Richard Quick dies at 66; swim coach won record 13 NCAA titles

Richard Quick, a swim coach who won a record 13 NCAA titles at Auburn, Stanford and Texas and also led the U.S. Olympic teams in 1988, 1996 and 2000, died Wednesday in Austin, Texas. He was 66 and had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in December.

Quick won seven women’s collegiate titles at Stanford University and five at the University of Texas, and this spring guided Auburn University’s men’s team to the national championship.

In three trips to the Olympics as head coach of the U.S. swim team, Quick led his athletes to 59 medals. He also was an assistant coach at the 1984, 1992 and 2004 Olympic Games.

Among the swimmers he coached were Rowdy Gaines, Janet Evans, Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres, Summer Sanders and Misty Hyman.

A master motivator known for his demanding practice sessions, Quick tried an array of training techniques to improve his swimmers’ performances. He emphasized proper nutrition and rigorous conditioning, and he pushed psychological buttons.

“He’d show up at 5:30 a.m. It could be 30 degrees and he’d be smiling,” Sanders, who swam for Quick at Stanford and at the 1992 Olympics, told the San Jose Mercury News in 2005. “He had an ability to make you believe you could do what you thought was impossible.”

Quick raised suspicions a few years ago when Stanford swimmers began wearing shoulder patches intended to increase stamina. Some questioned whether the patches contained illegal performance-enhancing drugs, but no banned substances were discovered.

Earlier, in the late ‘80s, he withstood charges that his training methods drove his female swimmers to extreme weight loss and eating disorders. He later conceded that he may have pushed some of them too far.

Quick coached both men and women at Auburn from 1978 to ’82 and from 2007 through this season. He coached the women’s teams at Texas from 1984 to ’88 and at Stanford from 1988 to 2005. He also coached the Iowa State men in 1977-78 and the Southern Methodist women in 1976-77.

Quick was born Jan. 31, 1943, in Akron, Ohio. His father was a Goodyear tire salesman, and the family moved frequently. Quick learned to swim in Austin, Texas, and began competing at age 9. He was a standout swimmer at Southern Methodist, where he also earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s in physiology of exercise.

He began coaching at a Houston high school before returning to his alma mater in 1971, initially serving as an assistant men’s coach before helping launch the women’s program.

Quick’s survivors include his second wife, June; two children from his first marriage that ended in divorce, two stepchildren, and two grandchildren.

claire.noland@latimes.com