1970 NCAA District 1 Coach of the Year 1976 Springfield College Hall of Fame 2002 ASCA Hall of Fame 1976 International Swimming Hall of Fame Collegiate & Scholastic Swim Trophy CSCAA 100 Greatest Coaches of the Century
Charles Eaton "Red" Silvia was an All-American competitive swimmer for Springfield College, and a Hall of Fame swimming coach for Springfield from 1937 through 1978 where he led his teams to ten New England Intercollegiate Championships. A 1956 Assistant Olympic swim coach, he was an outstanding contributor to the swimming community and served as President of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America, as well as chairing the Board of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He authored seven books on swimming, Life Saving, and Scuba Diving, and was best known for his book, Life Saving and Water Safety Today.[3][4][2][1]
Silvia was born January 3, 1911 in Sommerville, Massachusetts, outside of Boston to Anthony B. and Jane Kemp Silvia.[5] He grew up in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and attended Haverhill High School, around 30 miles North of Boston, where he was honored in their Hall of Fame. Though he did not compete with a swimming team at Haverhill, he excelled and lettered in a variety of other sports including basketball, football, and baseball.[6] He later attended the New Hampton School, a preparatory school in New Hampton, New Hampshire, where he was also active in athletics. At New Hampton, he received a medal for outstanding academic achievement, played basketball, and was Captain of New Hampton's football team in 1929.[2][7][8][5]
He attended and swam for Springfield College from 1930 to 1934, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1934 and later completed a master's degree in Physical Education between 1937 and 1940 while serving his early years as the swim coach for Springfield. As a Senior at Springfield, Silvia made the Kappa Delta Pi academic honorary society.[2][7][8][5]
Springfield College swimmer
While swimming for Springfield College, he won the New England Intercollegiate Championship in the 440-yard event in 1933, also known as the quarter mile, setting the 440-yard New England Conference record which he held for two years. In 1934, he retained his New England Swimming Association league record in the 440-yard swim with a time of 5.18.2 for the short pool, and 5:19.7 for the long pool course. Silvia's 440-yard record was broken in February, 1935 by Springfield College swimmer C.F. Pawling who swam a new record time of 5:17.3.[9] Silvia's fastest time in the 300 Individual Medley in 1934, was 4.00.8 for the short pool course, also a New England Swimming Association League record. Silvia may have also set a National Collegiate record in the 300-yard Individual Medley on March 3, 1933, at Springfield's McCurdy pool, with a time of 4:08.4 (prior record 4:08.6, 1930, by Yale swimmer J. W. Hart) though the record was not broken during an official meet, but rather in a match between Springfield's Varsity and Freshman teams. At least one reliable source, the International Swimming Hall of Fame Bio for Charles Silvia referenced the 1933 300-yard IM swim as a national record.[10][11]
Excelling in longer freestyle competition as well, Silvia was a collegiate All-American in the 1500-meter event his Senior year in 1934 when he served as Captain for the Springfield College team.[10][4][6][12][5] An open water distance swimming enthusiast, Silvia completed a two hour swim from Hampton Beach to Salisbury Beach in early August, 1934, and planned an 11 mile swim from Hampton Beach to the Isles of Shoals.[13]
Silvia swam under Coach Thomas K. Cureton, an honoree of the International Swimming Hall of Fame for his contributions to the science of physical fitness testing and research for swimmers as well as athletes in other sports.[14] Cureton, widely published in his field, swam for and graduated Yale, obtained a PHd in educational research from Columbia in 1939, and later taught at the University of Illinois from 1941-1969. Cureton emphasized endurance training as being more valuable than mastering mechanical skills for athletes, which may have been one of his primary focuses in training his swimmers at Springfield, and became his lasting contribution to training athletes.[14][15] As a Senior, Silvia's exceptionally strong 1934 team broke nearly all prior Springfield records.[10] Silvia was considered one of Springfield's greatest endurance swimmers. As an outstanding contributor as a Senior, he scored the second highest number of combined dual meet points, for the 1934 season, a total of 76, out of a total of 421 scored by the entire Springfield team of 20 that year. His mastery of multiple strokes as a medley swimmer, would later benefit him as a swim coach.[4][3][2][10] Possibly influencing his future choice of coaching swimming as a career, during summer breaks from Springfield College, Silvia worked as an Assistant swimming director at the Brimfield Red Cross Camp in the greater Springfield area.[6]
Immediately after graduating Springfield College in 1934, Silvia worked for his former preparatory school, the New Hampton School in New Hampton, New Hampshire as Director of Athletics, continuing in the position through 1937.[16] At New Hampton, he coached baseball, basketball, and soccer.[17]
Springfield College coach
A young Silvia circa 1937 as new Springfield Coach
