Official Name of Club: The Olympic Club
Director of
Club: Mr. Gary Crook
On the web: www.olyclub.com
Age Groups and Genders:
Men’s Open and Women’s Open teams/Masters Men’s
20+;30+;40+;45+/Masters Women’s 30+
Help Wanted: The club is currently looking
for new coach. Former International Hall of Fame Mr. Pete Cutino coached
the club for 12 years
Number of members: 8,000 members overall (over 90 members play Water Polo)
How they got started: The Olympic Club is the USA’s oldest athletic club, founded
in 1861. It has grown from an initial membership of less than 100 to over
8,000 today. Former members include:
Ty Cobb (Baseball Hall of Fame),
Joe DiMaggio (Baseball Hall of Fame),
Alfred Hitchcock (Hollywood Director/Producer),
Mark Twain (Writer),
Johnny Miller (USGA Hall of Fame),
Jim Corbett (World Heavy Weight Champion)
J. Scott Leary (1904 Swimming Medalist)
William Johnston ( 2 time US Open Tennis Champion 1915 &
1919. Wimbledon Champion 1923)
Maurice McLouglin (5 time US Open Tennis Champion in Singles
and Doubles 1909 -1915)
Stephen Clark (1964 Gold medalist)
Art Larsen (1950 US Open Tennis Champion)
1920 and 1924 US Rugby Team (2 time Olympic Gold medalists)
Ralph Rose (6 time Olympic medalists in Track & Field
1904 -1912)
Practice Pool:
The Olympic Club has two pools at its Post Street facility (downtown San Francisco).
A little bit of everything: While the club has a variety of sports that gets involved in a variety
of championships the water polo crew has a pretty varied schedule. The Olympic
Club’s open team competes with other major US clubs including the New York
Athletic Club as well as all major US Division 1 colleges. The club
has won USA Nationals 14 times. The masters program competes on a national and
international basis. Winning Fina World Masters 5 times and Masters
Nationals in several different age groups over 20 times.
Continuing to Grow: The club is very excited about its women’s teams which won
30+ in this years US Master’s Nationals and its 20+ team which placed
2nd. The Men’s master’s teams continue to grow winning all 4 age groups
it entered in this years Master’s Nationals (20+, 30+. 40+, & 45+).
In addition the open team continues to attract present and past All American
colligate players from CAL, Stanford, UCLA, UCD, UOP, USC, Pepperdine, and
UCSB.
Special Entry: The Olympic Club is different from your average usa water polo
club in that not anyone can join. A process involving applications and
recommendations leads to athlete entry, but once you are in, there is some
solid support from the club. The Club supports its water polo teams financially, affording our younger and older
athletes alike the ability to train and compete at high levels on a national
and international basis. They have had over 30 US National team members,
4 NCAA Players of the Year, and they have had a host of former US Olympians on
their teams:
Pete Cutino
Alan Mouchawar
Troy Barnhart
Chris Humbert
Peter Varellas
Kirk Everist
Rick (McNair) McQuet
Craig Klass
Jim Statton
Maureen O’Toole Purcell
George Schroth
Ginger Austin
George Mitchell
Elmer Collett
Jim Gaughran
Five years from now for The ‘O’ Club: They would like to further the promotion
of water polo in conjunction with US Water Polo on an regional, national, and
international basis.