Charlie Hickcox

Charles Buchanan Hickcox II (February 6, 1947 – June 14, 2010) was an American competition swimmer who swam for the University of Indiana, a three-time Olympic champion at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and a former world record-holder in six events.

Indiana University Hickcox attended Indiana University, and swam for the Indiana Hoosiers swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition from 1967 to 1969. He won a total of seven individual NCAA national championships while swimming for Hoosiers coach Doc Counsilman. In the three years from 1967-1969, Hickcox earned Indiana varsity letters and contributed to 1968 and 1969 NCAA national team titles. He was an NCAA champion eight times, including titles in 1967 in the 100 and 200 backstroke, and in 1968 in the 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke, and 200 backstroke. In 1969 he won NCAA individual titles in the 200 individual medley and 200 backstroke, and swam with Indiana's NCAA championship 400 medley relay team. He was an NCAA All American a total of thirteen times. The peak of Hickcox's swimming career occurred between 1967 and 1968 when he set eight world records in the space of sixteen months.

1968 Mexico City Olympics He received four medals, including three gold and one silver at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. He tied with American Sharon Stouder for the second highest Olympic medal count of any swimmer to that date, placing second to Don Schollander of Yale who won four gold medals in 1964. Hickcox won a gold medal in the 200-meter Individual Medley with an Olympic record time of 2:12.0. He won a second gold in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:48.4, beating second place American Gary Hall in a very close race by only 3 tenths of a second. Hickcox won a third gold as a member of the world record-setting U.S. team in the men's 4×100-meter medley relay. He added a silver medal in the men's 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:00.2, taking second to Brittain's Roland Matthes who swam a 58.7.

Hickcox worked as a television and radio announcer and coached swimming in his early career. He completed studies at the Salmon P. Chase Law School, part of Northern Kentucky State University in Highland Heights, Kentucky, after graduating Indiana. While attending or shortly after attending law school, Hickcox briefly coached or co-coached the highly competitive Cincinnati Marlins age-group Swim team in 1973, very close to Highland Heights, Kentucky where he attended Law School. After graduating Law School, he was admitted to the Arizona Bar. Later, he had a commercial real estate career, and founded the Feldman-Hickcox Company, a real estate firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

He was married to Olympic diver Lesley Bush, but they later divorced.

He died at his home in San Diego from cancer on June 14, 2010, at the age of 63. He was survived by his wife Kathy whom he married around 2003, children, grandchildren, and siblings. A memorial service was held July 10 at East Valley Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona.