Harry Hauck: Polo Pirate of the Caribbean – Swimming World Magazine

Editors Note: erroneous reports out of Puerto Rico said that Harry Hauck, considered by most to be the grandfather of water polo on the island, had passed away after a lengthy illness. Swimming World inadvertently published an obituary to this effect. In fact, Coach Hauck is alive andeven though his health is not greatstill with us. Following is an interview done with him in May 2020.

Despite reports to the contrary, Harry Hauck, one of the most important people in Puerto Rican water polo history, has not cleared out from the locker room of life.

As many have attestedfrom Manuel de Jesus, a long-time coach and official in Puerto Rico, to Carlos Steffens, arguably the best polo player the island ever producedHauck is one of a kind, a Puerto Rican living legend who, upon his arrival in 1964 was responsible for launching the countrys national team program. If this was his only accomplishment, Haucks achievements might not be so grand, his legend not so large.

A tireless worker for aquatic success both in his native Michigan and in his adopted home pf Puerto Rico, the swimmer turned Navy frogman, turned coach, turned scuba diver extraordinaire sustained both a national water polo program and a rewarding career in open water swimming, one which took him and his family all over the world.

Following is a transcript of the unvarnished Harry Hauck: his time in Detroit as a swimmer, polo player and coach; his stint with the U.S. Navy during the Korean War; his flight to Puerto Rico where he built a viable national team from scratch; his connection to the 1979 Puerto Rican teamconsidered to be the islands best everand numerous open water swim exploits.

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I was the only water polo player in the world that was a bonafide member of a water polo team and couldnt swim a stroke.

I could not swim. I had some friends, neighborhood buddies. I used to go down to the local recreation center in Detroit, which had a water polo chairman within the recreation department. At the end of adult swimming, all the swimmers would leave and the water polo team would practice.

I would sit in the balcony and watch them practice. And this was a 25-yard pool, so the shallow end had a big goal. one night I was sitting there watching and the coach hollered up: Hey, were short a man, come on down and play goalie in the shallow end.

Thats how I did it. He gave me a membership card to a mens water polo team. And I couldnt swim in the deep end.

I taught myself.

The St. Clair Recreation Center was [on] the East Side. I ended up on the water polo team. Two years later, I earned my varsity letter swimming for Wayne State University (in 1947).

They didnt have [a water polo team] when I was there, but they got one later. I ended up as a Navy frogman, three years after I learned to swim.

The Korean War [was on] and I enlisted. I had seen the movie about the frogmen. I went through and was accepted. I made it through hell week and was in Team 2 on the East Coast. I was in the Navy from 51 to 55. Once the Korean War was over, I got out.

Demolition was very prominent in the Pacific. When the U S was patching together all those islands so we could bomb Japan. Once the Second World War ended, they broke up the teams. When Korea started, they reactivated them.

I was one of the early ones activated. It turned out that there was no amphibious warfare in Korea. So, they started doing inland excursions. And thats how SEALS were born.

The West Coast had Teams One, Three and Five. The East Coast had Two and Fourand Two and Four were doing all the experimental work. We were in Europe. I dove in Greenland. I did night sneak attacks in Guantanamo Bay.

When people introduce me as a SEAL, I jump all over them. I said: I was never a SEAL. I came before the SEALS, and they take umbrage with saying youre a SEAL and you werent.

I went to Puerto Rico in 1952 with the Navy. After my UDT (Underwater Demolition Training), I was an instructor in the next class. I came down here as a program instructor and I put through the winter class at the Navy base in [Roosevelt Roads], Puerto Rico. I fell in love with the island. When I got out, I went back to Detroit, met my wife, got married, had kids, graduated from college.

I went back to work for the recreation department. I always had one foot in the islands. In 1964, the US Olympic team with training in California, I had a swimmer on [the team]. And I went out to watch. A guy who ran Swimming World magazine at that time [Peter Daland] put an ad in the magazine for me.I got a phone call from the Caribe Hilton. They said: Do you want to come to Puerto Rico? I didnt know what the hell was going on. I had a wife and two kids.

So, I burned all my bridges and came down here.

In 52 we were down south at the Navy base and I came up to San Juan a couple of times on liberty. But I didnt get a feel for the island until I moved down here. Things were just starting to change. The pharmaceutical companies had moved down here on a tax-free deal. And they were hiring a lot of local people and there was a middle-income group created in that period of time.

