Early years

Reese was born in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1941. He attended Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, and swam for the Mainland Buccaneers high school swim team, winning two state high school championships in the 200-yard individual medley swimming event.

He then enrolled in the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he swam for coach Buddy Crone and coach Bill Harlan's Florida Gators swimming and diving teams, leading the Gators to three consecutive Southeastern Conference (SEC) team championships (1961, 1962, 1963). As the team's senior co-captain, Reese became the first Florida swimmer to win five SEC individual titles in a single season—the 200-yard breaststroke, the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medleys, the 400-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard medley relay.

Reese graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1963.

Coaching career

After Reese graduated from Florida, he remained in Gainesville as a graduate assistant coach and earned his master's degree from Florida in 1965. Reese then coached and taught at Roswell High School in Roswell, New Mexico for one year (1965-1966), before returning to the University of Florida as an assistant coach for six seasons (1967-1972).

Reese became the head coach of the Auburn Tigers swim team at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama in 1972, leading the Tigers for six seasons (1973-1978). The Tigers were a team that had not qualified a single swimmer for the finals or consolation finals of the SEC championship meet during the previous season. After six seasons, Auburn had produced four consecutive top-ten showings at the NCAA championships, and in his final season at Auburn, the Tigers placed second in the SEC and NCAA championships, the highest finish in program history to that time.

In 1978, Reese accepted the head coaching position for the Texas Longhorns men's swimming and diving team of the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. Since that time, his Longhorns team have won twelve National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) team championships (1981, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2010, 2015, 2016), and he has been named NCAA Coach of the Year eight times. Starting with his second year at Texas, his teams have won the conference championship every season (37 in a row as of 2016). Reese has coached numerous current and former world record holders. His recent elite swimmers include Ian Crocker, Brendan Hansen, Neil Walker, Ricky Berens, Dave Walters, Garrett Weber-Gale, Eric Shanteau, Scott Spann and Aaron Peirsol.

Honors and awards

Reese was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1988, and the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) as an "Honor Coach" in 2002. His brother, Randy Reese, who is also a university and Olympic swimming coach, was inducted in 2005. Reese is also a member of the Longhorn Hall of Honor.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]