David Armbruster

David Alvin Armbruster Sr. (August 18, 1890 – August 5, 1985) was an American swim coach who served as the first coach for the University of Iowa swim team from 1917-1958. In his long coaching career, he trained two swimmers who medaled in the Olympics, had fourteen of his swimmers capture NCAA titles, and led 75 of his swimmers to receive All American honors as collegians. He may be best known for helping to develop the "over the head" arm movement used in the modern butterfly, which he helped initially develop as a refinement to the breaststroke. Around 1934, Armbruster combined the over the head breaststroke recovery with the dolphin kick which later become the modern butterfly stroke. The butterfly stroke was not adopted as an official stroke separate from the breaststroke in swimming competitions until 1956. He is also known as one of several collegiate coaches who helped in the development and popularization of the flip turn, now used universally in training and competition.

In April, 1918, though he had already begun his coaching career at the University of Iowa, he served during the WWI era, and received training in aero mechanics, and engines at New York University.

Coaching U. of Iowa He served as an Associate physical education professor for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City and as their first Men's swimming and diving coach from 1916-1958, also teaching canoeing in his early years. Early in his coaching career, he married Edna M. Collins in Mount Pleasant, Iowa on December 25, 1917. His wife Edna was a graduate of Iowa Wesleyan where they likely met. University coaches and swimming officials resisted the full introduction of the butterfly into competition, and the new stroke did not become an official competition stroke in the U.S. and internationally until 1956. Armbruster also worked to improve the flip turn, and helped develop underwater windows for competition pools that could be used to observe and study the stroke technique of swimmers. The American International Swimming Hall of Fame cited Arbruster as one of the primary developers of the butterfly stroke.

Outstanding U. Iowa swimmers

Outstanding swimmers Ellis coached at Iowa included medalists Bowen Stassforth and Wally Ris who captured gold and silver medals in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. Stassforth swam for Iowa in 1949, 1950, and 1952, and won his medal in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics in the 200 meter breaststroke using the over the water hand entry. Wally Ris swam for Iowa in the 1940's and in the 1948 Olympics won a gold medal in the Men's 100 meter freestyle event with a time of 57.3, winning by only half a second over American Alan Ford. Ris also won a gold in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay with a combined team time of 8:46.0, with the favored American team beating the equally favored silver medal Hungarian team by only 2.4 seconds. A Hall of Fame recipient, Ris was considered Armbruster's top swimmer, and captured five consecutive championships in AAU competition in the mid to late 1940's.

Armbruster mentored several high achieving coaches. Hall of Fame and Olympic Coach James "Doc" Counsilman of Indiana University pursued physiology doctoral studies from Iowa under Armbruster, and served as Armbruster's assistant swim coach at the University from 1948-1951. Counsilman assistant coached at Iowa under Armbruster during the swimming tenure of Olympians Wally Ris and Bowen Stassforth and learned a great deal from Armbruster's coaching methods and likely his knowledge of the breast and butterfly strokes. Hall of Fame and Mexico Olympic Team coach Ron Johnson swam for Armbruster at the University of Iowa, and had a long career coaching swimming at Arizona State University from 1976-1993. Johnson led fourteen of his swimmers to earn Olympic medals. Armbruster coached Dr. John Boggert, who was an American Athletic Union Women's Swimming Chairperson.

Armbruster was the author of the well-received publication Swimming and Diving. The earliest edition was in 1957, and numerous subsequent editions have had collaborative authors including L. F. Morehouse, Robert H. Allen, and Robert Sherwood Billingley.

Around thirteen years after his coaching retirement in 1958, Armbruster moved to Denver, Colorado from Iowa in 1971. He died Monday, August 5, 1985 at Cherry Hills Nursing Home in Aurora, Colorado, after suffering a long illness. He was predeceased by his wife Edna in 1980, and was survived by two sons and two daughters. He was buried at Memory Gardens Cemetery in Iowa City, Iowa, close to the University of Iowa Campus.

Honors He was a 1956 inductee to the Helms Hall of Fame, and in 1966 became a member of the prestigious International Swimming Hall of Fame. He was admitted to the University of Iowa Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989.