He served as the swim coach at his former alma mater Springfield College, from the Fall of 1937 through 1978. He began graduate work at Springfield during his employment as swim coach in 1937.[18] In his earliest years at Springfield, he helped administer physical fitness, nutrition, and swimming placement tests to new students, and taught the Theory and Practice of Swimming.[19][20][21][22] Formerly a multisport athlete as a High School student, while at Springfield, in addition to swimming, he helped coach the football and baseball teams.[7][2][23] One of his most outstanding successors as a Springfield College coach was Peter Avdoulos who coached the Springfield Diving Team from 1986 through around 2024, though Avdoulos dove for Springfield beginning in the mid-1980's shortly after Silvia's coaching tenure.[24][25]
Silvia briefly coached and taught at other academic institutions between 1944 and 1945, when Springfield was forced to make cuts in their athletic programs during WWII. Beginning with a strong inaugural team at Springfield in 1937, he inherited several AAU and state champions, and after becoming a proficient recruiter of talent, he led the team to around ten New England Intercollegiate Championships during his coaching tenure, according to several sources, including his bio in the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Silvia is credited with coaching as many as 200 All America swimmers during his coaching career.[4][3]
The Springfield Maroons swimmers won their first New England Championship in 1941, and captured seven consecutive championships between 1968 and 1974 as Silvia matured in his skills.[4] In their sixth consecutive New England Intercollegiate Championship in 1973 held at Springfield's Linkletter Natatorium, Silvia's team won convincingly and scored 347 points to Williams 222 points, and Bowdoin Colleges's 221, winning by a 100-point margin for the third straight year. Silvia's teams had considerable depth in the early 1970's with contributions from many team members.[26]
New Haven Y, Wilbraham Academy Coach, 1943-1945
Springfield cut back on its sports programs in 1943 due to WWII, which prompted Silvia to seek coaching work at other institutions. He served as the Associate physical education director of the New Haven Connecticut YMCA beginning in May 1944, where he coached varsity football and baseball.[2] In May, 1945, he became head of Athletics and served as a Physics, Biology and Algebra instructor at Wilbraham Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, about eight miles East of Springfield College. At Wilbraham, he also worked with the Wilbraham football players in the summer of 1945 and coached baseball.[17][27] At the cessation of WWII, in February 1946, Silvia returned to Springfield College as assistant professor of Health and Physical Education, and head Swimming Coach.[8]
Nationally recognized for his coaching skills, he was selected as an Assistant Coach at the 1956 Melbourne U.S. Olympic Swimming team, where the butterfly stroke was first included in competition. Silvia, in conjunction with other American swim coaches, worked hard to improve the efficiency of the new butterfly stroke in the 1950s, particularly the new dolphin kick, and American swimmers swept the women's 100-meter butterfly competition and took gold in the men's 200-meter butterfly event at the 1956 Olympic games.[4][28][29]
In 1958, he founded the Pine Knoll Swim School in Springfield where he also coached. His wife Ruth served as a director and treasurer of the school.[2]
Swimming Community Work
Silvia served as the President of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America, as well as chairing the Board of the International Swimming Hall of Fame and serving as president from 1973 to 1974.[30]
Outstanding swimmers and coaches mentored
Olympian Bill Yorzyk, 1956
One of Silvia's most outstanding swimmers was 1956 Olympic Gold medalist in butterfly, Bill Yorzyk, a National AAU champion, who set 13 world records in freestyle and butterfly. He also mentored 1968 Springfield team captain Davis Hart who set a 1973 record swimming the English Channel. Early outstanding swimmers in the 1940s included 440-yard champion Harry Rawstrom and diver Ed Smyke, a three-year New England Intercollegiate Champion.[4][31]
He is credited with mentoring 50 college swim coaches among his college swimmers, swimmers at the 1956 Olympics, and assistant coaches. Many of the coaches he mentored as swimmers or assistants had long, and highly distinguished careers. Harry Rawstrom, twice an All-American at Springfield in the late 1930's, coached the men's swimming team at the University of Delaware from 1946-1981.[32] Thirty-three year Tufts University Swimming Coach Don Megerle, a seven-time New England Coach of the Year, served as an Assistant Coach under Silvia at Springfield College from 1970-1971, immediately before being hired by Tufts.[4][8][33] Swim Coach Carl Samuelson swam for Silvia at Springfield in the 1950s and served as his Assistant Swimming Coach from 1957 to 1966. As a Williams College swim coach from 1966 to 1999, Samuelson led the team to 14 Men's New England Championships, and 13 Women's New England Championships. Samuelson's Williams teams occasionally competed against Silvia's Springfield teams.[34]Fletcher Gilders, who Silvia coached at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics became a swimming and divingcoach at Ohio University (1959–1984) and Kenyon College, where he earned an exceptional winning record.[35][36]
