Acknowledgments:
This is a history dedicated to all the hard working swimmers of past and present who swam at Burris, Central, Northside and Southside. This history started out as a curiosity to times that my two kids were up against in their swimming pursuits and a way to pass the time during my wife's illness. It has has now become an active hobby. Muncie is blessed with a rich high school and club swimming history. This is an attempt to document and preserve that history.
Many thanks goes to former Titan and Bearcat Coach Bob Chico for getting me started on the quest to document the history of Muncie swim history. His detailed records gave me the incentive to document the rich history of Muncie Central swimming. Bob Chico's contributions to the sport of swimming to this community is immeasurable. I also would like to credit all the former staff of one of America’s premier high school yearbooks, the Muncie Central Magician. Those yearbooks along with the Northside North Star were tremendous tools in tracing the chronological wins and losses of the swim teams and aided me in acquiring the picture history of this swimming. Though not perfect, the yearbooks were an essential guide in this chronology. The Northside history is very incomplete and will still take some digging--especially girls' state swims. It totally amazed me to find how all of the Northside sports history was simply discarded when the school closed. The Burris Oracle also aided me, but often had no season records let alone picture captions. Muncie South history is also a work in process, though I feel confident in posting their known complete boys' and girls' sectional results. The South history is tough to research due to its limited successes, but I have nothing but admiration for the kids who have swam there.
I also would like to thank former Muncie Central coach Steve Spradlin, and his assistant Gena Coers, in aiding my research when asked. The staff of the Muncie Public Library and the Muncie Central Memorabilia Room were also a great help in searching old yearbooks and newspaper accounts of swim seasons past. Thanks also to the Ball State University Archive Center for their assistance. Many thanks to Tom Lyon, former Muncie Southside and Muncie Central Athletic director, for the Olympic Conference information and to my former classmate and great athlete, Cindy Parker Nestel, for the early Northside Girls' information and pictures. Former Central swimmer Gordon Heck and North great Tim Courtney were appreciated in their recollections to requested information. The IHSAA.org website along with the Indiana High School Swimming Coaches Association website, and the now deceased Indianaswimming.org website, were also a big help.
While browsing through the following pages,
you will understand that this is not a definitive nor perfect history. It is a work in progress at best. Too many pages have "known" and "under construction" written on them, especially the girls' history of the sport. Times and results are missing, especially
from invitational’s, conference meets, sectionals and state championships. It is a shame on how the local papers did not and still not respect the reporting of times in this sport. I do feel confident of the times I have researched and confirmed. I would like to make an appeal to all former swimmers in obtaining more times and pictures. I especially would like to have the school and pool records of Burris, Central, South and Northside. If there are swimmer’s out there who have
more information or photo memories please let us know what is missing or what
is incorrect. Be patient when opening the PDF files. They are large files! Now that I am retired, I plan to update all the information here.
Preston Proctor
beth.preston.proctor@gmail.com
January 2022