Welcome Database Indexes Copyright/Disclaimer Login  

FRANK REGINALD JORDON, (1932-2012)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olympian Coach – Water Polo

Life Member Cronulla SLSC

Father of Water Polo in the Sutherland Shire

 

Frank Reginald Jordan was born in Bankstown, NSW, on 19 August 1932. He was the son of Arthur Henry Jordan (1905-1964) and his wife, Emily Ada nee Treleaven (1905-1981). There were two other children in the family – Leonard and Norma.

 Frank was educated at Homebush High School and during 1951-1953 was a student at Sydney Teachers’ College (STC) where he trained to be a Physical Education teacher with the NSW Department of Education. He later achieved a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of New England and a Master of Education from Sydney University.

 After graduating from Sydney Teachers’ College, Frank was appointed to Newtown High School and then to Sydney Technical High School at Hurstville.  In 1968 he was appointed as a lecturer at Sydney Teachers’ College and from 1976 to his retirement in 1991 was Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy at the Cumberland College campus of Sydney University.

 In March 1948, representing Homebush High School, Frank Jordan won the 220 yards Junior Final at the All Schools Swimming Championships at North Sydney Olympic Pool. He set a new record for the event and running second was Max Riddington. In later years, representing Cronulla SLSC and Manly SLSC, they would clash in events at many surf carnivals.

 In February 1949 at the NSW Championships, in the 440 yards freestyle event, Frank Jordan ran second to the Victorian Olympic swimmer John Marshall, who set a new record time of 4 mins.48.1 seconds. As a visitor, Marshall could not hold the title which went to Jordan from Bankstown Amateur Swimming Club. There was an exciting race in the 880 yards freestyle event which was won by Frank Jordan.

 On 15 March1949 the Combined High Schools Swimming Championships were held with over 500 boys from metropolitan and country high schools competing.  Frank Jordan and Don Talbot were mentioned in newspapers as star swimmers from Homebush High. At the meet Frank won the 880 yards event. During the 1949 season he competed in senior championship races and many club and school events. Trained by Frank Guthrie at Bankstown pool he dropped out of the 1,500 metres swimming championship at Bankstown citing strain from his heavy schedule.

 In February1950 competing in the NSW 440 yards championship, Frank finished in third position behind Garrick Agnew and Frank O’Neill. Agnew set a new Australian record which was 3.9 seconds better than the Empire Games record he had set the previous week in Auckland. In March 1950, at Balmain, Frank Jordan took 3-10s. off Moss Christie’s 220 yards freestyle record which had stood for 19 years. The swim wound up his preparation for a NSW v Canada match at North Sydney. This was also the last year of high school for Frank and studying for the Leaving Certificate at the end of the year assumed more importance. His efforts paid off and he gained entrance to the highly selective Physical Education section at Sydney Teachers’ College.

 In December 1951 the NSW Swimming Association decided to protest against a ruling by F.I.N.A., which controlled amateur swimming, that all physical education teachers were professionals. This was a time when the Olympic Games were strictly for amateur competitors. Among the swimmers affected by such a ruling were Frank Jordan, Don Talbot, Bill Brady and Australian junior surf champion John Bloomfield who were in contention for Games selection. All were training as Physical Education teachers at Teachers’ College before qualifying for a position with the Education Department. New Zealand had similar concerns about some of their athletes. At the time of selection for the 1948 Olympic Games similar concerns had been raised about Australians Peter Mullins and Joyce King. In 1947 Peter Mullins was Physical Education teacher and field coach at Kogarah Intermediate High School. Joyce King was a teacher at Willoughby Domestic Science School. Fortunately, the situation was resolved.

