Kenneth Hahn

Kenneth Alvin Hahn (June 5, 1928 – August 2, 2006) was an American water polo player who graduated DePaul University and competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne where the U.S. team placed fifth overall.

Hahn was born June 5, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois to father Alvin Hahn and mother Ethel Johnson Hahn.

Hahn may have graduated Junior High as an eighth grader from Bloomington, Illinois's Lincoln High School on June 14, 1941 among 184 fellow students and graduated as a Senior in 1945. Though is no clear indication that he attended High School closer to Chicago where he was born.

DePaul University Though they had no varsity water polo team, Hahn graduated Chicago's DePaul University, There is a source that states that Hahn may have briefly played Varsity basketball while attending the University and later played for the all-star pro team, The Mount Vernon Starr Brother Independent basketeers in 1953, though he may have only played a few games with the team.

In water polo competition, in 1955 and 1958, Hahn was in Sr. National AAU Outdoor national championship teams and in indoor competition was on AAU Championship teams in 1960, 1959, 1956, 1955, and 1954.

Hahn served as an alternate on the U.S. 1952 Olympic water polo team. Hungary took the gold, Yugoslavia took the silver, and the Russian team captured the bronze. A well-publicized feature of the tournament was a very rough match between pre-Olympic favorite Hungary and Russia that had to be stopped by the referees. On December 6, the Hungarian team won their match against Hungary by a score of 4-0, and went undefeated in the tournament, but considerable animosity existed between the Russian and Hungarian teams as a result of the recent Russian occupation of Hungary in November, 1956, subsequent to a student revolt in the same month. Playing for the U.S. team were Olympic water polo Captain William Kooistra, and his brother Sam Kooistra, both graduates of DePaul University. Future UCLA and Olympic Water Polo Coach Bob Horn, who had played for Long Beach State, shared responsibilities as goaltender with Hahn. The American team would win the gold at the Chicago Pan Ams held in late August and early September. In a preliminary game against Argentina, at the 1959 Pan Ams, the U.S. team won 5–3 at Chicago's Portage Park on September 3, 1959 scoring three of their five goals in the early portion of the second half. Hahn played an outstanding game defending the goal as goalkeeper.

Hahn was married to Shiela Musgrove Hahn.

Career In career pursuits, he worked in sales, later relocating to Rock Falls, Illinois. Later in 1986, he became a member of the Illinois Water Polo Hall of Fame. Hahn was the recipient of All American honors by the American Athletic Union in the years 1953, 1954, 1959, 1956, and 1958.