Before that it was just the rich and the poor.

No. There was a half-a-dozen age group and senior swim teams at the various clubs. The Navy had a team and the Army, too. I came to work at the Hilton and worked there for a while.

There was a guy who was selling scuba trips. Of course, I did that in the Navy. When I quit coaching, I went into business teaching diving. I was an instructor for 44 years.

Nothing! When I lived in the States, the coaches ran the sport. Except when it was an Olympic year. When I moved to Puerto Rico, we were part of FINA. So, the coaches had nothing to say; the civilians ran things. I locked arms with them, and they told me: You go ahead and start the sport, but were gonna run it.

Thats basically what happened. I got a team together. We used volleyballs, womens bathing caps, and put together two teams. And we had a newspaper come and take pictures. And that was the first water polo on the island.

1965.

They were all my players. Youve got to remember that, if youre a track coach, you can move to a country and get a couple of guys to run and jump. If you have a stopwatch youre in business.

A team sport, like water polo, first, you have to find 11 guys who can swim well and then you have to have goals and caps and balls. Theyve got to learn the rules. And then you got to teach all the officials how to time and keeps score.

And then you got to have somebody to play against.

Nobody. I taught everybody.

We created a Christmas tournament. I talked the association into holding a water polo tournament at Christmas time. We got the New York AC. we got, a couple of teams from California, they were junior colleges. A team from Switzerland came. Thats when coaches from California came and started recruiting players from Puerto Rico.

Youve got to remember, I started a sport on an island where there were no water polo players. We played amongst ourselves on clubs that didnt know what they were doing. And they were standing on the bottom all the time and catching the ball with two hands.

We had the Central American games, which is second only to the Pan Ams in that part of the world. There were teams left over from the old British dynasty. We had Jamaica and Trinidad and the Bahamas. They came for the tournament and we became friends.

There was an age group swimming tournament held in Jamaica. I took a team there, and the Jamaican players were all older guys, but they helped train my guys because they had no one to learn from. From there they got better and better.

When we went to the senior Central American Games in Panama [in 1970], that was a tryout for the Pan Ams. We had to finish in the top six from this part of the world, and we finished sixth on the last day, So, we were able to go.

Correct. They were held in Colombia.

I was going to swim the [English] Channel with my youngest son, and then come back and again with my whole family and swim a relay. So, I took him to England with me.

[Miguel Rivera and the Fantastic, Unbelievable and True Story of Pitt Water Polo and Puerto Rico]

I trained in a walk-in freezer and the veterans hospital. I got Miguel a grant because we used a freezing room and some hospital facility. He wrote a paper about cold water and senior citizens swimming.

We were in shape. We werent very skillful but we were in shape.

I had them wear sweatshirts and weight beltsand had seven of those guys play against seven who didnt have that. That made the guys in weights stronger and faster, they tended to play from behind against what the other half was wearing. It got to the point where you had to shoot more, otherwise you drown with the weights on.

I went to a Copa America Games in March for the opening ceremony, the pageantry was great. When I went to the Pan Am Games it wasnt the first time. What was interesting to me was the U.S. was deadly rivals of the Cubans, so when I got there, the U.S. coaches looked down their noses at me. Who was this clown?

Ted Newland thought a Latin was running this team. It was me and they didnt know who I was.

[Passages: Ted Newland, Coach Emeritus of UC Irvine Mens Water Polo, Passes Away at 91]

So, were sitting there, and [Newland] said: Youre gonna vote with us when its time to vote. Because I knew all the Cuban coaches from playing against them. I said: You know what? Youve got five guys [on your staff] and Im alone here. You got one vote and Ive got one vote.

Im just as good as you are.

For me, that was the success of the Pan Americans, that I was able to sit at a table with the so-called California trust.

In 69, the aquatic age group games were held in Havana. I coached the U15 and U17 team there. That was quite a deal because we flew to Havana and I had three children on the team. My sons [Harry Jr. and Timothy] played polo and my daughter [Krista] swam.

Our passports allowed for one roundwe were allowed to go there and then come back.

We stayed in a hotel called Habana Libre which was the old Hilton. We had two floors and there wasnt much to see, and a lot of security. I had a sportswriter call me from San Juan, and I could hear that my phone was tapped.

I was assigned a guide for myself and my 11 players, anywhere we went. We had a place where we could practice once a day. It was a club on the waterfront. We got there a little bit early and the Mexicans were training. I crossed the street and looked out at the ocean. The guide came along and I said: Any chance I can go diving while Im here.

