May 18, 2006

Legendary UT swimming coach Ray Bussard will have the Andrew Lewis Middle School track dedicated in his name Saturday, May 20 at noon in Salem, Va.

Salem Mayor Sonny Tarpley thinks it's time for the boys who ran track for Ray Bussard at Andrew Lewis High School to pay a debt of gratitude for their old coach.

"The unique thing about Coach is that he has never lost touch with his athletes -- no matter where or scattered they are," Tarpley said. "He cared for his boys He should be remembered for that."

Tarpley, winner of the mile for Bussard's state championship team of 1959, will emcee the dedication of Ray Bussard Track at Andrew Lewis Middle School.

Bussard coached track at Andrew Lewis High School from August 1956 through August 1959. During his tenure at the school the track team had a record of 14-1. His teams never lost a city-county meet, a western district meet, and won a total of four state championships.

"We didn't even have a track," Tarpley added. " We used Roanoke College's track for our home meets ... and it wasn't of regulation length. We had to run four-and-a-half laps instead of four in the mile run."

Bussard left Andrew Lewis to become the coach at Red Bank High School in Chattanooga where he won championships in track and football.

Bussard went from Red Bank to Tennessee where he is most known for his 21 years of dedication to the University of Tennessee swimming program. Bussard won eight SEC championships and the NCAA championship in 1978.

In his time at the helm of the Tennessee swimming program, Ray Bussard led UT the heights of the program's history with an overall coaching record of 252-20 in 21 seasons.

Bussard guided the Tennessee program from its infancy in 1968 to an NCAA championship 10 years later. The title run of 1978 added luster to a sparkling eight-year span from 1972-1979, during which the Vols never finished out of the top four in the country.

Bussard came to the University of Tennessee in the winter of 1966, saw the construction of the UT Aquatic Center, which was completed in 1967 and, in 1968, put the Vols on the road that would establish them as a national power. After a 32nd-place finish in 1969, Bussard led teams that were perennial top-10 finishers at the NCAA championships from 1970-79. He coached the swim team at UT for 22 years, retiring in 1989, the year the UT Student Aquatic Center indoor pool was named for him. His tenure was the longest for a head coach at UT without interrupted service until Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt surpassed that achievement.