Dr. Harry Huffaker recalls his old University of Michigan teammate Jon Urbanchek, “He and I arrived in Ann Arbor [Michigan] on the same day. At the time he knew a handful of English words. He epitomizes the Great American Success Story – he positively impacted a multitude of swimmer’s lives throughout his career.“

Urbanchek passed away yesterday at the age of 87 in Fullerton, California.

Born in Hungary in 1936, he emigrated to the United States in 1957 at the age of 21. Together with Dr. Huffaker and John Pettinger, Urbanchek was a member of the Michigan Wolverines swim team between 1959 and 1961. He won the NCAA championship in the 1650-yard freestyle in 1961 and was a member of the Wolverines teams that won the 1959 and 1961 NCAA Championships.

But it was his career as a coach where he touched the hearts and ignited the spirits of many athletes.

Urbanchek started as a health teacher and aquatics coach in Southern California in 1963 where he coached both water polo and swimming. By the end of that decade, his teams were among the elite, both in high school and age-group swimming.

“I will always remember his warm-ups: 10 x 100. Always, without failure,” recalled Steven Munatones. “But he also taught me other things – like the value of doing reverse 800m individual medleys in workout. I asked him once why do we have to do reverse 800m IM’s? He said so matter-of-factly, ‘because it makes the 400 IM seem easy.’ I just nodded in agreement and pushed off the wall.

He would also occasionally ask me to show him my hands. I would stop and show him my hands. He would look at my fingers, press them slightly, and either say, ‘Good job’ or ‘Swim faster.’ So one time after practice, I asked him why he did that. He said, when we swim all out, then the fingertips of our hands get flushed with blood. Pink is good. Redder is better. That made sense to me, too.

Since I started to him under him at the age of 14, he seemed to be always coaching Olympic swimmers. Sometimes, he would ask him to swim ahead of them. The first time that he asked me to do that, I was shocked. I said, ‘I can’t swim that fast; I will get in their way.’ He said, ‘Just swim faster. I will give you a head start.’ So I pushed off the wall and was able to finish the swim ahead of the Olympian who started well behind me. Then, he told the Olympian, ‘Swim faster.’ This time, he did not give me too much of a head start. And the Olympian caught up with me. Then, he told me, ‘Swim faster.’ He kept on doing this. It was probably my best workout ever. He just had this way of getting the best of his swimmers.”

When he left from Anaheim Aquatics and coached at California State University Long Beach, all his swimmers followed him. At one point, he had renowned coach Dave Salo and world record holder and Olympian Tim Shaw as his assistant coaches. Urbanchek had a way to attracting talent both in and out of the pool.

In 1979, he coached on the international level for the first time at the 1979 FINA Men’s Water Polo World Cup where the United States finished second to his native Hungary. It was in the 1970’s when he coached his first Olympic gold medalist, Dr. Rod Strachan. By the 1980’s, he started his 22-year tenure back at his alma mater in Michigan. By the 1990’s, he guided the Wolverines to the 1995 NCAA Championships.

Ultimately, Urbanchek was a USA Swimming Olympic coach at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, 1992 Barcelona Olympics, 1996 Atlanta Olympics, 2000 Sydney Olympics, and 2004 Athens Olympics, and also served as a special assistant at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics – while he was on numerous World Championships, World Cup events, Pan American Games, and Pan Pacific Championship coaching staffs.

Urbanchek was always willing to share his knowledge and passion for others. 2008 Olympic coach John Dussliere recalls his unselfishness. “I got to know Jon very well in 2008. We got coffee every morning on the Olympic journey and then went to the pool to set up the pace clocks every morning before anyone arrived. We spent 10 days together at Stanford University, and another 10 days together in Singapore [at a pre-Olympic training camp]. He called us the bookend Jon’s. The oldest and youngest coaches on the Olympic Team – doing the chores nobody else wants to do, but without getting it done, we’d have no clocks. I received a Master Class from him that year – for which I will be forever grateful.”

“There is nothing but gratitude and appreciation that his swimmers and players had for Jon,” remembers Munatones. “I was far from being an Olympian, but Jon encouraged me as much as he did his superstars. I could not imagine another high-level Olympic coach – but Jon – allowing me to play water polo, do ocean swims, and compete on his swim teams all at the same time. He was understanding. He was demanding, but was not a yeller. A quick word here or there – and it got you going as an athlete.”

Coach Dussliere sums up what many believe, “Jon and I would talk while on the pool deck, either during workouts or during swim meets. We would talk, but he was always watching the pool. We were engaged in conversation, but he always had his eyes of the swimmers.

Jon is among the finest coaches who I’ve ever met. He certainly had a beautiful life and is respected by all.”

Information about his funeral services will be provided later.

Photo was taken by John Dussliere at the 2015 Santa Clara Invitational Swim Meet.

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