USC’s Daland Retires as Coach at 71 : Swimming: He won nine NCAA championships and led the Trojans to a 20-year unbeaten streak.

USC swimming Coach Peter Daland, the winningest active coach in the NCAA, announced his retirement Tuesday night at the Trojans’ annual awards banquet.

Daland, 71, won nine NCAA championships, and his swimmers produced 392 All-American performances. His dual meet record was 318-31-1, including a 20-year undefeated streak.

He also made a major impact in international swimming. USC swimmers have won a gold medal in every Olympiad since 1958, when Daland took over the program for Fred Cady. During that span, Daland coached 62 Olympians.

He served as head coach of the U.S. Olympic women’s team in 1964 and men’s team in 1972, and he is the founder of Swimming World magazine.

“I’ve been here 35 years, and I think that is enough,” Daland calmly told a shocked group of 75 swimmers, parents, alumni and athletic department administrators.

“There is a time to come and a time to go; this is my time to go. Nothing lasts forever, certainly I don’t.”

Daland said he retired to devote more time to his national swimming clinics and the two books he is writing. One is the history of competitive swimming and the other is the history of American swimming.

“I’ve enjoyed coaching,” Daland said. “I think its been the greatest. One great truth about my experience: Anyone coaching the sport of swimming is working with the greatest people in the world. It is not how fast they swim but what kind of person they were and what kind of person they became.”

Daland, whose last day will be June 30, nominated his fourth-year assistant Ed Bartsch for the head job. According to Athletic Director Mike McGee, a national search will be held to replace Daland, one of only two coaches in USC’s 69-year swimming history.

UCLA Coach Ron Ballatore was stunned by the announcement.

“I’m going to be upset because I love competing against him,” Ballatore said.

“I’ve known him since I was 18 years old. I’ve looked up to Peter as one of the great team coaches in the country. His teams really competed, they really supported each other. It was a ‘we’ thing not a ‘me’ thing. He had a remarkable career.”

According to Ballatore, the Trojans’ nine NCAA titles, in 1960, ‘63, ‘64, ‘65, ‘66, ‘74, ‘75, ‘76, and ’77 were produced while the team was training and competing in what Ballatore called probably one of worst pools in the country.

“I don’t think it bothered USC,” Ballatore said.

Although his teams have not won an NCAA title since 1977, they were runners-up four times since then, including 1987, ’88 and ’90.

Trojan diving Coach Rick Earley said: “I saw no indication that he would retire. To me, he could go on forever. His teams are still in the top 10, and he is still able to recruit the younger kids.”

USC finished seventh at NCAAs this past season and went undefeated in the Pacific 10 Conference dual-meet schedule for the third consecutive year.

Echoing the sentiments of many of the swimmers and alumni, Mike O’Brien, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, said that Daland left a legacy of tradition, spirit and camaraderie.