvy make Coach Robertson a one-of-a-kind.
He grew up in the 1920s throwing metal can lids with neighborhood friends and then introduced the game of throwing the “Sa-Lo,” which was also called the “flying cover game.” In The Complete Book of Frisbee by Victor Malafronte, Frisbee throwing as a sport started with Tex Robertson when he was a camper at Camp Wolverine in Michigan, considered the birthplace of organized Frisbee.
In the early 30s, Tex ” invented” the flip turn, but it was considered a risky maneuver, so it was not used in the Olympics until 1956.
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In 1935, at 24 years of age, Tex Robertson returned to Austin and told the Longhorn Athletic Director Chevigny that he wanted to be the Longhorn swim coach. Chevigny says, “ I have no intention of paying for a varsity swim coach.” Tex responds, “Good, I’ll accept the job under those terms.” According to the book TEX- The Father of Texas Swimming by Ross LuckSinger, Ed Barlow, the physical education professor, convinces AD Chevigny to hire Tex as the swim coach by saying to Jack Chevigny, “Jack, he is already down there coaching anyway.” Robertson starts his adventure as the Longhorn head swim coach with no budget, scholarships, or salary, while football coach Bible is hired for $15,000 a year ($245,000 in 2013 dollars).
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1936—In an effort to raise money for his swim team, he asked for and received a franchise for Coke vending machines on the UT campus. When he wasn’t lifeguarding, he was filling the vending machines on the Texas campus to make money for the Longhorn swim team.
Also, in 1936, he started what would eventually be called the Aqua Carnival. The main event is a beauty contest. The Aqua-belles were initially dressed in sports clothes instead of swimsuits because of the day’s mores. It was not until 1940 that the beauties started to wear swimming suits.
Eddie Gilbert said, “They (fans) wouldn’t come to see us swimmers. They’d come to see the girls.” Kathryn Grant was one of the queens, and she married Bing Crosby. Tom Landry, a star Longhorn and head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, won the 1947 Most Handsome Man in the Aqua Carnival.
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In 1936, the money Tex raised with his entrepreneurial drive paid for the Longhorn swim team’s first out-of-state meet in St. Louis. The team beat Washington and Kansas State but lost to Nebraska.
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1939 Tex starts Camp Longhorn.
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In 1968, Tex Robertson organized and headed WETS (Working Exes for Texas Swimming), an organization that promotes the University of Texas’s aquatic excellence. WETS’s initial goals were to honor UT swimmers and divers, promote the present and future success of Texas Swimming and Diving, and provide a common forum for all former Texas swimmers, divers, coaches, and fans to gather and stay connected.
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Under Coach Tex Robertson’s guidance and recruiting skills, the Longhorns went from 40th to 20th to 5th best swim team in the nation in three years.
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When war breaks out, Tex Robertson joins the Navy and is instrumental in training an elite special forces unit named the Navy Seals.
To read more about Tex Robertson visit the swim section at
On Aug. 27, 2007, Tex Robertson passed away, but not before writing a beautiful poem about his life, family, and wife.
“Being in wonderful overtime of life, I was ready for this, with goals complete and family bliss. Put a dent atop my grave for the rain to fall in through; intermediate freestyle, but backstroke will do. Our five (kids) and theirs made this a wonderful life, but I owe all to a wonderful wife.”
Tex Robertson
Ed Barlow taught me swimming at UT in fall of 69 and said he taught Johnny Weissmuller to swim as well as teaching my father at UT in the late 40’s.