Many times USA Olympic Swim Coach, Jon Urbanchek’s 50-year career included a stop at Anaheim High between 1964 and 1978, an era when the Colonist swimming and water polo teams achieved CIF championships and All American honors.
Many of his Anaheim athletes went on to play water polo and swim on NCAA Championship teams in college and, indeed, some went on to make their mark internationally.
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Many times USA Olympic Swim Coach, Jon Urbanchek’s 50-year career included a stop at Anaheim High between 1964 and 1978, an era when the Colonist swimming and water polo teams achieved CIF championships and All American honors.
Many of his Anaheim athletes went on to play water polo and swim on NCAA Championship teams in college and, indeed, some went on to make their mark internationally.
More importantly, he instilled such character traits as self-discipline, courage and humility in the students he coached, attributes that remained with his players throughout their lives to help them achieve success in other endeavors.
Shortly after leaving Anaheim High, he served as head swim coach at Long Beach State for four years. During that time he also coached the US Olympic team to a 2nd place finish behind his native Hungary at the 1979 FINA Men’s Water Polo World Cup. In 1981, he was named Pacific Coast Athletic Association Coach of the Year.
It would be at his alma mater, University of Michigan, where he served at head swim coach that Jon Urbanchek’s world class capabilities began to fully blossom.
John earned a scholarship to the university upon leaving his native country of Hungary following his participation in the 1956 Olympic Games. With Jon in the pool for Michigan, the school won NCAA Championships in 1958, 1959 and 1961.
It was 34 years later that he again made a big splash for the Michigan swim program. Between 1981 until his retirement 2004, Jon would lead Michigan to the Big Ten National Championship starting in 1995. He continued to deliver unprecedented results, achieving 10 continuous years of Big Ten Championships, which came to be called the “Decade of Dominance,” a legendary track record of success unmatched before and unlikely to be matched again in the history of college swimming.
A true legend among swimming coaches, Urbanchek was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame 2008 and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame 2010.
At the Olympic level, Urbanchek coached 44 USA Olympians with 11 Gold medals including four world record holders. He was named to coach the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic teams. After his retirement from Michigan in 2004, he continued to coach the high performance team of Club Wolverine in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in preparation for the 2008 Olympics.
Urbanchek isn’t not done yet. In 2010 he returned to Orange County and is now in Fullerton, where he is directing the USOC’s training center in preparation for the London Olympics in 2012.
Jon has settled in their old in home in Fullerton. His wife Melanie, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, continues to work in Ann Arbor. Their daughter Kirsten (Michigan grad 1991) lives in Lutherville, Maryland, with her daughter Claire.
Not only has Jon made huge contributions to the United States Olympic efforts, he has enriched and enhanced the lives of countless young men, by his example, by his leadership and character.
On Feb. 29, 2020, alumni ranging from Class of 1932 to 2018 took a dip in the new Anaheim High Jon Urbanchek Aquatics Center swimming pool as part of a Leap Day Swim-A-Thon. They joined 100-plus student swimmers, coaches, teachers, administrators and community members who attended the event to support the new swim program.
Anaheim High last had a competitive team in 1991, and the pool was drained in 2009, the same year the Alumni Association was formed. Once it was known the pool in out of operation, a “Bring Back the Splash” campaign was started with Jan Domene (’69) heading the effort as president of the AHSAA, and later, an AUHSD trustee, who unfortunately passed away before seeing her dream become a reality.
In December of 2019 the pool was christened with a naming ceremony for legendary AHS Coach Jon Urbanchek. A month later, new swim coach Denise Osorio was handed the keys, and six weeks later a team of swimmers began competing. A water polo team will be formed in coming months.
Since 2009, alumni have donated approximately $25,000 toward the Bring Back the Splash campaign. The Feb. 29, 2020 Leap Day Swim-A-Thon was the culmination of a decade of effort to have an operational swimming pool at Anaheim High. Congratulations to all who joined this grass roots effort to bring the amazing Anaheim High Aquatics Center to life.
