Dennis Ford

Dennis Ford was a South African freestyle swimmer. He competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 1956 Summer Olympics. He was born on 3 February 1931, in East London and died 1st January 2009. In 1994 he married 1956 Olympic medallist Moira Abernethy.

At the 1952 South African Swimming Championships held in Cape Town, Dennis won medals in all four of the freestyle events, including three silver. In 1953 he won three gold medals and one silver. At Port Elizabeth in 1954 he won the 220 yards and placed second in the 100, with a third place in the 440. In Pretoria the following year he placed second in the 220 and 440. 1956 saw Dennis winning third place in the 200m freestyle, and placing 4th place in the 400. He missed the 1957 nationals in Bulawayo (then already an elderly 26-year-old in full-time employment), while in East London in 1958 he was once again amongst the medals, finishing second in the 100m freestyle, behind 1960 Olympian Aubrey Bürer. He also finished 4th in the 200.

Dennis Ford took up swimming at the age of three, competed in his first race three years later, and joined the Transvaal team in 1950. Between 1951 and 1953 he won numerous Transvaal freestyle titles and broke many records. In 1952 he competed at four events at the Summer Olympics, three individual races (the 100, 400, and 1,500 freestyle) where he was eliminated prior to the finals, and the 4x200 m freestyle relay (alongside Graham Johnston, Peter Duncan and John Durr), where the team placed seventh. The following year he was South African champion in the 100, 400, and 1,500 m freestyle events. This led him to be selected for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, where he took home a bronze medal in the 4x220 yard relay (with Johnston, Duncan, and Billy Steuart) and was eliminated in the heats of the 110 y freestyle.

Ford returned to the Olympics in 1956, this time participating in two events. He was eliminated in round one of the 100 m freestyle and was eighth in the 4x200 m freestyle relay with Duncan, Steuart, and Tony Briscoe. Ford retired from active competition in 1960, but continued swimming until shortly before his death from cancer on New Year’s Day 2009. He was also a proficient water polo player at the Transvaal provincial level and was involved in numerous other sports. His second marriage, in 1994, was to Moira Abernethy, a bronze medalist in the 4x100 m relay in Melbourne. Outside of athletics he was employed as an insurance company clerk and was active as a conservationist.

Dennis was a graduate of the King Edward VII school in Johannesburg and a long-time member of the Old Edwardian club where he swam and also played water polo. 

Dennis Ford had been elected President of the Old Edwardian Society in January 1990. Perhaps best known as a swimmer, Dennis also played rugby for Old Jeds and hockey for the Society. But it was at swimming that his name will forever be etched in the annals of Old Edwardians. He was a member of the Transvaal team from 1951 to 1959 and between 1951 and 1957. He went to the Helsinki and Melbourne Olympic Games as well as representing South Africa in the Commonwealth Games in 1954. Some record.

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obituary from the International Swimming Hall of Fame

Dennis George Ford, Passes Away

Dennis George Ford, South African Olympic and Empire Games swimmer, was born on 3rd February 1931 in East London, Cape Province, South Africa, and passed away in Johannesburg on 1st January 2009 after a two-month battle with cancer.

Dennis Ford was Captain of the Transvaal Team that won the Ellis Brown South African Championship Team Trophy every year from 1953 to 1960. Ford, who competed in both the South African National Swimming and Water Polo Championships for many years, eventually became known as Dennis"Old Man River" Ford.

His swimmer-coach partnership with his one and only Coach, Cecil Colwin, started in 1950 and lasted a record eleven years. Dennis Ford was a member of the South African swimming Team at the: 1952 Olympic Games, Helsinki, the 1954 Empire Games, Vancouver, and the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. Ford was a Member of the South African men's 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay team that finished in the final at both the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Ford was South African Champion in 200 metres freestyle (1953), 400 metres freestyle (1953) and 1500 metres freestyle(1953)

Ford's coach, Cecil Colwin, who had seven of the eight swimmers selected for the 1956 South African Olympic team, was nominated by the Transvaal Province as Coach for the Melbourne Games but his nomination was refused by the South African Olympic Council on the grounds that Colwin was a professional coach and therefore ineligible.

Ford started his international swimming career in 1950 at the late age of 20 under the coaching of Cecil Colwin, who was then only in his second year as a professional coach. Colwin saw promise in the 6 ft 3 in youngster who had an easy 'run' to his crawl stroke, and encouraged him to train for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, in which Ford was to compete two years later.

Ford's proudest swimming moment was winning a bronze medal at the 1954 Empire Games in Canada. Two years later, Ford swam in the Melbourne Olympics. Seven out of the eight swimmers in the Melbourne Olympic team were coached by Cecil Colwin, his four female swimmers coming third to the Australian and American teams in the 4 X 100 metres freestyle relay. One of the swimmers in that relay was Moira "Little Mo" Abernethy whom Ford was destined to marry in later years.

Dennis Ford also captained the Transvaal swimming team and held every provincial freestyle record during the 1950s. "He also played provincial water polo", said Moira, his wife of fourteen years. The two fell in love and married in 1994 after both their first marriages ended. Ford also played hockey, baseball, rugby, golf and bowls during various periods in his life, and continued swimming right up until he fell ill. His five children from his first marriage, two of them twins, have inherited Ford's affinity for water and are all keen swimmers and water polo players. Ford loved wildlife and spent as much time as possible in the wilds, working for the Endangered Wildlife Trust. Together with Clive Walker, Ford was one of the first people to collar elephants in the Kruger National Park.

Ford's lifelong friend Pat Cotter, whom he met in Grade One, described Ford as a strong, serious man with an underlying whimsical sense of humour. "Dennis was a man of integrity, and a popular all-round sportsman who was always willing to assist others," said Cotter.

Tributes to Dennis Ford:- From Billy Steuart, 1956 South African Freestyle Champion from 100 to 1500:- "I remember way back in 1951 when Cecil Colwin was training Dennis for the 1952 Olympics, Dennis did a workout at the King Edward School pool, in Johannesburg As a keen young swimmer then attending King Edwards School, I watched Dennis go through a gruelling session with Coach Colwin, and I came to realize how hard one had to work to be a good swimmer. I owe a great deal to Dennis who inspired me to be the same. Dennis was a great example for younger swimmers, because of his hard work, ethic and mature attitude. " (Note: Steuart joined Colwin's squad and became a direct successor to Dennis Ford when he won every South African freestyle title from the 100 to the 1500 in Durban at the South African 1956 Olympic Trials. Steuart later went on to swim for Michigan State University, where he won three NCAA freestyle titles.)

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