Were you required to take (and pass) "The Swim Test" to graduate?

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ChileG said:
My dad also went to Ga Tech and he tells a story about the instructor asking if there was anyone who didn’t know how to swim.
One guy raised his hand and the instructor asked him to come over. Before anyone knew what was happening the instructor picked the kid up and threw him into the deep end.
He told everyone else not to dare jump in and help and they all watched horrified wondering if they were going to witness this kid drown.
Eventually the kid made his way to the edge of the pool gagging and crying. After he pulled himself out of the pool the instructor said, “I thought you said you couldn’t swim.” Then he ordered everyone into the pool.
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I took swimming for PE one semester, I think that disqualified you from having to take the swim test or else they administered the swim test one day during "class" and it got put on my record so I didn't have to show up a week before graduation to take it like most of my friends did...
 
At Washington & Lee during my freshman year (1978-79), I took & passed swimming and running tests. I'm not sure I could pass either now.
 
hedge said:
I took swimming for PE one semester, I think that disqualified you from having to take the swim test or else they administered the swim test one day during "class" and it got put on my record so I didn't have to show up a week before graduation to take it like most of my friends did...
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Same here. They gave the test toward the end of the class. 1984
 
That's when I took it too, first semester freshman year. We were probably in the same class, LOL...
 
Class of 94

In classic slacker fashion I took the test at the last available slot in spring semester of senior year, along with two other senior friends. Growing up around plenty of water, the test itself was a breeze. I did notice some people really struggling with the test. We treaded water next to a black girl who was having a tough time.

I'd also like to point out at this time that I was part of the Intramural Swim Meet Champs (Dorm Division, 1992?). We use the tactics of the Soviet Army: we brought like 16 persons to the competition and put two people in ever event. The second place dorm only had like six guys and another couple dorms had four; they whipped our butts head to head in most events but we racked up second and third place finishes in every event as well as a few first place finishes. Think I placed first in butterfly, which I had never really done for more than a few lengths, and second place in backstroke (or breast).
 
My freshman year I was talking to a sophomore girl and somehow the topic of the swim test and how we hadn't taken it came up. We decided to go do it together and ended up dating for about 6 months. So I got to see her in a bathing suit on the first "date", which is nice.
 
nycfan said:
I did it at the last second my senior year purely due to procrastination. A girl to my left was super nervous and when she jumped in came up thrashing and sank. The lifeguards both jumped in to help her.

Then the guy to my right started gurgling, so I went and held him up (without putting his arms behind his back as I ought to have) until I could get one of the lifeguard/observers to come take him off my hands. Meanwhile he told me thanks and his mom said he could swim when he was little and it wasn’t so hard, just jump in and he would remember how to keep his head above water. Ooops.

Once I swam my lap, I asked if I could just float on my back for the water treading bit and they said sure, so I stretched out and floated a bit. The girl who went under was still crying when I left mostly because she couldn’t swim and would never pass the test in time for graduation.

No idea whether they worked something out for her.
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Were we in the same test?!

I waited until the last available date Spring semester Senior year like many here. And leading up to the test I was pretty psyched out. I know how to swim but I hadn’t been in a pool for almost a year by the time of the test. So anxiety was high. My test had about 6-7 people. We all jump in to swim a length of the pool and as soon as I come to the surface after my dive I hear a girl screaming and thrashing. We all stop to watch the lifeguards jump in to help her. I finished my lap and treading water without issue, but it was pretty intense.
 
YES! And unless we have devolved to gills, there is no good excuse to eliminate the requirement. When I entered UNC you either passed swimming test or you took swimming classes. No discrimination there. P.S. I haven't read anything above.
 
Milk and Cookies said:
Were we in the same test?!

I waited until the last available date Spring semester Senior year like many here. And leading up to the test I was pretty psyched out. I know how to swim but I hadn’t been in a pool for almost a year by the time of the test. So anxiety was high. My test had about 6-7 people. We all jump in to swim a length of the pool and as soon as I come to the surface after my dive I hear a girl screaming and thrashing. We all stop to watch the lifeguards jump in to help her. I finished my lap and treading water without issue, but it was pretty intense.
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1991?
 
