Allen Stack (USA)

Honor Swimmer (1979)

The information on this page was written the year of their induction.

FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1948 gold (100m backstroke); WORLD RECORDS: 6; PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1951 gold (100m backstroke, 400m medley relay); U.S. NATIONAL AAU CHAMPIONSHIPS: 10; NCAA: 1 gold; AMERICAN RECORDS: 22 (100yd to 500yd backstroke).

Just as Yale’s Alan Ford (out of Panama) seems to be most famous as the man who finally beat Weissmuller’s record, Yale’s Allen Stack (out of Hawaii) seems most famous as the man who finally knocked out Adolph Kiefer’s record as longest king of the backstroke. Holder at one time of the world’s backstroke records at 100m, 200m and the US. Collegiate 150 yards, Stack had the backstroke “stacked” from 1948 to 1951. He was Olympic champion in London in 1948 and double Pan American gold medal winner in Buenos Aires in 1951, after which he joined the Navy “to see the world” or at least to see it again. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1956 and practices now in Honolulu.