Doris Hogan

Member 1974 - 1983

• USMS National Records – 16 Lifetime

• USMS All American Honors – 5 years, 27 Individual

• USMS Top Ten Achievements – 68 Individual

• NE LMSC Individual Records – 31 Lifetime

USMS Profile

Doris (Fitzgerald) Hogan was born on September 1, 1900, brought up in Springfield, Massachusetts, lived most of her adult life in the greater Boston area, eventually retiring to Glastonbury, Connecticut.

From 1915-1921 she had great success in swimming contests when competitive swimming was a new sport. At age 13 she won her first swimming cup in a race in the Connecticut River in 1915. In 1918 Doris won the women’s 100-yard race at a swimming carnival held at the Riverside pool in Springfield with a time of 1:31.6. 

At Sargent College in 1922 Doris “Fitzy” swam, dove and was manager of the varsity swimming team, which swam against Radcliffe at the Cambridge YMCA in the first women’s intercollegiate swimming meet held in America. Doris won first place in that meet and was elected captain of the 1923 Sargent team. 

From 1923 through 1933 Doris was director of physical education of public schools, first in Virginia and then in Massachusetts. In 1933 she married attorney John M. Hogan and started raising a family.

Doris entered her first Masters meet in December 1973. She arrived at the meet at the Medford High School pool with a friend who had casually suggested that she bring her suit along. It was only after she arrived that she realized that she was meant to be a participant in the meet rather than just a spectator.  Doris won two events she swam (70-74 age group) and both times set national records. 

Doris competed at Masters meets from 1974 through 1983.  She would wave to her fans as she swam, doing a racing dive for every race, saying that “there wouldn’t’ be staring blocks if we weren’t mean to use them,” answering the cheers of those urging her to keep going in a breaststroke race by saying at each breath, “I’m trying, I’m trying,” wearing her yellow terry-cloth sundress with her “All-American” patch displayed proudly on the front, her toenails painted red and showing brightly in her flip flops on the deck, her hugs of good luck wishes and congratulations, her giggle that one could see all over her face, her many ribbons, just about all of the blue, with every event, dated, time, and place written carefully on them, her team suit and loyalty to New England Masters. 

In 1978 she was on “Evening Magazine” a show which inspired hundreds of adults in New England to get into the swim, no matter what their age. She was also the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, and even Morocco, where she went to visit her daughter and family. The press dubbed her “The Swimming Grandmother”

Masters swimming remained her greatest joy until her death in 2020 at the age of 87.

Abraham “Abe” Olanoff

Member 1973 - 1995

• USMS National Records – 6 Lifetime

• USMS All American Honors – 8 years, 26 Individual

• USMS Top Ten Achievements – 276 Individual

• NE LMSC Individual Records – 5 Current, 165 Lifetime

USMS Profile

“You win a race before you start. If you decide to win, you’ll beat all your competitors.” This quote from Abe sums up his attitudes on life and how he chose to live it. He loved to compete at swim meets. He loved to help others, but most of all he loved his family.

Born in Lynn, Olanoff graduated from Classical HS and learned to swim at a young age. He used to swim at beaches in Lynn and Swampscott and taught swimming at summer camps in Maine and New Hampshire. He also helped blind people learn to swim at a weekly program at the JCC in Marblehead (now Northshore JCC).

Abe was coached by Jack Hayden and was one of the first swimmers from the JCC to become active in Masters swimming starting in 1972. He developed so well that he was named All American in the 200-yard breaststroke in 1978 and 100 IM in 1979.  In 1980 Abe ranked first in almost every event in NEM’s All Time Top Ten in the Men’s 70-74 age group. 

Abe credits Phil Whitten (an NEM member until moving to Arizona in 1992 and previous Editor in Chief of “Swimming World” and “SWIM” magazines) with being his mentor and encouraging him to compete. Whitten, however, credits Abe’s stubbornness as the main reason why he’s been so successful at the sport of swimming. Abe was disqualified because he didn’t lift his elbow out of the water. Phil reminded him that he was 85 and told him to forget it. Abe ignored him and insisted Phil connect him with a coach who helped him overcome the problem. It simply did not occur to Abe that this is something he cannot do because of his age.

In 1987 Abe had the fastest LCM times in the World in the 80-84 age group in the 200 Breast and 100 Fly, 2nd in the 800 Free, 50 Breast and 50 Fly and was top ten in 3 other events. All these times established New England records. 

In 1991 Abe broke the World Records in the 85-89 age group in the Long Course 50 and 100 Fly and 400 Individual Medley.

If Abe Olanoff had a day without a dip in the Marblehead JCC pool, he is literally like a fish out of water. Asked what he particularly likes about Masters swimming, he replied, “sociability, health, and personal achievement.” 

Laurence "Larry" Smith

Member 1972 - 1977

• USMS National Records – 14 Lifetime

• USMS All American Honors – 5 years, 24 Individual

• USMS Top Ten Achievements – 56 Individual

• NE LMSC Individual Records – 10 Lifetime

USMS Profile

Larry was an original member of New England Masters Swim Club founded in 1972. He swam at the Newton YMCA. In January of 1976 at the age of 64, he died of a massive heart attack during a swim workout. 