He said: Oh no, no. You were here in 1954 with the Navy.

I almost fell off the step!

We were told by the state department, dont take anything over there, dont talk to anybody. [Before we left] I got phone calls from all kinds of peopleCubans[who would say]: My cousins still there, my brothers still there, would you mind taking this over?

I ended up with a couple of extra suitcases of medical supplies; I asked the people: How will I know whos who? Theyll come to you, they answered.

When we got ready to go back to Puerto Rico, an old man came [to the hotel]he was white hairedand I got into the elevator with him alone. I said: Ive got two suitcases full of stuff. He looked at me and then went in the elevator to the top floor and I gave it to him.

The association wouldnt even invite me [in 1979]. I watched part of a game on TV, and the announcers called Salabarra the guy who brought water polo to Puerto Rico. That just rubbed me the wrong way. Wed moved aggressively to play the game and to qualify for Pan Amswe were just about ready to break loose and do something when 71 came. And they bounced me out.

Thats left a bitter taste in my mouth over the years.

There was always a little bit of conflict between water polo and swimming. In 66 I had gotten enough polo playersenough guys to know the rules, handle the ball. They had some background, so when the time came for the 66 games, I put forth the names of eleven players. The swimming association said: No, no! Four of them are gonna swim, they cant play polo.

I dont know whats happening with polo on the island. One of my original polo players [Antonio Del Valle] became a doctor. He ended up at the University of Puerto Rico. Hes still and MD but he ran the water polo team at University of Puerto Ricohe was the athletic director over there.

He tried to start beach water polo, like beach volleyball.

He kind of keeps me updated but at one point in time we had a water polo league. We had a 12 and under, a 13, a 15 and a seniorwe had three different age groups and we actually had a league. One weekend, the games would be in San Juan, the next weekend they would be in Mayagez, then wed be in [Ponce].

They had a lot of games going on all the time. And I dont know what happened; I havent heard anything.

When the fiftieth year came around [in 2015], I called Del Valle [and said]: Look, its 50 years, we have to have some kind of commemoration. He put together a little tournament for the anniversary, and my second son [Timothy] came with a team from Miami and won second place.

My aquatic life started in a recreation center. Every recreation center had a swimming program. Theyd open up the pool at 2 in the afternoon and close them at 10 at night. During that time, you would have team swim, adult swim, womens nightbut youd also gave swimming lessons. And a swimming team and a water polo team.

Id go to work with a foot of snow falling, and itd be 100 in the pool.

Its hard to understand in a climate like you have here, why people dont swim. In places like Detroit, Chicago, New York, people swim all winter long and theyre public pools.

Given Puerto Ricos weather and great swimming tradition, you think there would be more involvement with the water.

When the 66 games came around, I was surprised there were water polo teams from the Bahamas, Trinidad, Jamaica, the British Islands. Apparently, they played water polo in their Commonwealth Games.

Over the years I started taking my scuba students to the beach for dives and making them bring back solid waste. I did 200 of those beach clean-ups. I got a bunch of awards from the island. The diving industry gave me an award for that.

Ive done long-distance swimming. I swam non-stop from St. Thomas to Puerto Rico when I was 55 years old for 30 hours to raise awareness of senior citizen fitness. And I swam the English Channel with my familya mother, father, and four kids. That was to raise awareness of family togetherness.

The last thing I did was a 24 hours swim in the ocean for AIDS awareness as every 24 hours, four people died from AIDS in Puerto Rico. So, I swam non-stop at a beach front for 24 hours.

All the long-distance swims I didI never made a dime on any of them. One of them took thirty days and I used my own vacation time. There used to be a radio program here called Living Legends. Theyd start on a Monday and say two things about a person, then [more] on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. On Friday, theyd wrap it all up and spend the whole hour [on the person].

I was one of those living legends. [Sometimes] Id meet someone and theyd say: Mr. Hauck living legend!

Im a legend here in Puerto Rico; if I go someplace else, Im nobody. I lived here 54 years.

My life has been aquatics; I worked in a pool before I went in the Navy. I was in a bathing suit all the time I was in the Navy.

My whole life has basically been in a bathing suitand Puerto Ricos got the right attitude for me.

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Harry Hauck: Polo Pirate of the Caribbean - Swimming World Magazine