University of Tennessee Athletics
Trembley To Receive NCAA Silver Anniversary Award
January 07, 2000 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Joining Trembley as Silver Anniversary Award winners are Dianne Baker, softball, tennis, badminton, field hockey, and soccer, Texas Woman's University, Ulysses "Junior" Bridgeman, men's basketball, University of Louisville, Pat Haden, football, Southern California, Lisa Rosenblum, women's tennis, Yale, and Capt. John Dickson Stufflebeem, football, United States Military Academy.
"It's nice to be a part of Tennessee athletics," Trembley said. "Without that part of the greater picture, this wouldn't be possible. It's nice to bring some recognition back to Tennessee. It's pretty neat."
During his All-America career at Tennessee (1971-74), Trembley won or was a member of nine NCAA championship efforts and set American records in the 50 freestyle, the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay.
He was the first swimmer in the history of the NCAA to win five gold medals at one championship.
Before a enthusiastic home crowd in Knoxville in the 1973 NCAA meet, Trembley pulled a triple crown by winning the 50 freestyle, the 100 butterfly and the 100 freestyle. He also swam on the Vols' NCAA champion 400 free and 400 medley relay teams. In that meet, he won every race in which he was entered. He was named the Columbus Touchdown Club's Swimmer of the Year that year.
The Vols were 49-0 in dual meets during his career, won three SEC titles and placed sixth, third, second and third in NCAA competition. Altogether, he picked up 20 All-America certificates during his time on campus.
After graduating from UT in 1975, Trembley became a staff assistant under head coach Ray Bussard while he trained for his chance to make the 1976 United States Olympic swim team. He sustained a severe head injury in an intramural football game in 1976, however, and suffered from a blood clot in the rear carotid artery in the base of his brain.
With the right side of his body paralyzed, he was flown to Cincinnati by air ambulance. Miraculously, he recovered and rejoined the Tennessee staff, staying through 1979 and being part of Tennessee's 1978 national championship team.
During his time at Tennessee as a swimmer, assistant coach and head coach, his teams have lost but one home dual meet, a 1998 meet against Texas in which the contest came down to the last leg of the last event, and he has compiled an overall record of 117-1 over that time.
In 1980, he became head coach at Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pa., and directed the Academy to a sparkling record and national prominence.
During his stay at the Pennsylvania school, seven of his teams were acclaimed national prep champions. Six times he coached Mercersburg to the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming Championship.
He turned out an unprecedented 123 individual All-Americas and produced Olympic team members for the United States, the Philippines and Guatemala, while establishing himself as the dominant high school coach of the decade of the 1980s.
His teams combined for a total of 29 national prep school swimming records. Trembley's dual meet record at Mercersburg was 95-2.
When his collegiate coach Ray Bussard retired in 1988, Trembley was asked to return to his alma mater to take over the reins of an enormously successful and tradition-rich program.
As one of the prize pupils of the Bussard Era, Trembley immediately proceeded with the task of returning Tennessee to the lofty heights it had occupied under Bussard. Using his skills as a dynamic recruiter and masterful teacher, Trembley brought immediate success to the program.
In 1989, his first year at the helm of the Vol program, he took a squad which had scored 32.5 points in finishing 23rd at the NCAAs the previous year and guided it to its first SEC title and top 10 national finish, ninth, in 11 years. That marked only the second time a first-year SEC coach had led his team to the league title.
His second squad was runner-up in the SEC, while improving to eighth at the NCAAs.
In his third season, he guided the Vols to the dual-meet season undefeated and posted a second straight runner-up SEC finish. The highlight came when his Vols battled to a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
Trembley's team brought home another SEC title in 1996. His best team's overall NCAA finish was fifth in 1996. His swimmers have garnered 191 All-America honors, 72 school record and three American records.
Since his arrival at Tennessee, Trembley's accomplishments have established him as one of the overall coaches in the land.
Consider a winning percentage of .902 (83-9), including a .885 (46-6) mark in the always-tough Southeastern Conference, 10 Top 10 national finishes, 75 SEC Academic Honor Roll selections since 1989, most in the conference, two SEC championships and five runners-up finishes, and Academic All-America honors for the entire swim team in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1999.
His athletes have earned a total of 190 All-America honors, established 72 school records and three American records and won 38 individual conference titles.
This past season, seven of his swimmers earned Academic All-America honors, the most honorees ever from the same team. He is a four-time SEC Coach of the Year.
In 1993, the World Swimming Coaches named him as one of three American finalists for the Coach of the QUADRENNIUM Award.
In 1985, he was inducted into the Tennessee Swimming Hall of Fame. He is the founder and served as president of the United Swimming Clinics, a program which has helped develop more than 13,000 swimmers worldwide.
