Richard Sybesma
Former longtime TCU swim coach Richard Sybesma will receive his due recognition on Friday in Austin with his induction into the Texas Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame.
Sybesma is the longest-tenured coach in TCU history, spending 38 years at the university from 1979-2017.
During that time, he was selected conference coach of the year five times, as well as coach of the year for all sports in Conference USA in 2004. Sybesma coached four Olympians, seven, national champions, 18 All-Americans, and seven conference team championships.
“I’m honored and humbled to receive this recognition,” Sybesma said in an email. “I am proud to join my mentors in the Hall of Fame: coach George McMillion of SMU, who took me under his wing and taught me so much; Jim McNally, my coach at Texas Tech; and Bev Ball of Abilene High School and McMurry University.”
Sybesma will also join Fort Worth swimmers in the hall, including William Paulus, former world record holder and NCAA champion at the University of Texas; Wayne Chester, former NCAA champion in 1-meter diving at Alabama; and Ronnie Mills, who won bronze in 1968 in the Mexico City Games.
Others from Fort Worth enshrined are the entire Loock family — Carl, Cal, Vicki, and Christine — and Jane Dillard, and Fort Worth United States Swimming club teams.
Sybesma began swimming in the West Texas town of Andrews in junior high school. His father, an immigrant from Holland, would not allow Sybesma or his brother Pieter to participate in after-school sports programs.
“Skinny and sickly, my doctor told my mother to get me into something,” Sybesma said. Swimming it was and thanks to the resources of oil money in the region, Andrews' facilities included an indoor pool to work out in.
As a swimmer at Andrews High School, Sybesma advanced to state two years. Sybesma attended Texas Tech on a “small scholarship.” He was coached by Jim McNally, whom he watched work from “6 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day.”
But it was in high school that Sybesma found a vocation: He wanted to coach.
His first job was at Monahans High School, where he started the program. He said he “ate, drank, and slept swimming.” He was successful, too.
“We had 80 students on the high school team in a student body of 800, and 100 kids on the club team.”
In 1979, he was hired at TCU, becoming the youngest swimming coach in the Southwest Conference at age 25. In those early days at TCU, Sybesma was befriended by George McMillion, the legendary SMU swimming coach whose teams dominated the Southwest Conference during his tenure, leading the school to eight consecutive SWC championships between 1971-79. McMillion coached 78 All-Americans, 15 NCAA champions, and four Olympic medalists.
“George became a trusted mentor and dear friend, generously guiding me through those early years when I was still 'wet behind the ears'.”
A swimming joke, Sybesma said.
“He taught me invaluable lessons about recruiting, organizing team travel, structuring workouts, and more.”
One of the highlights of that mentorship was when McMillion invited Sybesma to serve as his assistant coach at the National Sports Festival in Syracuse, New York, in 1981.
In 1996, Sybesma served as the head coach of the Nicaraguan Olympic swim team at the Atlanta Games, a role he was honored with after TCU All-American Walter Soza, the team’s sole member, chose him as his coach.
Soza established his country’s records in the 200 butterfly and 400 indivdiual medley.
“Atlanta was awesome,” Sybesma said. “We lived in the Olympic Village and marched in the Opening Ceremonies. And [Soza] finished 20th in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM. Pretty good.”
