USA Swimming Award

Frank Keefe is widely recognized as having been Yale University's Robert J. H. Kiphuth Director of Swimming for over 30 years until his retirement. However, before he came to Yale, Keefe had already coached 9 Olympic swimmers including medalists Carl Roby and Tim McKee as the head of Suburban Swim Center in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

 

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In addition to an extensive collegiate background, Keefe has plenty of international coaching experience. Keefe served as an assistant coach for the 1984 United States Olympic team at Los Angeles and was the head manager for the 1988 Olympic team at Seoul, Korea. He also served as the U.S. coach for the 1975 and 1979 Pan American Games and as an assistant coach at the 1978 World Championships.

 

Frank Keefe, the coach, is only part of his contributions to USA Swimming. He was instrumental in the creation of USA Swimming and its early success. The AAU governed most of the amateur sports in the United States until 1979. The enactment of the Amateur Sports Act was prompted by lobbying from athletes, particularly runners, who felt that the AAU imposed artificial rules preventing widespread participation. In swimming, the strongest lobby for change came from the coaches. At this critical period, Frank Keefe was Vice President and then President of the American Swim Coaches Association (1976 to 1980). Frank Keefe along with Mike Troy, George Breen, Bill Lippman, and Ray Essick worked to create USA Swimming out of the AAU in the late 1970s.

 

Frank Keefe has been a tireless advocate in making the sport he loves accessible to everyone. The Yale women's swimming team was created in his second year as coach.

 

He was inducted into the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame five years before he decided to stop coaching. Frank Keefe, who has 488 wins combined between the Yale men’s and women’s teams, has certainly made an impression on the swimming community around the Ivy league and country.

Frank has held the following national and LCS positions:

  • Vice President- American Swim Coaches Association (1976-78)
  • President- American Swimming Coaches Association (1978-1980)
  • Olympic International Organizing Committee (1973-1988)
  • National Rules Committee
  • National Senior Swim Committee
  • National AAU National Time Standards Chairman (1974-79)
  • Connecticut Swimming House of Delegates

 

Keefe, a 1960 graduate of Villanova, is a member of both Wildcats’ and state of Pennsylvania Halls of Fame. He is a native of East Haven, Conn., where he is also enshrined in its Hall of Fame. Keefe and wife, Kathleen, raised four grown children in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

 

Frank Keefe represents the best of USA Swimming - dedication, hard work, a commitment to inclusion, and excellence. There are no better words to express why Frank Keefe represents a person who has given so much to the sport than the inscription on another award given every year:

"The Frank Keefe Trophy: Presented Annually to the Ivy League Women's Swimming and Diving Team Champion Given by the Yale Women's Teams captains and swimmers to honor the Yale swimming traditions and the coach who inspired them to excellence both in and out of the pool."