 In January 1952 the NSW water polo team to play against Melbourne was announced. Frank Jordan was one of the five Balmain players chosen in the team. In the late forties/early fiifties water polo was introduced in High schools in the metropolitan area where there was a strong following. Eight schools played in each of the two grades of the competition. Matches were held at Balmain and Rushcutters Bay baths and were played parallel with the cricket season. North Sydney Technical High School had won or shared the premiership in 1946/7/8 but in 1949 Homebush High took the title from them. It is highly likely that Frank Jordan and Don Talbot were in that team. Both were trained at Bankstown pool by Frank Guthrie, a former state representative in water polo.

 In 1952 the Olympic Games were to take place in Helsinki, Finland and in 1956 would be held in Melbourne. The Australian Olympic Federation (AOF) was anxious that Australia be represented at Helsinki by teams representing every international sport played in the country and that the teams were accompanied by a contingent of officials who would, on return, be able to offer valuable insights and advice to the organisers of the Melbourne Games. A major problem was funding the team as government grants totalled only £30,000 with an extra £100,000 needing to be raised by the states and sporting bodies.

 In March the AOF approved a team of thirty five competitors and five officials. Members of the team came from swimming, athletics, cycling, boxing, wrestling, yachting, weight-lifting, fencing and sculling. It was also announced that when further funds were available the travelling expenses of other competitors who had just missed out on selection, including five rowers and four water polo players, would be added to the list. All sporting bodies with representatives at the Games would be asked to raise funds. The NSW Rowing Association was particularly bitter about the omission of the rowing eight which had a good chance of winning at the Games. Their protest was justified when, at the Games, the ‘eight’ came third in the final of their event and returned to Australia with a bronze medal.

 On 19 March the Secretary of the NSW State Olympic Council S.B.Berge, announced that many thousands of pounds would be required to ensure selection of nineteen NSW athletes who were on the brink of making the team. Firms and sporting groups like the Greyhound Breeders, Owners’ and Trainers Association, responded and fund raising events were organised. The rowing crew gave an exhibition row at the Newington Regatta. The Bankstown Swimming Club opened a fund for Frank Jordan which was boosted by a donation from the Bankstown Trotting Club’s gymkhana.

 By 2 April, six weeks before the first group was due to leave, the make up of the Australian team was still uncertain with more nominations being received. There was still some doubt about finance and travel arrangements were in confusion. The two planes chartered for the team to leave on 10 June and 14 June would not accommodate the extra numbers and other arrangements would have to be made. Some competitors were already overseas and the water polo team and members of the fencing team were travelling by boat. Return ship bookings for the main team had been cancelled because of the uncertainty and the team would have to fly back. The team would have to leave three days after the Games ended and any competitor wanting to stay on would do so at their own expense and have to pay their own return fare to Australia.  At nineteen, Frank was the youngest member of the water polo team. His team-mate from Balmain, Anthony (Tony) Fenech was also in the team.  David and Frank were both students at Sydney Teachers’ College and on their return would address the student body in the Great Hall and describe their experiences.

 Leaving Australia aboard the liner Strathmore, the water polo team had received guarantees for matches at Colombo, Bombay, Florence, Rome, Hamburg and British cities. Before the Games the team was based in Italy and played games against some of the top teams. They then travelled to England and gained further experience playing against local teams. Unfortunately, at the Games, they came up against the strong European teams and in their first game against Yugoslavia lost 10-2. They were eliminated after their second game when defeated by Austria 6-0. The results of the competition were gold to Hungary, silver to Yugoslavia and bronze to Italy.  Before returning to Australia, the team returned to England and played a series of games against top club sides with mixed results. They won a game against a North England side at Lancaster 10-3 and Frank Jordan scored a goal. Even though the team did not do well at the Games it was felt that the experience of playing in England and on the Continent and the knowledge gained would be an asset in future years. On 28 August 1952 Frank Jordan, with team-mates Tony Fenech, Doug Laing, James O’Doherty, Ray Smee and Keith Whitehead, left London on board the P&O liner Strathaird to return home.  On arrival back in Sydney, he resumed his studies at STC. After their return, members of the team commented on the ‘swim fast and fast pass’ tactics of teams they had encountered and that local umpires should not tolerate the ‘bash and grapple’ tactics that some teams used. The foresight of the Association in planning the Olympic campaign paid off and water polo in Australia improved.