Silvia died June 16, 1988, at a Springfield nursing home at the age of 87. He was married to Ruth Stubbs Silvia around 1935 and was survived by two daughters and several grandchildren. He was buried at Groveland Riverview Cemetery in Groveland, Massachusetts, just East of the city of Haverhill where he grew up and attended High School.[2] His wife Ruth, who had a twenty-seven year career with Springfield's, James Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, served on the board and worked as its first paid employee. Ruth predeceased Charles in February 1995, and was buried at Riverview Cemetery. She had served as a director and treasurer of the Pine Knoll Swimming school.[2][37]
Honors
Silvia was an American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee and was selected as one of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America's (CSCAA) 100 Greatest Coaches of the Century. He was a recipient of the Collegiate and Scholastic Swim Trophy.[4] Silvia also contributed to the sport of open water swimming and distance swimming and was awarded the Irving Davids and Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award by the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1978 after coaching Springfield swimmer David Hart's record breaking 1973 swim of the English Channel.[31]
Related Research Articles
Donald Lee Gambril is an American former Hall of Fame swimming coach who is best known for coaching the University of Alabama from 1973 to 1990. His Alabama teams had top ten NCAA finishes eleven times, 3 Southeastern Conference titles, and were the runner-up at the NCAA Championship in 1977. Earlier, his Long Beach State teams had top ten NCAA finishes four times from 1968-71. He had the rare distinction of serving as a U.S. Olympic coach in five Olympics from 1968 to 1984.
Springfield College is a private university in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. The institution's mission, called the Humanics philosophy, calls for educating students in spirit, mind, and body for leadership in service to others It is also notable for its historical significance as the birthplace of basketball, which was invented on campus in 1891 by Canadian-American instructor and graduate student James Naismith.
New Hampton School is an independent college preparatory high school in New Hampton, New Hampshire, United States. It has 305 students from over 30 states and 22 countries. The average class size is eleven, and the student-faculty ratio is five to one. New Hampton School does not require a uniform.
Ed Reed was coach of Brown University’s water polo team from 1971 to 1992, where he led the team to seventeen consecutive New England Championships between 1975-1991. Prior to 1974, Brown's Water Polo team had been a Club Team, but achieved Varsity status that year. Initially, he was also head coach of the varsity swim team at Brown.
William Albert "Bill" Yorzyk Jr. was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and one-time world record-holder.
Steven Charles Furniss is an American former swimmer, business owner, Olympic bronze medalist and world record-holder.
Albert Joseph Vande Weghe, sometimes appearing as Al Vandeweghe, was an American competition swimmer for Princeton University, a world record holder in backstroke events, and a 1936 Berlin Olympic silver medalist in the Men's 100 meter backstroke. After graduating from Princeton in 1940, he worked thirty-five years as a Chemical Engineer for Dupont Corporation, then after retiring in 1975, returned to swimming at age 74 in 1980 as a United States Masters swimmer for Tulsa Masters, winning many races in age group competitions.
Mary Olive McKean, also known by her married name Olive Mucha, was an American competition swimmer, swimming coach, and American record holder, who represented the United States at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, winning a bronze medal in the 4x100 freestyle relay.
William Boomer, also known as Buzz Boomer, was an American college coach, best known for serving as the head coach of the University of Rochester's men's swim team from 1962 to 1990. Beginning in the 1990s, as a noted authority on swimming technique, Boomer gave technique instruction to swimmers on the Stanford University swim team and worked one-on-one with many world-class swimmers, including many on three American Olympic swim teams from 1996 to 2004.
Harold Thompson Mann was an American competition swimmer for the University of North Carolina, a 1964 Tokyo Olympic 4x100-meter medley swimming gold medalist, and a world record-holder in the 100-meter backstroke. After graduating pre-med from North Carolina, he went to the medical school of Virginia, completed a residency and practice in San Francisco. In 1984 he returned home to establish a practice in internal medicine in the greater Richmond area.
Felix Jeffrey Farrell is a Hall of Fame American former competition swimmer, and a 1960 two-time Olympic gold medalist, where he became a world record-holder in two relay events. After the Olympics, he worked as a swim coach abroad, and in the 1980's returned to America, living in Santa Barbara, where he worked in real estate. While training with Santa Barbara Masters, he would break numerous world and national age group records as a Masters competitor between 1981-2011.
