Ken Huszagh

Early life and swimming

Ken Huszagh was born on September 3, 1891, in Chicago to Rudolph Daniel Huszagh and Henrietta Robinson, and spent his childhood on Washington Boulevard. He was the second son among four brothers, with three older and one younger; several of them were strong swimmers. His brother Victor competed in the Chicago area and later swam for Amherst College starting in 1909. The family’s paternal immigrant roots trace back to the Austria-Hungary Empire, in what is now Slovakia.

Huszagh showed early talent as a sprint swimmer while representing Chicago’s Lewis Institute in high school. There, he set an Illinois Interscholastic State record in the 100-yard swim at 1:06.2 and a 40-yard mark of 21.2 seconds. At age 18, during the Chicago Interscholastic meet at the Illinois Athletic Club on February 12, 1910, he improved the 40-yard time to 19.4 seconds, which the Chicago Tribune called a world record. Lewis Institute, founded in 1896 as a four-year high school with a technical focus, also offered a two-year mechanical engineering program.

Before 1908, his older brothers Rudolph, Victor, and Harold had also attended the school. By 1909, Huszagh was training and competing for the Chicago Athletic Association, where his primary coach was Alex Meffert, the organization’s swimming director. Meffert, who had previously coached at the Missouri Athletic Club, worked with both swimmers and hockey players, and his focus with Huszagh was refining his use of the Australian crawl, or front crawl, a stroke that had been fully adopted in American competition around 1905.

Northwestern University

Ken Huszagh swam for Northwestern University's Wildcats team under Hall of Fame coach Tom Robinson, who had led the program since its 1909 inception. Robinson's squads claimed five straight Big Ten titles starting in 1914. Huszagh made history as the first Northwestern swimmer to earn an Olympic berth. He also set a 50-yard freestyle record of 23.6 seconds at the Illinois Athletic Club pool on March 12, 1912.

1912 Stockholm Olympics

Ken Huszagh swam for the Illinois Athletic Club and earned a spot on the 1912 U.S. Olympic team in Stockholm. In the 100-meter freestyle, he took the bronze medal with a time of 1:05.6. The race was tight: Duke Kahanamoku of the United States won gold at 1:03.4, and Cecil Healey of Australasia claimed silver at 1:04.6. The swimming events ran from July 6 to July 12 in a course built in Stockholm harbor.

In the 4x200-meter freestyle relay, Huszagh’s American team briefly set a world record in the preliminaries with a time of 10:26.4, smashing the old mark from the 1908 Olympics by nearly 30 seconds. In the final, despite swimming even faster at 10:20.2, they finished second for the silver medal. Huszagh led off, followed by teammates Perry McGillivray, Harry Hebner, and Duke Kahanamoku. Australia won gold in 10:11.2, and Britain took bronze, 8.4 seconds behind the Americans.

A few weeks later, in August 1912, Huszagh joined the U.S. National team for an international meet in Hamburg, sponsored by the Association of Swimming Clubs of Hamburg. In the 100-meter relay against Germany, the American team won with a combined time of 4:29, five seconds ahead of the Germans at 4:34. Huszagh swam his 100-meter leg in 1:09.6. The American team also won the 4x100 medley relay, though by a closer margin of two seconds.

On April 29, 1916, Huszagh married Frances Kleinsteuber at her home in St. Joseph Township, Michigan. They met at a lake in northern Wisconsin, where Huszagh was struck that Frances could not swim, and he kept quiet about his own swimming career. Frances was the daughter of the man who ran the combined police and fire alarm system for her city. The couple had one child.

Just a week before the wedding, Huszagh, now representing the Chicago Athletic Association, swam in a meet against Yale University’s team in Chicago, which the Chicago Club won handily.