 In 1940 Frank Guthrie, Jordan’s coach at Bankstown Club, joined Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club. He accepted the position of honorary swimming coach of the surf club and in the 1950-51 and 1953-54 seasons persuaded sixteen Bankstown swim members join the club. Prominent in the group from Bankstown was Frank Jordan who won the Cronulla club’s senior belt and senior surf championships in 1951-52.  He repeated that success in 1952-53 and 1953-54 becoming the first member to win those events three years in succession. At the Australian surf championships at North Wollongong in March 1952, Frank won the senior surf (non-championship) event which attracted a field of two hundred and eighty starters.  This event was contested for the Roy Doyle Memorial Reel which was awarded to the winner’s club. The late Roy Doyle (Tamarama and Freshwater) was one of the pioneers of the Australian Surf Life Association.

 In surf carnivals in the 1952-3 season, Frank won eight successive senior belt races at metropolitan carnivals and also competed in senior surf races where one of his toughest rivals was Max Riddington from the Manly club, his former rival in the pool and Australian surf champion, a flat sea suiting them both better than a big surf. Newspapers, reporting before the carnivals noted that Jordan would have little opposition in the belt races but face stiff competition in the surf events. After having such an outstanding season Frank was beaten in the metropolitan championships at Bondi as his line was fouled when he had a commanding lead. Unfortunately this was the qualifying event for the national championships.

 In November 1953 Frank Jordan’s unusual training routine for the coming season attracted a lot of interest. He planned to don a surf belt, tie the line to a rail and swim, without moving, for 20 minutes each day.  Overseas swimmers had given him the idea of which he said ’20 minutes on the line takes the same energy needed to swim about one and a half miles’.  After six weeks of this he would then be fit and swim three miles a day until the championships in March. He hoped to represent Australia in Tests against New Zealand in February. Unfortunately the 1953-54 season was not as successful as previous ones.  He was not chosen in the Australian team which won against New Zealand at the Royal Carnival at Bondi on 6 February, was unplaced in the Senior Belt at the same event and finished fourth in the Metropolitan championships at Coogee on 27 February 1954. Jordan announced that this was his last year in competitive sport and that it was his intention to concentrate on his career, coach schoolboy swimmers and introduce water polo to junior technical schools.

It was in his role as a coach that Frank Jordan would become one of the major influences in the success of the Cronulla Surf Club in the following decades. In the 40’s and 50’s potential swimmers in the Shire were disadvantaged by their training facilities. There were pools at the beach and the baths at Gunnamatta Bay where Guthrie and now Jordan trained and taught swimmers. There were also netted enclosures in some of the other bays in the Shire.

 Appointed by Cronulla to succeed Guthrie as club coach, Jordan had concentrated on developing still-water swimmers as coach of the Cronulla Amateur Swimming Club at Gunnamatta Baths, bringing modern attitudes to training and competition, building on the team spirit and competitive nature of the club’s members. In Gary Lester’s history The Cronulla Story, Jordan regretted that he had not introduced surf training for the surf club members of his squad but, motivated by the new techniques, they increased their training distances which improved standards at the club overall. He coached all five members of the surf teams group who were all sub-five-minute-quarter swimmers and went on to win the national title in 1963 – Barry Ezzy, Ian Thomson, Alan Wood, Ron Greenaway and Graham Elliott. For many years, these names would be prominent at Club, Sydney Branch, State and Australian championship events.

As well as coaching swimmers Jordan trained the R & R teams and oversaw the rise of the Cronulla SLSC as one of the most competitive, successful and well administered clubs in the surf life saving movement. In 1967-68 he was Deputy President and Secretary of the club. By 1967 Jordan had decided to retire from professional swim coaching and joined Sydney Teachers’ College as a lecturer.