A member for only 5 years, he held NE LMSC records in the 60-64 SCY and LCM 50, 100 and 200 backstroke events. He broke the national record in the men’s 60-64 age group in the 200 yard back and was the backstroker on NEM’s 45+ men’s medley relay team with Ted Haartz (breast) Hal Onusseit (fly) and Ed Reed (free).

William "Bill" Yorzyk

Member 1975, 1980 - 1989

• USMS National Records – 14 Lifetime

• USMS All American Honors – 8 years, 24 Individual

• USMS Top Ten Achievements – 56 Individual

• NE LMSC Individual Records – 33 Lifetime

USMS Profile

Bill started swimming competitively at age 17, as a premed student at Springfield College in his hometown of Springfield, MA. “I’d always wanted to be an athlete in high school, but I was always the first kid cut from the baseball, basketball and football squads.” Red Silvia his college coach, saw something in a freshman who was for all intents and purposes a non-swimmer.  Bill had the drive, ambition and intelligence to follow though. 

Five years after joining the Springfield swim team, Yorzyk surprised every coach who had ever doubted his athletic ability. The 22-year-old competitor won a gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. He also set a world record of 2:18.03 for the event, which made its Olympic debut that year. 

“Nobody, but nobody, thought I would get a gold medal, much less a world record.” Yorzyk finished 10 yards ahead of the nearest competitor. “Getting that gold medal draped abound my neck in Melbourne was the most thrilling moment of my life, a very patriotic feeling.”

Yorzyk was the first competitor to swim the “dolphin-butterfly” stroke, using two kicks to one arm cycle, the first to use the every other stroke breathing cycle and the first to apply such principles of physics as the law of levers and the bending the elbow during the propulsive phase of the arm stroke, the laws of inertia in the arm stroke recovery. 

After graduating in 1960 from the University of Toronto Medical School, Yorzyk established a private practice in anesthesiology and took a lengthy hiatus from his sport. 

The New England All Time Top Tens show that back in 1975 Bill made a brief first appearance in Masters competition. “At age 40, I found myself fat and lazy”. Yorzyk quickly proved he could still race with the best. It was from 1981 through 1984 that Bill took Masters swimming most seriously. In 1983 at the age of 50, Bill set NE records in 12 events and a World Record in the 200 Fly. In 1989 at the age of 55 he set NE records in 4 events.

After 1984 Bill laid low until 1988 (an age up year to the 55-59 age group) and competed at 1988 and 1989 SC Nationals in Austin Texas and Boca Raton Florida. 1989 was the last year he competed (reconstructive shoulder surgery) earning All American honors in the Men’s 55-59 SCY 200 Fly.

The January 1990 issue of The Main Event, a sports journal for physicians, selected the 10 best physician-athletes of all time. Bill was selected for swimming (other notables – Tenley Albright – figure skating, Roger Bannister – track and field, Sammy Lee - diving, Benjamin Spock – rowing).

“Swimming in Masters events actually makes me look forward to getting older.”

Frederick “Fred” Allen

• USMS Pool All American Honors – 8 years (33 individual)

• USMS Top Ten Achievements – 73 individual

Fred Allen, a native of Nottingham, England was educated in New York’s Stuyvesant High School and at Springfield College (class of 1924). He received a master’s degree in education from Boston University in 1936. A World War I Army veteran, Allen also was a physical education teacher in the Providence public school system for over 40 years, retiring in 1968. Although Fred was active in sports and physical conditioning all his life, it was not until 1977 at the age of 78 that his competitive swimming career began.  

He was “horsed” into swimming Masters by his son Monroe, a NEM member. There was a mini-meet in Seekonk and Monroe suggested that Fred bring his suit with him, so that he could swim between heats.  When he arrived at the pool, he was advised “the first event is a 200-yard handicap race and you’re in it.”  Fred had not swum that far in at least 15 years, but he started (crawl) and finished (backstroke). When he learned that his time would have placed him in the Top 10 nationally in his age group, that, as Fred put it, “really fired up the furnace.”

At the 1980 Short Course National meet in Fort Lauderdale, Fred who was over the age of 80, was summoned from the bleachers to take the place of a missing teammate in the men’s 35+ freestyle relay already in progress. The relay team won no medals, but Fred won the hearts of his teammates. 

“Well, I finished, didn’t I?” The quotation was characteristic of Fred’s attitude towards competitive swimming. He liked the training and the good physical condition that it brought. Although he didn’t object to the medals, the attention, and the records (he held several age-group long course world records at the time of his death at the age of 87 in 1986), he never became obsessed with winning, or thought that he was a phenomenally good swimmer, or lost his ability to chuckle at himself.  Once when asked why he participated in the Masters program, he said, “first, I was ‘horsed’ into it. Second, I like it for the health of it. I enjoy trying out new techniques in the art of swimming the different strokes. And third, where could you find a better group of people to share your experience with?”

