Surf and Rescue by Patrick Moser

Author:Patrick Moser [Patrick Moser]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2022-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

8

From Competitor to Mentor

Freeth had the idea in the spring of 1909—in the midst of his woes with the AAU—of traveling to Hawai‘i and recruiting the top swimmers to work as lifeguards in Redondo and play on a professional water polo team. He had a lot of friends among the Healanis and Myrtles, and of course the local boys at Waikīkī. This crew would form the nucleus of a professional water polo league in Southern California and help Freeth accomplish two goals: to raise the level of play in the sport and to avoid any further interference from the AAU.1 Freeth, as we know, never made that trip. He chose rather to return to Los Angeles from San Francisco and back up his charges of professionalism against area athletes.

But after the sensational success of Duke Kahanamoku and Vincent Genoves at the AAU meet in August 1911 (Genoves had won freestyle events in the 220, 440, and the mile), Freeth revisited the idea. He offered to work as the Hawaiians’ manager and spread the news of Duke's world records. His plan was to enter them in the Southern California Swimming Championships and help secure a spot for the two men in the Olympic tryouts.

Once news spread that Freeth had taken on the role of Duke's “unofficial manager,” however, Honolulu's power brokers moved quickly to block that possibility.2 They saw Duke's Olympic bid as a potential advertising boon for the islands, one that needed careful handling. Duke required a coach who not only understood the “wiles and wrinkles” of top competition but who also would ensure that the young swimmer didn't violate his amateur status. “Freeth undoubtedly means well by offering to take Duke under his wing,” stated H. M. Ayres, editor at the Hawaiian Star, “but it is a safe bet that [Duke] would be classed as a professional within a month after his arrival in California. Freeth sees a chance for the native to make a nice piece of money in California aquatics and incidentally an opportunity to profit himself through intelligent exploitation of Duke.”3 Ayres concluded that if Duke were to have any chance of competing in Stockholm, he needed to leave Hawai‘i “under proper auspices.” The writer suggested that William T. Rawlins—“an old Yale man”—would be the perfect candidate for the coaching position.4 The Ivy League schools had long been a training ground for elite young haole men in the islands, a tradition that stretched back to the original missionaries who sent their male children back to New England for their continuing education. Walter F. Dillingham, for example—whose company Freeth worked for at Pearl Harbor, attended Harvard; his brother-in-law, Walter F. Frear, who attended Yale, was the territorial governor (1907–1913). Hawai‘i was a de facto oligarchy at this time, ruled by a small group of businessmen who shared conservative Protestant values and worked in unison to maintain their influence in all aspects of society. The founder of the Hawaiian Star, Joseph Ballard Atherton (born in Boston, Massachusetts), was

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