Grandfather Of Swimming

WILLOW RUN

Grandfather of swimming

Dudley, 80, has been involved as a volunteer since the '70s

BY SETH GORDON

The Ann Arbor News

Hardly a day goes by where 80-year-old Ypsilanti resident John Dudley doesn’t find himself at the pool.

Dudley isn’t a swimmer or coach, he’s just the parent of a swimmer who volunteered to help the Willow Run High School boys swim team in the early 1970s and never found a reason to leave.

“He runs our timing system, which he does at Eastern for their meets and for the state meets there,” Flyers coach Von Acker said. “He was the president to the Washtenaw Interclub Swimming Championship summer league for 20 years. He’s the grandfather of swimming, I would say, in the state of Michigan.”

Dudley also helped found the Willow Run Swim Club in 1975.

“It was just the right situation,” said Mike Torrey, who came to teach physical education and coach swimming at Willow Run in 1972 and was the one who asked Dudley to volunteer. “John was a single parent that followed his kids through their athletic careers. When he retired from the post office, swimming became everything for him. He’s probably the only reason there is still Willow Run swimming right now.”

In 1982, Dudley added the timing duties at Eastern Michigan University to his schedule and has overseen meet operations for every meet the Eagles have been associated with since.

“I don’t know where he finds the time to do all the stuff that he does,” said EMU men’s and women’s swimming coach Peter Linn, who has been at the school for 22 years. “He runs all of our meet operations, which is an annoyingly complex and tedious job. He’s been invaluable in that aspect. It’s to the point that if something happens to him, I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

When the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 state finals come to Eastern next month, Dudley will again run the computer system timing system, making it the 48th state championship meet he has volunteered for.

“There are those people out there who continue to give when there’s no benefit to themselves other than the satisfaction of working with young people and young coaches,” said Torrey, who is now the coach of the combined team at Zeeland East and West high schools. “John’s certainly one of them.”

Dudley was awarded the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association’s Dedicated Service Award in 1992 and honored with the Jack Johnson Distinguished Service Award from the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association in 2001.

“I just enjoy being around the kids, watching them progress,” Dudley said. “I never expected anything like that, so it was quite a surprise.”

Dudley never figured he would continue for so long, but always found some reason to stay.

“The way I’ve always looked at it, you might have an 8-year-old who progresses through high school and leaves and then I would drop out,” Dudley said. “Then along would come another kid and that would just keep me going.”

“He was there when I started coaching,” Acker said. “I couldn’t chase him off and the next coach won’t chase him off, either.”

John Dudley gets his timing system set up for a swim meet at the Willow Run High School pool on Tuesday. Dudley has been running the system for the school and the Willow Run Swim Club for almost 40 years.

ALAN WARREN, THE ANN ARBOR NEWS

Seth Gordon can be reached at sgordon@annarbornews.com or 734-994-6108.