OldWHEEL said:
I hate swimming so much. I can do it, I just hate it. So I waited until 1980, my 2nd semester senior year to pass. Brrrrrr
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Brrrrrr?

As of 1980, I’d likely spent 5,000+ hours (maybe 8-10,000) in each of the Bowman Gray pools (the 25-meter and the 25-yard sides of the bulkhead) and 15-20,000+ hours in the 50-yard outdoor Kessing Pool (behind the Women’s Gym).

None of those pools were cold. Bowman Gray was often too warm.
 
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05C40 said:
Took the swim test my freshman year before classes started. IIRC, the minimum age to get a Red Cross WSI badge was 18, so the summer before college I signed up for and passed a WSI course in Goldsboro. I thought having passed WSI would exempt me from the swim test. Nope! Apparently just having the badge sewn on my swim trucks was nor sufficient proof.

So, for me the swim test was largely,. . ., a big nothing. But for fit, black males with way lower body fat than I had--even as a skinny 18 year old--the swim test was a major obstacle. It really was unfair and not a reasonable prerequisite to graduation. I'm glad it is gone.
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The James Twins, Larry and Barry, Dick Crum recruits from Ohio, aced the swim test. One of them even took the swim test for another football player. He aced it. He also did a gainer or two and a length or two swimming butterfly. The proctor knew something was up because he’d been warned that the non-James testee might drown. That’s when one of the James’s swam butterfly and did a gainer.

The myth that blacks can’t swim because they’re too muscular or their bones are too dense…….

SMGDH.

I grew up swimming competitively from age 7 in North Carolina. I first saw the pool in High Point at the 1970 State Championships. It was 50 meters long. I was thrilled. None of these wimpy-ass 25-meter races.

One of my fiercest and longest term competitors was a black kid from Winston-Salem. From age 8 to 18.

Harvey and I only swam one event in which we were each good….200 IM…….Harvey had speed….I KILLED him in the 400 IM…..In the 200 IM, it was a contest….. I was an excellent flyer….really good, actually….But, Harvey was a good fly swimmer…..He was normally was faster in a 50; but, he had to work for it……we were OK backstrokers……maybe even…….then….to the breaststroke and Harvey SMOKED my ass…..he usually was state champion in the 50 or 100 and 3rd/4th in the 200…….in the free, the last leg in the IM, I came home FAST and usually beat Harvey.

Harvey was lean and muscular. He was a helluva lot more muscular than us white kids.

He could swim fast.

Most black kids and many white kids couldn’t swim because no one taught them how to swim.

Not knowing how to swim is why they couldn’t swim. Not musculature or bone density.
 
In the mid-1980’s I was managing a pool for a local Chapel Hill club and coaching its swim team.

A family friend called. He ran a sizable hunk of athletic tutoring. He had some athletes who needed to be taught to swim to pass the swimming test.

All were embarrassed (and scared) that they couldn’t swim. They were unwilling to do swim lessons in Bowman Gray or Kessing.

At a private Chapel Hill club? OK.

Some were black. Some were white.

Again, it’s a myth that ripped, low-fat people drown because they’re ripped and low-fat. They drown because they can’t swim.
 
SnoopRob said:
I was and I did.
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I was class of ‘08 so I think they removed that requirement before I finished. But my closest friends were a year and 2 years ahead of me, so I did it when they did. Haven’t thought about that in years.
 
Yes. Pretty early in my first week on campus. And shortly thereafter like a dumbass, with my hair all matted down from the swim, got my Student ID picture taken.
 
uncsig said:
Yes. Pretty early in my first week on campus. And shortly thereafter like a dumbass, with my hair all matted down from the swim, got my Student ID picture taken.
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When I was at Carolina, they took our pictures for our IDs mid-afternoon at CTOPS.

Everyone I knew looked like a sweaty road worker in their ID picture.
 
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