If there was anything more important to Jim Hartman than his swimming and diving teams, it wasn't his son Dennis Hartman's fledgling career in baseball.
The story goes that in the summer of 1963, Jim Hartman's AAU swimming teams were in contention for a state championship. At the same time, Dennis' PONY League baseball team was playing important games toward a possible state title.
Dennis was the starting center fielder for his team, but he also was a talented diver and could score points in competition. Jim Hartman was anxious about the outcome of the state championships, and messaged that he needed his son's points.
Dennis answered the call and never went back to baseball.
"We won the state championship by more points than I provided," Dennis said. "I stayed with the diving and competed in college at the University of Oregon."
As far as Jim Hartman was concerned, Dennis was being a chip off the old block.
"Swimming and diving, that was my life," Hartman said as he searched his memory for the details of 30 years of coaching in the area. "Our sport kept building and building to what it has become today."
Dennis and Kathy Hartman, Jim Hartman's daughter-in-law, sat patiently during the discussion, ready to help fill in the blanks when necessary.
Mention of the DU Hilltoppers brought instant recognition. The Hilltoppers were an AAU swimming program that operated out of the University of Denver pool. Before long, Hartman was smiling and recalling people such as Tom Murphy, the swimming coach at DU, and Lou Parker, who would become the first swimming coach at George Washington High School when it opened in 1960.
Hartman, Parker and Murphy were instrumental in starting the Hilltoppers program, with connections as far back as 1951 when Hartman was the team's swimming and diving coach.
Parker and Hartman would become opponents in 1960 when Hartman was named swimming coach at Abraham Lincoln High School.
Jim Hartman poses with his son Dennis, right, his grandson Mike, left, and great-grandson Lucas, 5. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)
The three new Denver high schools, including Thomas Jefferson, were among the first in the state to have their own pools.Hartman was one of the pioneers in swimming and diving in the state. He was undefeated in diving in high school at Denver East, and he went on to the University of Michigan and was part of a NCAA championship team in 1948.
Denver, in Hartman's time, was much different 60-plus years ago when it came to his specialty, the sport of diving. The facilities were few and far between.
The North Lake at Washington Park had a wooden diving tower that provided practice during the summer season. There was a similar facility at Berkeley Park Lake in north Denver. Sportland YMCA was north of City Park. There was a swimming and diving area at Eddie Bohn's Pig 'N' Whistle Restaurant on West Colfax, and also at Morey Junior High School and the DU pool. Celebrity Sports Center, on South Colorado Boulevard, came later.
Most of those facilities now are gone, but today more high schools have their own pools, and recreation centers are scattered throughout the city and state.
"Eddie Bohn had us come out and put on diving shows for his guests," Jim Hartman said.
Many of the individual names are now hidden in Hartman's memory. Wendy Lucero, a 1988 Olympian, and Jeff Carter were perhaps his most prominent pupils. The Hilltoppers still are going.
"We're one of the most recognized swimming programs in the area," Hilltoppers coach Shawn Smith said.
Steve Hadley, another mainstay of the Hilltoppers program and the area's coaching ranks, added, "The Hilltoppers program has had a great influence on the progress made in swimming and diving in our area."
Hartman retired from teaching and coaching in 1981. He and his wife, Patricia Hartman, took to the road and toured the United States ? including Alaska ? and Canada.
During his coaching career, he also coached gymnastics at Lincoln, but his specialty was at the swimming pool, especially at the deep end.
Hartman's boys swimming teams at Lincoln won seven city championships. His boys gymnastics teams won eight Denver titles.
He was a pioneer in this area in a sport that reached new heights with Missy Franklin's four-gold medal performance last summer in the London Olympics.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@denverpost.com or twitter.com/irvmoss
Dennis?Hartman bio
Born: June 26, 1926, in Denver
High school: Denver East
College: University of Michigan
Family: Wife Patricia (deceased), son Dennis, daughter Donna
Hobbies: Woodworking, fishing
Outlook: Contentment
Residence: Denver
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