Pete Lindsay, the head coach of the men’s swim team at Miami University for the last 31 years has announced his retirement after 31 years. That makes him at least the 2nd coach of a MAC team to step down so far this spring, after Toledo women’s coach Chris Peters announced his retirement earlier this month.
Lindsay is a six-time Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year and has led his team to 3 conference championships and 14 runner-up finishes. The most recent conference title came in 2006.
Despite a long history of success for Miami, in Lindsay’s last two conference championship meets, the Redhawks finished just 5th out of 7 teams at the MAC Championships. That ties with 2012 as the teams’ lowest finishes since the MAC began sponsoring men’s swimming in 1953.
“It was a lifetime dream and goal to teach and coach at my alma mater,” said Lindsay. “It has been an amazing calling to serve with such a staff and such fine teams. It’s time for new leadership to enable our young people to experience the excitement and challenge that comes from participating at the very top of a conference championship race.”
Before a lengthy career at Miami, Lindsay served as a volunteer assistant at the now-defunct University of Washington team and also spent two years as an assistant at the U.S. Naval Academy.
The full press release from Miami University is below.
OXFORD, Ohio — Pete Lindsay, the head men’s swimming and diving coach at Miami University for the last 31 years, has announced his retirement. Lindsay’s last day at Miami will be on May 31, 2016.
“It was a lifetime dream and goal to teach and coach at my alma mater,” said Lindsay. “It has been an amazing calling to serve with such a staff and such fine teams. It’s time for new leadership to enable our young people to experience the excitement and challenge that comes from participating at the very top of a conference championship race.”
Lindsay, a six-time Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year, guided the RedHawks to three conference titles and 172 career dual meet victories, the most in school history.
“Pete has been a tremendous role model and coach for our men’s swimming and diving program and exemplifies our mission to Graduate Champions,” said Athletics Director David Sayler. “We will miss his passion in providing the tools to succeed in life beyond the pool.”
Since taking over the Miami program in the 1985-86 season, Lindsay helped the RedHawks finish as either the runner-up or the conference champion on 17 occasions, including Mid-American Conference titles in 1997, 1999 and 2006.
The 2005-06 season was one of Lindsay’s most successful, as Miami upended six-time defending champion Eastern Michigan and captured its first MAC title since 1999. Winning 10 of the 20 events at the conference meet, the RedHawks took home eight individual conference titles, two relay crowns and placed a league-high 12 athletes on the all-conference squads.
In 16 of the last 26 seasons, Lindsay’s squads have produced a record of .500 or better, including a school-record tying 12 wins in 2001-02. In the mid-90’s, Lindsay guided the RedHawks for back-to-back seasons of double-digit wins in 1995-96 and 1996-97, the first time Miami had accomplished the feat since the 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons. Additionally, Lindsay was named coach of the year four times in the 1990’s, taking home the award in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999.
During his career in Oxford, Lindsay has mentored Miami swimmers and divers to a combined 114 MAC individual and relay championships. He has had seven swimmers win a combined 10 MAC Swimmer of the Year awards. Additionally, six divers have combined to earn 11 MAC Diver of the Year titles during Lindsay’s tenure heading the Miami program, including Chris Heaton who won an unprecedented eight MAC titles and four MAC Diver of the Year accolades.
Prior to Miami, Lindsay was the head coach of the women’s team at the University of Michigan. In Ann Arbor, he coached six All-Americans and led the Wolverines to a ninth-place finish at the 1984 NCAA Championships. Before his stint with the Wolverines, Lindsay served as the men’s and women’s coach at Western Michigan University from 1979-1983 where he produced 11 MAC Champions. Lindsay started his coaching career in 1967 as a coach with the San Diego Swimming Association.
As an undergraduate at Miami in 1971-72, he was the varsity coach at Talawanda High School in Oxford before spending the 1973-74 season at the Long Beach Swimming Club. After serving as a volunteer assistant at the University of Washington from 1974 to 1975, Lindsay spent two seasons a as an assistant at the U.S. Naval Academy before working as Miami’s graduate assistant from 1977-79.
Pete. Congratulation on your retirement!!! Although I never had the honor to swim for you or to coach directly with you my time coaching with the women’s team would not have been the same with you there. You are a without a doubt one of the best people I have ever known and your influence on so many people is profound. THANK YOU!
Congrats Pete! Anyone who has come in contact with Pete knows him to be a fierce competitor yet always a coach, leader and man of class, integrity and honor above all. Yes, you were fortunate to have coached at Miami, but IMO, Miami was more fortunate to have had you as their coach. Thank you for our professional relationship (rivals) and all that you taught me.