John Boyd

Abstract

John and I swam together when we were in our early teens at the Erie Y.M.C.A. on 10th and Peach Street under Bob Fields who was the swimming coach. I started out as a swimmer, but one day we lost our diver Alan Cokefair who got sick and they needed a diver, so since I was a gymnast, they had me fill in his spot for a meet. As it turned out, Alan was an over weight kid and I could beat him in diving easily, so I became a diver while continuing to compete in swimming. John was a barrel chested kid and very sensitive about his swimming and was always asking me to watch his stroke for he wanted it to be perfect.