Arthur Raymond Highland was an American competition swimmer for Northwestern University, who represented the United States in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
Lisa A. Lindstrom, also known by her married name Lisa Olson, was an American competition swimmer who swam for the Women's Swimming Association of New York, and New York University, and represented the United States at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, where she had a tie for fifth place in the finals of the 100-meter backstroke.
Jack Babashoff Jr. is an American former competition swimmer and a 1976 Olympic silver medal winner in the 100 meter freestyle.
Gregory "Greg" Jagenburg is an American former competition swimmer and a World Aquatics Champion in butterfly who swam for Long Beach State and the University of Arizona under Hall of Fame Coach Dick Jochums. In August 1975, Jagenburg swam a 2:00.73 in the 200-meter butterfly, just .03 seconds behind Mark Spitz's standing world record in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
Don Megerle, a competitive swimmer at Bethany College, was a long-serving coach of the men's swimming team at Tufts University, a Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference school. In his 33 years as Tufts Head Coach from 1971 to 2004, he led the team to an overall record of 268-81, producing 92 Division III All-American swimmers, and 2 National champions.
Carl Samuelson swam freestyle for Springfield College and was the swim coach for Williams College from 1966 to 1999, where he led the team to 14 Men's New England Championships, and 13 Women's New England Championships. The Women's team were National NCAA Division III Champions three times, and the Men's team were in the top five NCAA finishes 10 times. In an exclusive honor, Samuelson was named to the College Swimming Coaches of America Association's (CSCAA) 100 Greatest Swim Coaches of the Century.
Steve Kuster was an All-American competitive swimmer for the University of Pennsylvania and a swim coach for Williams College from 1999 through 2024 where he led the Williams men to 21 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Conference team championships and the Williams women to 20 NESCAC Conference team championships from 2001 to 2024. As of 2022, his men and women's teams have combined for 52 NCAA Division II and New England Small College Athletic Association (NESAC) national individual titles. Of these, 37 individual combined titles for both men and women have been in NESCAC Conference Championships.
Harry Wilfred Rawstrom was an All-American collegiate swimmer for Springfield College and the Head Swimming Coach for the University of Delaware from 1946 to 1981, leading them to the 1947 Mason-Dixon Conference and the 1954 Middle Atlantic Conference titles. At the University of Delaware, his teams earned an overall record in dual swim meets of 211–154.
Peter Avdoulos is an American former competition diver for Springfield College, who coached the Springfield College Diving team for forty years from 1984 through 2024, leading them to seven national championships, though he began his career on a part-time basis when the position became open shortly after his graduation from Springfield.
1 2 3 4 "Charles E. Silvia Makes All America Swimming", The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, 31 December 1934, pg. 8
1 2 3 "Cureton's Vegetable Diet Worked Wonders", Springfield Evening Union", Springfield, Ohio, 16 March 1933, pg. 17
1 2 3 "Professor Silvia Takes Post at New Haven YMCA", Springfield Evening Union, Springfield, Massachusetts, 24 March 1944, pg. 10
1 2 3 4 Return to Springfield College in February, 1946, in "Silvia Returns to SC As Coach of Swimming", The Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 7 February 1946, pg. 21
↑ "Maroon Swim Combine, Lyman Crack Diver", The Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 6 March 1935, pg. 20
1 2 3 4 "Grant Koch Chose to Lead Local College", The Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 19 March 1934, pg. 16
↑ "Princeton and MIT", The Springfield Daily Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 4 March 1933, pg. 5
↑ Set the 300-yard IM National record in "National Record Set in Local Tank Meet", The Morning Union, 4 March 1933, pg. 16
↑ "Going to Swim to Isles of Shoals", The Portsmouth Herald, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 7 August 1934, pg. 8
↑ Served at New Hampton School from 1934-1937 in "Swimming Coach, Charles E. Silvia", Springfield Evening Union, Springfield, Massachusetts, 14 September 1937, pg. 4
1 2 "Charles Silvia", The Republican, 29 May 1945, Springfield, Massachusetts, pg. 5
↑ "Silvia Named Springfield College Swimming Coach", The Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 14 September 1937, pg. 20
↑ "Springfield Freshman Undergo Tests", The Springfield Daily Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 24 September 1937, pg. 5
↑ "Coach Red Silvia Expects Good Season", Springfield Evening Union, Springfield, Massachusetts, 10 December 1937, pg. 27
↑ "Springfield College Swim Team Opens", The Morning Union, Springfield, Massachusetts, 11 January 1948, pg. 20
↑ "Springfield Leads New England Swim", The Morning Union, Springfield, Massachusetts, 9 March 1974, pg.2
↑ Springfield sports salaries cut in 1942 in "Salaries Slashed", The Morning Union, Springfield, Massachusetts, 24 January 1942, pg. 13
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
