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

FOR THE RECORD: Columbia University swimming and water polo coach from 1910-1955; U.S. Olympic Men’s Swim Team Manager (1936, 1952);  Editor of NCAA Swimming Guide (10 years);  Chairman of NCAA Rules Committee (8 years); First recipient of the Intercollegiate-Interscholastic swimming award (1958).

Edward T. Kennedy, long-reigning Chairman of the unique Fort Lauderdale Christmas Swim Forum, was the swimming and water polo coach at Columbia University from 1910 until mandatory retirement in 1955.  For 15 years since, he resented the retirement and was more active than any Emeritus on record.  As with his long-time friend, Matt Mann, Ed Kennedy just isn’t retirement material.

He started as a professional baseball player in New England and learned swimming at the famous Brookline (Mass.) Baths, that also gave us swimming Olympic coaches Matt Mann and Bob Muir.  Kennedy went on to manage the 1936 and 1952 U.S. Men’s Olympic swim teams.

He has been the best known U.S. swimming starter for 45 years.  He was Editor of the NCAA Swimming Guide for 10 years, Chairman of the Rules Committee for 8 years, and first recipient of the Intercollegiate-Interscholastic Swimming Award in 1958.  His name is at the top of this handsome sculptured trophy in the entrance to the International Swimming Hall of Fame that he helped found in 1965 and presided over as second President in 1969.

While Kennedy is best known for his administrative, executive and managerial swimming ability in later life, he put the same energy into a successful coaching career that produced such collegiate and AAU successes as Herb Vollmer and Gene Rogers. Kennedy has played a key role in upgrading coaches in the administrative hierarchy of amateur sports.