Huckaby: No one can replace a coach like Jack Bauerle

Darrell Huckaby, a native of Porterdale, Ga, is a double graduate of UGA and a retired educator with 40 years of classroom experience.

The first thing you notice about Jack Bauerle is the smile and the friendly eyes. He always looks like he knows something you don’t. That’s because he obviously does.

Maybe he knows something about training swimmers or the formula for water itself. Or maybe he just knows something about getting along with people.

“Everybody loves him,” University of Virginia athletics director, Carla Williams, once said to me about Jack Bauerle, and everybody does. And I think he loves everybody - or almost everybody - and I believe that it is his keen insight into people and his ability to develop and maintain positive relationships that have made him one of the most successful coaches in the history of the University of Georgia, the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA.

I didn’t qualify my statement by adding the most successful “swimming” coaches. I said coaches, and the statement stands.

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Jack came to Athens from Philly in 1970. It was a wonderful year for matriculation to the University of Georgia. I arrived on campus the same week he did. I had to leave after four years. Jack was smart enough to find a way to stay forever. Since becoming head women’s coach in 1979, and assuming the added duty of the men’s program in 1983, his accomplishments as UGA swim coach will never be approached. Not broken, not duplicated - they will never be approached. Not by anybody. Not anywhere.

Seven National Championships. 50 times in the top ten. His men and women swimmers have won a combined 175 national championships in individual and relay events. He has been SEC Coach of the Year 18 times. His women’s teams have won 342 dual meets, including 106 straight at home over one 22-year stretch. Only one other coach has won more than 300 duals. He won another 253 dual meets as men’s coach. His total number of 595 wins puts him second on the all-time list. He was Olympic Head Coach for the Beijing Games and has coached in the past six Olympics. He never lost to Georgia Tech.

Numbers, numbers, numbers. Unbelievable numbers and so many of them that they get lost in the listing. They are sort of like the foul language in Yellowstone and Ozark. They come so fast, and the list is so long that you become desensitized to them after a while.

The same is true for all the honors Jack has received, not only as related to swimming but for his love and service to the University. He is a member of Gridiron, Sphinx, Blue Key, Phi Kappa Phi and is a Bill Hartman Award recipient. He has been honored for his contributions to humanity by the Boy Scouts of America and the American Cancer Society. Again, the list, like Sonny and Cher’s beat, goes on and on and on - and doesn’t begin to tell the story of Jack Bauerle’s uniqueness any more than his list of coaching accolades.

What sets Jack Bauerle apart from the rest of humanity is that he is a quality person who surrounds himself with other quality people - and always looks for the best in everyone. When you look for the best, you find it and, in Jack’s case, you bring the best out in other people.

I spoke with Coach Vince Dooley about Jack and he had this to say. “Well, I wasn’t real sure about Jack when I hired him in 1979, but Coach Eaves hadn’t been real sure about me when he hired me and I wasn’t real sure about myself. I knew I could get him cheap and that was a big consideration back then. I guess it worked out. Heck, he coached longer than Dan Magill. I’d say that’s a pretty good investment. ... He is a great person and great coach.”

So many, many people can say of Jack Bauerle, “He’s a close personal friend,” including me. I was glad to know that Jack was close by when my children were in school at UGA. Time and space prohibit me from sharing the many ways he was of service to them, often without their knowledge. 

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Oh, did I tell you that Jack is retiring as Georgia swim coach, effective at the end of the month? It is a loss that no one person will be able to fill. Luckily, Josh Brooks is well aware of that and has already chosen two people to take over Jack’s job title. No one will ever replace him. Stefanie Williams Moreno will become head women’s swimming and diving coach and Neil Versfeld will succeed Bauerle as men’s coach. We all wish them well. Having swam for Jack and been part of the legacy he leaves; they know what big clogs they have to fill.

But Jack isn’t going far. He is thankful for the opportunity to stay close to the program and UGA president Jere Moorhead will afford him many opportunities to serve as an ambassador of goodwill for the school.

Said Jack this week, “President Moorhead has been so great to me in so many ways that I cannot even express them, especially providing me what will be my greatest honor of addressing the December commencement. That is the high point of my career. I never dreamed when I came to Georgia that Georgia would become my life.”

I could go on and on, but there are really three words that sum up Jack Bauerle and his relationship with Georgia.

Damn good dog. I’m glad he is ours.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Huckaby: No one can replace a coach like Jack Bauerle