Peter Daland

Peter Daland (April 12, 1921 – October 20, 2014) was an International Swimming Hall of Fame, U.S. Olympic and collegiate swim coach from the United States, best known for coaching the University of Southern California Trojans swim team to nine NCAA championships between 1957 and 1992. Daland started Philadelphia's Suburban Swim Club around 1950, an outstanding youth program, which he coached through 1955, that spanned over 40 years. Peter's more traditional father was slow to approve his unorthodox choice of careers.

Daland attended Harvard University as did his father, and grandfather, before he enlisted in the United States Army for World War II. After the war, he graduated from Swarthmore College in 1948 and got his first coaching job at the Rose Valley Suburban League in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania, where he won 8 straight Suburban League titles (1947–55). Around 1950, he founded and was the first coach of the Suburban Swim Club, now called the Suburban Seahawks Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania and later served as an assistant coach to Bob Kiphuth at Yale University. He then coached the US men's team at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, where his men swimmers won 26 of 45 medals awarded in men's events. In those Olympics, Mark Spitz of the United States had a spectacular run, lining up for seven events, winning seven Olympic titles and setting seven world records. The pool of USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center bears his name.

Daland was married to former elite German swimmer Ingrid Feuerstack (1942–2017). They had three children, Peter Jr., Bonnie, and Leslie. Leslie won a gold medal in the 900 meter freestyle at the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow. Leslie now owns Daland Swim School, which was founded by Ingrid, in Thousand Oaks, California. On October 20, 2014, Peter died in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 93 of Alzheimer's disease.

Honors and awards 1962 ASCA Coach of the Year 1964 Olympics Women's Swimming Team Coach for the USA 1972 Olympics Men's Swimming Head Coach for the USA 1977 AAU Swimming Award recipient