Pitt swim coach has deep connections
Pitt swimming coach John Hargis won an Olympic gold medal and 12 NCAA championships during his long career. Yet nothing he did in the pool amazed his teammates more than that day in the White House when Bill Clinton shouted, “Hey, John, how're you doing?”
And Hargis' dad is a lifelong Republican.
Hargis, whose swimmers already have broken six school records in his first season at Pitt, swam the butterfly portion of the 400 medley relay for the U.S. team that won gold in Atlanta in 1996.
That was the year of the Olympic Park bombing that killed two and injured more than 100 people. Hargis was out of the Olympic Village at the time, but he was immediately summoned back by officials hoping to keep everyone safe.
Did he fear for his life?
“Not that I remember,” he said. “It was hectic at first because you didn't know what was going on. Then it calmed, and everything settled down.”
Hargis prefers to talk about his more pleasant memories of the '96 Games.
A native of Arkansas, Hargis was chosen to escort President Clinton as well as Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea around the Olympic Village. For three hours, he was with the Clintons, occasionally making the Secret Service agents nervous by strolling outside the prescribed route.
“If I wandered outside the security detail a little bit, I had a Secret Service agent pulling me back,” he said. “He was heavily guarded.”
After the Olympics, the team visited the White House, and as Hargis walked up a set of steps, Clinton spotted him from afar and shouted to him. Everyone turned toward Hargis in amazement, asking, “How does the president know who you are?”
“After that, the Clintons would send us a Christmas card every year,” said Hargis, who also respectfully declined an invitation to the Inaugural Ball after Clinton won re-election.
Hargis smiles at the irony of getting to know Clinton. Hargis' father, John Sr., once walked up to Clinton, who was campaigning for Lt. Gov. of Arkansas, and said, “I just want you to know: I'll never vote for you.”
Later, Clinton wrote Hargis' father a personal note, asking him to reconsider.
“I can tell you now my dad has never voted for any Clinton on the ticket,” Hargis said. “But it doesn't detract from spending three hours with the family and talking to him and asking questions.”
These days, Hargis is an escort of a different sort, helping the Pitt swimming and diving programs venture into the world of championship collegiate swimming.
“We want to take our kids to a level that they never had been before and never thought they could reach before,” said Hargis, who was head coach at Penn State from 2008-13 and associate coach at Auburn from 2013-16.
Already, swimmers Amanda Richey (two), Lina Rathsack (three) and Valerie Daigneault (one) — daughter of former Penguins player J.J. Daigneault — have combined to set six school records. Also returning are two champion divers: Pine-Richland graduate Dominic Giordano (NCAA champion in 3-meter), whose picture is displayed on the outside wall of Trees Pool, and Meme Sharp (ACC champion in 3-meter).
“Swimming and diving are separate, but I can feel the passion from the swimming side,” Sharp said.
Hargis said all the pieces are in place, including renovated facilities at Trees, for Pitt to build a winning program. He hopes his background that allowed him to visit, compete and win in 10 countries can attract top high school swimmers to Pitt.
“We just need to find those athletes that want those experiences,” he said. “We have the vision that the administration and chancellor share in terms of athletic and academic combination.
“Our kids are very good students. They want that combination. Once we can attract that level talent that we need, the sky's the limit on what we can accomplish here.”
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.comor via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.