Marguerite “Mardie” Brown

• USMS National Records – pool individual 7 lifetime

• USMS Pool All American Honors – 12 years (32 individual)

• USMS Long Distance All American Honors – 5 years (individual)

• USMS Top Ten Achievements – 239 individual

• USMS Profile

Mardie was born in Portland, Oregon, educated in the schools of Portland and received a bachelor's degree from Mills College. She met her husband, Donald Brown, while getting her master's in art at New York University, moving to Palermo Maine in 1949 and raising their three children Tony, Mike, and Dino   there.

Mardie taught art at a one-room schoolhouse and swimming lessons to the local children. She was a member of the Palermo Grange as well as the Farm Extension. Later in her life, Mardie worked as a probation and parole officer.

Mardie describes her pre-masters swimming history as “rather short.” It consisted of her swimming 400 meters in a telegraphic net at Mills College to pace another girl. Mardie set too fast a pace and won the race. She first became involved in the Masters program in 1976 participating “in a little meet in Augusta” and found she had the killer instinct, so she joined New England Masters.

She regards as her most memorable Masters race the 1500-meter free at the 1985 Long Course Nationals at Brown University because she swam 1600 meters instead of 1500! The year before she had set a national record for the 1500 in the 60-64 age group, but the record stood for only 10 days.

Mardie was a very athletic person, participating in competitive running and swimming events well into her 80s and receiving world recognition for holding records in swimming in various masters age groups. She was an inspiration to many with her commitment to working out and setting the example that physical fitness can be an activity for life. 

Mardie’s son Dino says: “She would have been very proud to receive this honor. Mom was very competitive but not to a fault. Her winning was less important than her knowing she had done her very best meeting the thrill of the challenge.”

Irving Katz

• USMS Pool All American Honors – 11 years (39 individual)

• USMS Top Ten Achievements – 206 individual

Irv swam for Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York, class of 1941. He captained the team for three years, set a school backstroke record, and finished undefeated in his last year. His best events were the 50 and 100 free and the 100 back. He started his college career at Brooklyn College, where he broke the college and pool record for the 150-yard backstroke in his first varsity season. Teammates voted him “most valuable” after his first season.  

He continued to swim at Cornell University starting in 1941 by setting backstroke records for the 100 and 150 distances. Unlike most college swimmers in those pre-Masters days, Irv kept competing for several years after graduation. He won the NY State AAU backstroke title in 1948. In 1953, at the then-seemingly-advanced age of 29, he scooped up two golds, a silver, and a bronze at the 1953 Southeast AAU Conference Championships.  

In 1954 Irv and his wife Rosalie moved to the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, area and then to Rye, in 1977. It was at a long course meet at Brown in August of 1979 that convinced Irv that Masters swimming competition would provide him a worthwhile diversion in his then-imminent retirement as a consultant in management technology. “That, was a most pleasant experience: good people, good swimming, a most beautiful college town weekend.”

John Merrill

• USMS National Records – pool individual 6 lifetime, 2 currently held

• USMS Pool All Star Honors – 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

• USMS Pool All American Honors – 17 years (25 individual)

• USMS Long Distance All American Honors – 1 year (1 individual)

• USMS Top Ten Achievements – 350 individual

• USMS Profile

John Merrill was born February 12, 1917, in Buffalo, New York. After high school, John attended the New York State Merchant Marine Academy. There he continued his tradition of strong swimming established in high school. On one occasion in 1936, he swam an exhibition backstroke event with Olympian Walter Spence in Bermuda. He swam in a meet against the Panamanian Olympic Team in Balboa, Panama.

Merrill served in the United States Coast Guard from 1938-1951. His assignments included International Iceberg Patrol (1940), Ketchikan, Alaska (1942-1944), U.S. Coast Guard Radio Engineering and Maintenance School at Avery Point Groton, Connecticut (1944-1951). He was employed at the Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory from 1951 to 1979, eventually becoming head of the submarine electromagnetic systems department there.

After WWII, John stopped swimming competitively until the early 1970s when he caught wind of the fledgling Masters program. He held many national titles and age-group records in U.S. Masters Swimming, most recently being affiliated with the New England Masters Swim Club after many years with Connecticut Masters.

Following his retirement, Merrill wrote several books and articles on marine subjects. He served as president of the Waterford Library Board, was a member of the Connecticut State Library Board, and was a fellow of the Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport. Among other honors, Lafayette High School in Buffalo recognized him as an outstanding alumnus in 2007. The Town of Waterford named him Citizen of the Year in 1987.

From long time Connecticut Masters Teammate Ronnie Kamphausen “John has to satisfy himself. His satisfaction comes not just in winning, but in measuring his performance against what he's done and hopes to do in the future.” 

John’s youngest son Justin swam for the University of Maine and his grandsons Colin and Liam swam for Connecticut College. The Merrill swimming legacy is on its third generation!