Princeton won its 5th consecutive Ivy League championship in 2013. Archive photo courtesy of The Ivy League.
Princeton athletic director Mollie Marcoux Samaan announced on Monday that C. Rob Orr is retiring as the head coach of Princeton men’s swimming and diving team. Orr wrapped up a 40-year career at the helm of the Tigers’ program at 2019 NCAA Championships in Austin where freshman Raunak Khosla earned All-American honors with a 11th-place finish in the 400 IM.
Orr’s 330 dual meet victories make him the third-most winning men’s coach in Division I. His teams have earned 23 Ivy League Championship titles, including in seven of the last 11 years. Under Orr’s leadership, Princeton produced 38 individual All-Americans and 24 All-American relays. Princeton has had five Top 20 finishes at the NCAA Championships during Orr’s tenure.
Orr’s swimmers won two NCAA championships in the 200 medley relay in 1989 and 1990. Mike Ross, Ty Nelson, Rich Korhammer and Rob Musslewhite won the event in 1989, while Ross, Nelson, Leroy Kim, and Erik Osborn set an American record while claiming the title the following year. Orr also coached several Olympians, including 1988 Olympic 200 backstroke finalist Dan Veatch, 1992 Olympic double gold medalist Nelson Diebel, 2000 and 2004 Olympian Juan Pablo Valdivieso, and 2008 Olympians Bryan Tay and current assistant coach Doug Lennox.
Princeton finished either 1st or 2nd in its conference (which until 2009 included several other schools in addition to the eight Ivies) every season from 1982-83 until 2016-17, when the Tigers did not compete in the second half of the season. After Princeton received a complaint about material on the University-sponsored men’s swimming and diving team listserv that was described in a press release as “vulgar,” “offensive,” “racist,” and “misogynistic,” Orr and Marcoux Samaan made the decision to suspend the men’s team for the second half of 2016-17 season. Competition resumed in 2017-18 and the Tigers finished second to Harvard in each of the last two seasons.
Orr received the Richard E. Steadman Award in 2015, and honor conferred annually to a swimming or diving coach in high school, club, or university ranks who, in the opinion of the CSCAA, has done the most to spread happiness in Coach Steadman’s beloved sport of swimming and diving.
Orr graduated from USC in 1972. In addition to coaching at Princeton, he served as head coach at the 1991 Olympic Festival and was the head women’s coach for the 1993 U.S. national junior team. He has also served on the NCAA Swimming and Diving Committee.
Princeton’s press release announced that a national search for Orr’s replacement would begin immediately.
Here is my Coach Orr story. In the early 1980’s, I was coaching a high school team in Connecticut. My co-captains had applied to Princeton. Both were outstanding students and leaders but not nearly fast enough to be Ivy recruitable. Nevertheless, Coach Orr called me at home over Christmas break to let me know how impressed he was with both boys even though he could not advocate for their admission on the basis of their times. Many must cherish the honor of this man’s acquaintance.
Rob was a coach that put the swimmer first and trusted them to know what’s best for themself. I’ll never forget the day when one of my teammates simply told Rob he felt terrible, got out in the middle of practice, and Rob trusted him in that decision. This perspective of his was also invaluable at a school like Princeton where swimming often had to yield to academics.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that my swimming career would have effectively ended after high school with a different coach. After too many egotistical, type-A, dictator club coaches, I was burnt out and just tired. Instead, I found new energy in wanting to swim for a man who was unlike any… Read more »
We are a vapor here for a little while then GONE.
Wow… the greatness that is the Dean is now causing rival coaches to retire!
(All joking aside, congrats to a coaching legend!)
Rob is the OG
It was an honor to swim for Rob for 4 years. He has always had a knack for lifting the team’s spirits during the toughest training and inspiring them to get the most out of their talent. Ask anyone who swam for him, and they’d say he treated everyone with respect and had a unique way of bringing his humility and sense of humor to the sport. Thank you, Rob!!
The hay is in the barn Rob! What a fantastic career as a coach, mentor, and friend.
Congratulations Coach Orr!! Going to miss sharing the pool deck with you every January. You are a class act and left a tremendous mark on a lot of people!