 As the Nipper movement grew, Cronulla was protective of the younger members of the club, known as Cronulla Crays. Frank Jordan was part of a three-man sub-committee which organised and oversaw training schedules, coaching classes, interclub carnivals and trips away.

In 1988-89, the Cronulla club needed to change their constitution before becoming incorporated. A special committee, with Frank Jordan as convenor, Ken English, Harold Spurway and Ron Simmons, was set up to prepare the new document. Frank was involved in surf club management and policy until 2011.

 In 1963 Frank Jordan convened a meeting at Cronulla Surf Club with the intention of forming a water polo club that would allow local players to become eligible for selection in state, national and Olympic teams.  From the 1930’s teams from the Shire had competed in the St.George district competition with many members coming from the local surf clubs. This was a big step forward.

 Teams from Gymea Bay and Cronulla Surf Club were merged and entered in the Third Division of the Sydney Metropolitan Competition. This was the beginning of one of the most successful water polo clubs in Australia. In 1964, the club was formed as the St.George and Sutherland Shire Amateur Water Polo Club and in 1970 changed its name to Cronulla-Sutherland Water Polo Club becoming an affiliate of the Sharks Rugby League Club.  It is now known in the National Water Polo League as Cronulla Sharks Water Polo Club and since 1976 has provided many Olympic representatives in both men’s and women’s teams.

In 1968-69 the first ladies team was entered in the competition and won the club’s first title and first 1st Grade Premiership. This was the first of many titles but perhaps the most important element in their subsequent success was the way their coaches and administrators nurtured their junior players. In the 1960’s and 1970’s all high schools had competitive programs and leading the way was Cronulla High School. Doug Lyons, a 1st Grade player with the club and science teacher at the school, became a role model and helped set the standard, offering the best learning and development pathways possible. As part of the Bluestone Property Development in the area, a water polo facility was to be constructed at Cronulla High School and be available to the public. The programs and involvement at high school level reflects Frank Jordan’s statement when he retired from competition.

   Personal Life:

On 14 May, 1955, at the Methodist Church, Surf Road, Cronulla, Frank Jordan married Shirley Joyce Dixon (Reg.No.11198).  Shirley, born at St.Mary’s, NSW, on 21 October,1934, was the daughter of Frank Woodhouse Dixon (1906-1967) and his wife, Joyce Irene (d.1999) nee Moore. Frank and Joyce Dixon were married at Penrith in 1932. They also had a son Nicholas (1933-1998) who was a stalwart of Cronulla SLSC.

 After their marriage, Frank and Shirley Jordan lived at Miranda and later at Cronulla. They had three children - Robyn, David and Jennifer. Frank was a devoted family man and had a strong involvement with his eight grandchildren.

 He had a keen interest in intellectual pursuits and discussion and this was well known amongst his acquaintances. In 1999-2000, he was involved in the community consultation re the sewerage outfall project. He enjoyed camping and was still swimming until illness forced him to stop in 2011.

In 1973, Frank Jordan received Life Membership of the Cronulla club in recognition of his contribution to the club as a competitor, coach and administrator. He received a 50 Year Long Service Award from Surf Life Saving Australia. In May 2000, he and other Club Olympians were guests of honour at a celebratory dinner held at the Clubhouse. With him were Ray Mayers – water polo 1984, 1988, 1992; Bruce Bourke – swimming 1948; Andrew Kerr – water polo 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988.

In 1988, Frank Jordan was inducted into the Bankstown Sporting Hall of Fame.

 Frank Jordan died on 13 March, 2012 and was cremated at Woronora Cemetery.

Shirley Jordan died on 21 August, 2015 and was cremated at Woronora Cemetery.

 Water polo and the surf life saving movement certainly owe a debt of gratitude to a dedicated competitor, teacher, coach, and administrator who paved the way for success for so many at State, National and International level.

 Colleen Passfield 2018

 Click on the name FRANK REGINALD JORDON (1932-2012) at the heading of this story. You will be taken to the database entry for Frank Jordan and his family.

 REFERENCES: