Ronald B. Saunders Project
Saunders Family Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
March 8, 2012
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| Note: This was the last time that I would beat Nate who was formerly on our swimming team at the Centre Avenue YMCA. In this YMCA Championship Meet, Nate was swimming for the Allegheny YMCA because his parents had moved from the Hill District section of Pittsburgh. Nate beat me in the 25 Yard Freestyle in this particular championship meet. Nate also beat me in the 200 Yard Individual Medley while swimming for the Knoxville Junior High School Swim team in the Pittsburgh Public School Junior High Swimming Championship in 1957. But my Junior High School, Herron Hill, won the championship. I may have been the last African American swimmer in history to beat Nate in any swimming event because Nate received a four year swimming scholarship to the Ohio State University in 1961. He was also the first African American in the USA to place in a NCAA Swimming Championship coming in fifth in the 200 Yard Butterfly in 1962. Nate is also a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. The Centre Avenue YMCA Swim Team featured other swimmers such as Morris Fountain, Ronald Curry, Daniel Tabb, Hubert Wilson, Melvin Russell, Pomroy Fountain, the late Donald Primas and the late Barry Nixon. |
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