Tracy Huth

Tracy Huth was a swimming competitor for Michigan's Oakland University in the early 1980's, and later their Women's swimming coach from 1987-1997, where he led the team to 5 consecutive NCAA Division II Championships from 1990-94. While working as an Athletic Administrator and then Athletic Director at Oakland through 2014, he helped transition Oakland to a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I team, and oversaw the swim program win 14 consecutive Summit League Conference championships between 2000-2014. He later worked in Athletic administration for the University of California Los Angeles from 2014-2018 and after 2018 for the University of Northern Colorado.

Huth grew up in Yakima, Washington, where he was a High School All American swimmer and represented the Yakima YMCA.

On June 29, 2974, Huth competed in a regional Junior Olympic meet representing Yakima in the 11-12 age groups and placed second in the 100-meter fly. In July 1977, at the finals of the Spokane AAU Holiday Invitational Swim meet, he swam a 2:26.22 in the 200 individual medley leading his Yakima YMCA team to place third in the meet. As a young competitor again at the Spokane Holiday Invitational Swimming Meet in July 1978, he swam for the Yakima YMCA, recording a time of 17:42.74 for 1500 meters, qualifying for that year's Junior Olympics.

Oakland University swimmer Huth was recruited as a swimmer for Oakland in 1979, the same year Pete Hovland started as Coach. Hovland served as a coach at Oakland from 1979-2023, where he led the men's team to four NCAA Division II team national championships from 1994-1997 and 44 conference titles.

Huth earned a total of 24 All-American honors and 13 individual national championships during his swimming career with Oakland. He was a four-time national champion in the 200- and 400-yard individual medley events and earned NCAA Division II Swimmer of the Year three times. Swimming for Oakland in March, 1981, he set an NCAA record at the NCAA National Championships in Youngstown, Ohio, in the 400-meter Individual Medley of 4:03.03. He served as team Captain in 1983. In 1983 as an Oakland swim team competitor, he set a record for the 1650-meter freestyle of 15:53.44. While swimming for Oakland, he won both the 200 and 400 IM NCAA Championships all four years of his collegiate swimming career, and served as team Captain in his Senior year. Huth subsequently merited induction into Oakland’s Athletic Hall of Honor as a champion swimmer.

Huth completed a master’s degree in sports administration from Wayne State University and a bachelor’s degree in secondary education, from Oakland University, in 1985.

Oakland athletic administrator From 1997-2007, Huth served as Associate Athletic Director and then Assistant Athletic Director from 1998-2007 before being appointed as Director of Athletics in 2007, where he served through January 2014. While serving as an administrator in the late 1990's he saw Oakland transition from a Division I to a Division II NCAA team. The Oakland swim program won 14 Summit Conference championships between 2000-2014.

Outstanding swimmers Nancy Schermer, an Oakland Senior in 1988, was a top swimmer for Huth while he was women's coach. Huth's outstanding 1994 team featured freestyle sprinter Ellen Lessig, backstroker Amy Comerford, middle and long distance freestyler Kristen Barwell and distance freestyler Debby Nichols. Colleen Murphy, an Oakland All American, and another one of Huth's outstanding swimmers on the women's 1994 Division II NCAA Championship team, became a career coach who would lead the swimming team at Truman State University to three successive NCAA championships between 2002-2005, and later coach swimming at the U.S. Air Force Academy beginning in 2012.

He married the former Jenny Roulier in 2007. Jenny was an Assistant Women's Basketball Coach at UCLA, and had served as an Assistant Coach at Oakland from 1987-1989, when the couple likely met.

Active in swimming community administration, Huth served as an NCAA Swimming and Diving Committee Chair beginning in 2006, where he worked largely with the rules committee and reviewing entries for national championship meets. He served a four year term at least through 2010, though likely longer.

Honors Huth was elected to the Oakland University Hall of Fame twice, once as a swimming competitor and once as a coach. He was elected to the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America's (CSCAA), Greatest 100 Coaches of the Century in 2021, along with Oakland Men's Coach Pete Hovland.