SWIMMING REMEMBERS A GREAT ARCHITECT OF THE POOL
CANBERRA, October 16: Swimming Australia has lost one of its longest-serving life members, former Olympic and Commonwealth Games team manager, architect and master statistician, Stuart Alldritt OAM.
Alldritt, a man who became passionate about the sport of swimming after selling programs at North Sydney Olympic Pool at the 1938 Commonwealth Games in Sydney, passed away last Saturday after a short illness. He was 84.
He led the Olympic team to Mexico in 1968 with the likes of Mike Wenden and Lyn McClements and the 1962 Commonwealth Games team which included Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose.
An architect by trade, Alldritt was credited with the construction of many of the original 25 metre short course pools, including Castle Cove and Killarney which sprung up in Sydney throughout the 60s and 70s.
It will be a legacy he can be proud of, with indoor training in that era playing a major role in the all-year-round training which transformed the sport from just a summer past time.
And as a NSW and Australian selector he was also responsible for the make-up of so many great Australian Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams.
He had a mind for times and splits and was the keeper of the records - so often the "go-to-man" for journalists, researchers, movie-makers and television broadcasters, who remembered the greats like Andrew "Boy" Charlton and followed the careers of so many of the legends of the sport.
Alldritt was the man who supplied so much information for Peter Fenton's book - "A Man Called Boy."
From the Konrads kids John and Ilsa to John Devitt and Terry Gathercole; from Mike Wenden and Shane Gould to Michelle Ford and Tracey Wickham to the modern day stars like Kieren Perkins, Susie O'Neill, Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett - Stuart Alldritt saw them all.
The swimming community turned out to pay their respects at today's funeral service at St Peter's Presbyterian Church, North Sydney.
Among those in attendance were Olympic legend John Devitt, 1980 and 1984 Olympians Ron McKeon and Graeme Brewer, four-time Olympic water polo captain Peter Montgomery, 1968 Olympic silver medallist Lynn Bates (nee Watson) and coaching gurus Forbes and Ursula Carlile.
Joining them were Swimming Australia president David Urquhart, Australian Water Polo president Peter Kerr, Swimming Victoria president Geoff Hare, Swimming NSW CEO Ian Harkness, former Swimming Australia and NSW CEO Glenn Tasker and Australian selector Tony Woodhouse.
Rome Olympic gold medallist and 1956 swim team captain John Devitt spoke glowingly of Alldritt's contribution to swimming and his passion for the sport.
"I don't think I've met anyone in my time in the sport who was as passionate about swimming as Stuart Alldritt," recalled Devitt.
"He has lived and breathed swimming ever since he and his best mate, the late Roger Pegram OAM both attended those Games in 1938.
"Stuart would go on to join the Balmoral and Spit Diggers Swimming Clubs, swam at the CHS Swimming carnivals and became race secretary and handicapper before joining NSW Swimming.
"He was a NSW selector for 40 years and an Australian selector for 25 years and was elected as a Life Member of Swimming Australia in 1992.
"Stuart will long be remembered as a man who fell in love with the sport of swimming and swimming owes him a huge debt of gratitude."
He is survived by his second wife Margaret; sons Scott, Reece and Murray and grandchildren Sam, Jay and Kai. - Ian Hanson