Longtime Yale Coach Frank Keefe Wins 2022 USA Swimming Award
Frank Keefe, who spent more than 30 years as the head coach at Yale University, is the recipient of the 2022 USA Swimming Award.
The award was given by USA Swimming at its annual business meeting last week. Keefe joins a long list of luminaries to receive the award, established in 1982. It is, per the governing body’s website, “the highest honor in the sport of swimming, given to the individual or organization with the most outstanding contribution to the sport of swimming.”
Keefe has been involved in swimming for more than a half-century. Before arriving at Yale, he coached at Suburban Swim Center in Newtown Square, Penn., where his pupils included Olympic medalists Carl Robie and Tim McKee. He won 488 meets as the head coach of the Yale men’s and women’s teams, occupying the endowed Robert J.H. Kiphuth Director of Swimming role until 2010. (The women’s team started in his second year as the men’s head coach.) His name graces the Frank Keefe Trophy, given to the Ivy League women’s swimming and diving team champion.
Keefe was an assistant coach on the U.S. Olympic team at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and the head managed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He was the head coach for Pan Am Games teams in 1975 and 1979 and an assistant for the U.S. at the 1978 World Championships. In the college realm, he continued as a volunteer assistant at his alma mater, Villanova, and La Salle near his home outside of Philadelphia well into his 70s.
Away from the pool deck, Keefe helped create USA Swimming in the late 1970s, differentiating the nascent body from the Amateur Athletic Union, which had governed swimming for many years (and for which Keefe was the National Time Standards Chairman from 1974-79). He served as the American Swim Coaches Association’s vice president from 1976-78, its president from 1978-80 and was one the Olympic International Organizing Committee from 1973-88. He’s been a part of various rules committees within USA Swimming and was a member of the Connecticut Swimming House of Delegates.
A 1960 graduate of Villanova, Keefe has been inducted to the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Villanova’s athletics hall of fame and the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame
Well deserved. Couldn’t think of a better person or coach to win this award. Frank has touched the lives of so many including my own. An amazing coach and even better human. Congrats Frank.
Congrats Coach !! So well deserved
Ludemann
Congratulations Frank! Well deserved.
Great coach and gentleman. A founding member of USA Swimming. Known for funny, famous stories!!!
Boola Boola FPK!
Despite an gruff exterior, there beats a soft heart and a guy who really cares. Knowing Frank and competing against Yale was always a treat for us at UCONN. This Swimming Award is a fitting tribute for Coach Keefe.
A well-deserved honor for a superb coach. I had the privilege of swimming under him at the USOC Training Center many years ago.
Congratulations Frank. Well deserved.