Frank Erwin Awards

In 1975 Tex Robertson created the Frank Erwin Award to signify outstanding individual achievement and contribution to Longhorn swimming and diving. The first recipient was, of course, Frank Erwin himself.

Frank Erwin was born in Waxahachie, Texas, in 1920. He enrolled in UT the same year that Tex Robertson became the Longhorn swimming coach, 1937. They then both joined the Navy in 1942, interrupting their respective education and coaching careers, to serve in World War II. Erwin returned to UT to earn his law degree in 1948.

Although politics was important to his life, Erwin’s foremost passion was the University of Texas. From 1963 to 1975 he sat on the UT Board of Regents; he was chairman from 1966-1971. His strong leadership and great accomplishments in every corner of the campus made his contribution to swimming just one of many good deeds at UT.

As president of the Longhorn Club, Erwin gave swimming’s very first scholarship to Skippy Browning after he was denied an athletic scholarship. He was instrumental in the hiring of Pat Patterson and was the force behind the building of the world’s finest swimming and diving facility. To top it all, he used his influence to get UT to go along with Patterson’s recommendation to obtain super coaches Paul Bergen and Eddie Reese and to get the athletics department to fully fund both programs.

Any swimmer or diver to ever wet a foot in the Texas Swimming Center should remember this man and his contribution to the nation’s best collegiate swim programs.