Courtesy: Minnesota Athletics
MINNEAPOLIS – For her impact on the University of Minnesota and the swimming community as a whole, former Minnesota coach Terry Ganley has been named the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Executive Board of the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association (CSCAA), it was announced Thursday.
Ganley will be recognized at the 61st Annual CSCAA College Swimming & Diving Awards on May 2, in Rosemont, Ill.
The longest-tenured coach in the history of Gopher Athletics, Ganley announced her retirement in March of 2021 after 44 seasons with the swimming and diving programs. She helped lead the Golden Gophers to seven team Big Ten Championships and 17 NCAA Top-15 finishes. On her watch, the Gophers won 15 individual national titles, earned All-America honors 299 times and accumulated 532 All-America certificates. Her student-athletes also claimed 147 Big Ten championships, and her women’s program amassed a dual meet record of 318-83-5 during the 44 seasons.
A Minneapolis native, Ganley began her Gopher career in the fall of 1973 as a freshman swimmer and remained on campus ever since. She won her first Big Ten title in 1974, winning the 50 backstroke, and advanced to the AIAW National Championships, where she sold t-shirts to help fund her trip to the meet. That March, she earned All-America honors in the event to become Minnesota’s first female All-American in any sport. She would go on to earn All-America honors two more times in 1975 (50 free and 100 IM) and once more in 1976 in the 200 freestyle relay. She won the 1977 Big Ten title in the 100 IM, as well.
After the conclusion of her swimming career and a degree in physical education in 1977, she began her coaching career under her college coach, Jean Freeman. The coaching combo began a steady build of the program that included numerous close calls in claiming the program’s first Big Ten championship. The Gophers finished second nine times between 1984 and 1998. Finally, the Gophers broke through to win their first Big Ten title in 1999 and a second one the next year. In 1997, Ganley coached Gretchen Hegener to the 1997 national title in the 100 breaststroke, Minnesota’s first NCAA swimming champion.
In 2004, Freeman retired and Ganley was named interim coach. Eventually, Ganley and Kelly Kremer, who had been coaching with the men’s program, were named co-head coaches of the women’s team. The duo earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors in 2006 and led the Gopher women to their third conference title in 2008.
When the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs merged in 2011, Kremer was named the overall head coach. Ganley continued in her role as women’s head coach, and later as women’s and men’s senior associate head coach.
The program then began a period of unprecedented success becoming the school’s first women’s team to win four consecutive Big Ten championships, repeating from 2012-15. From 2006 to 2015, the Gophers finished no lower than 13th at the NCAA Championships, including a program-best ninth in 2011. In 2014, Minnesota finished 10th at the NCAA meet, snagging All-America honors in 16 different events, a program record. Ganley was involved in the development of three NCAA Champions during this period as well. The Gophers swept the breaststroke events in 2011 with Jillian Tyler winning the 100 and Haley Spencer taking the 200. In 2015, Kierra Smith won the 200 breaststroke. In her final season, she assisted in the development of Max McHugh, who won the 2021 NCAA titles in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, becoming the first men’s NCAA swimming champion in nearly 60 years.
Confirming Ganley’s commitment to a well-rounded student-athlete experience, eight members of the women’s program have won the Big Ten Medal of Honor. At least a dozen women have earned Academic All-Big Ten status in each of Ganley’s 17 years as head coach or associate head coach.
Ganley was inducted into the Minnesota Aquatics Hall of Fame in 1984 and the M Club Hall of Fame in 1990.