Teams: Men's Swimming & Diving: Press Releases

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

"COACH" DON MEGERLE TO RECEIVE DISTINGUISHED ACHIVEMENT AWARD ON FRIDAY NIGHT

MEDFORD -- Donald R. Megerle, the soon-to-be legendary coach of the Tufts University swimming team for 33 seasons from 1971-2004, and now the Coach and Director of the Tufts Marathon Challenge team, will receive the 2007 Tufts Athletics Department Distinguished Achievement Award this Friday night (Oct. 5).

The 2007 Athletic Awards Ceremony at Cohen Auditorium will kick off Homecoming weekend at Tufts. The event, which begins at 8:00 pm, is the highlight of the year for the Athletics Department, which will also recognize its 2006-07 student award winners that evening.

Megerle joins an outstanding list of recipients who have received the Distinguished Achievement Award since its inception in 1987. Tufts has honored sports celebrities such as basketball legend Red Auerbach, football Hall of Famer John Hannah and Olympic medalists Joan Benoit-Samuelson, Nancy Kerrigan and Ben Smith. In recent years, the selection committee has moved towards recognizing recipients more closely connected to Tufts, including award-winning television producers Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern, both 1986 Tufts graduates.

"I am extremely pleased to be able to present this year's Distinguished Achievement Award to Coach Don Megerle," Athletics Director Bill Gehling said. "In almost thirty years in the competitive sports business, I have never met a person more deserving to be called "Coach." He possesses exceptional leadership skills and instincts, along with an incredible passion for the art of coaching. His commitment to his athletes and to Tufts knows no bounds."

As a coach at Tufts, Megerle was a seven-time New England or New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Coach of the Year for the Jumbos. His teams compiled a dual meet record of 268-81, and 92 of his swimmers posted All-American performances at NCAA championship meets. He coached numerous NCAA and New England champions and had 16 Academic All-Americans.

Beyond the success of his teams and individuals, Coach Megerle established a unity among the Jumbo program that was even more significant than the competitive achievements. Those who came to Tufts to swim for "Coach" entered into a lifetime relationship with their mentor. He would be there for them to celebrate their marriages or mourn their losses. In honor of his coaching techniques and team-building skills, Megerle was named the first Master Coach in the long history of Tufts Athletics on Homecoming Weekend 1997.

In addition to his contributions to Tufts, Megerle was a dedicated leader of the national collegiate swimming community during his tenure. This past May, he received the College Swimming Coaches Association of America's (CSCAA) highest honor when he was presented the National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy at the organization's national convention. The trophy is presented to an individual or organization for having contributed in an outstanding way to swimming as a competitive sport and healthful recreational activity at schools and colleges. He joined a list of recipients that includes not only those coaches who were the most successful in the history of the sport, but who were also energetic contributors to the sport beyond their teams. The award, which was first presented in 1958, is voted upon by the coaches.

"Nobody deserves this award more than Don does," said Varney Hintlian, a captain of Megerle's first Tufts team in 1971-72, and currently the Chair of the University's Board of Athletic Overseers. "It is an affirmation not only of his highly successful 33-year coaching career, but more importantly for the countless young people's lives that he has touched and made better through his caring, wisdom and knowledge. In honoring Don with this award, his peers in the coaching world have recognized what many of us have known for years - there really is a "Megerle Magic" and it works!"

Since stepping down as swimming coach in 2004, Megerle still mentors athletes at Tufts as Director of the President's Marathon Challenge. He is the coordinator and administrator for over 200 runners who participate in the Boston Marathon to raise funding to support nutrition, medical, and fitness research and education at Tufts. Their goal is to raise $400,000 for this coming April's race.

Megerle's record of service to NCAA Swimming is remarkable. He was the meet coordinator for 32 Men's Division I Championships, 28 Men's Division III Championships and 22 Women's Division III Championships. He held long tenures as the secretary-treasurer of the CSCAA (1982-98) and of the New England Swimming Coaches Association (1972-99). He was also a member of the NCAA Rules Committee from 1982-87. As popular as "Coach" is on campus, he's equally revered in swimming circles around the nation.

"He is one of the good people on Planet Earth in my opinion," said Tim Welsh, the head coach at Notre Dame, one of the many who voted for Megerle to receive this year's award. "Don's tireless and energetic work as a meet manager for the NCAA Championships, his thoroughness, excitement, and downright class in running the meets set the gold standard for all future meet managers to emulate. He did it with his characteristic laughter, fun, and good humor. Being around Don at those meets was just plain fun."

The Distinguished Achievement Award and the National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy are only the most recent of many campus and national awards that Megerle has received. From Tufts he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Alumni Association in 1996. He was also presented a Tufts Jumbo Club Award in 2004.

The International Swimming Hall of Fame has twice recognized him for outstanding contributions with the Paragon Award in 1999 and the Dick Steadman Award in 1991. The CSCAA presented him with its Master Coach Award in 1987 and with the Distinguished Coach Award in 1991. He also has a Distinguished Achievement award from Bethany College, his alma mater, in 2004.

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