Finally, thanks for all the hard work by everyone involved at the AUHSD, the construction team, the AHS staff and student body who endured two years of construction and all the neighbors surrounding Anaheim High!
With USA athletes earning a record number of medals in the 2016 Summer Olympics, the AHSAA thought it was time to highlight Anaheim High’s own Olympic athletes.
Anaheim High’s legendary swim and water polo coach Jon Urbanchek, himself an Olympic swimmer, is in Rio now as a special assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Team, a position he also held in 2012.
He was head coach to the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic teams. In total, Urbanchek has coached 44 USA Olympians with 11 Gold medals including four world record holders.
Inducted into the Anaheim Hall of Fame in 2011, Urbanchek served as Anaheim High’s swim and 
water polo coach between 1963 and 1978, an era when his Colonist teams achieved CIF championships and All American honors.
After leaving
his native country of Hungary following his participation in the 1956 Olympic Games, Jon received a scholarship to the University of Michigan where he contributed to three NCAA Championships in 1958, 1959 and 1961.
A true legend among swimming coaches, Urbanchek was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame on July 6, 2008.
Barbara Ellen (McAlister) Talmage on the cover of a 1962 Sports Illustrated
Barbara Ellen (McAlister) Talmage from AUHS Class of 1959 became a championship diver who won seven Senior National Titles, took a gold medal in springboard diving at the 1963 Pan American Games and represented the U.S.A. as a diver in the 1964 and 1968 Olympics. Her image has graced the covers of both Sports Illustration and Life magazines.
Sid Sowder Freudenstein from the Class of 1963 carried the flag in the 1968 Olympics as co-captain of the Men’s Gymnastics Team in Mexico City. As a UC Berkeley student, Freudenstein won many invitationals, PAC 8, regional titles and national and international awards. In his senior year in 1968, he tied for first on floor exercise, and his team won the NCAA Championship.
At Anaheim High, he won many competitions, mostly on tumbling, floor and vault. In his senior year, he was the High Point Man (closest to All-Around) at the Southern California State Championships.
After ending his competitive career, Freudenstein returned to school at the University of Colorado (CU), earning a PhD in physics. While finishing his degree and raising a young family, he became head gymnastics coach at CU in the fall of 1976. Later he became chairman of the physics department at Metropolitan State University in Denver.
Track and field athlete Rick Sloan from Class of 1964 competed in the 1968 Olympics, placing 7th in the decathlon and becoming the fourth American in the sport to exceed 8,000 points. 
At UCLA, he became the first Bruin to exceed 7-feet in the high jump when he vaulted 7-1. An injury prevented him from competing in the high jump and vault in the Olympics, but his fate was sealed when a coach talked him into competing in the decathlon. Afraid to high jump on his bad leg, Sloan had only one practice jump before the Olympic tryouts, but he somehow cleared 6-11 ¾ to set a world record decathlon high jump record and make the U.S. team.
Kit Salness-Howser – Class of 1972
He parlayed his experience as a decathlete into a life-long career as a track and field coach. His career culminated as the men’s and women’s track and field head coach and the dean of Washington State University’s coaches. He retired from WSU in 2014 but said he had more coaching in him.
While he never returned to the Olympics as an athlete, Sloan is well known internationally in the multi-events circuits because of his 14 years as coach for four-time world decathlon champion, Olympic champion and former world record-holder Dan O’Brien and because of his mentoring of Olympic heptathlete Diana Pickler. He’s also coached the late Gabriel Tiacoh, the quarter-miler from Ivory Coast who won an Olympic silver medal in 1984.
A HISTORY OF ANAHEIM (UNION) HIGH SCHOOL
Pride of the Colony – Built on Tradition
Anaheim High School, first established in 1898, is the oldest of nine comprehensive high schools in the Anaheim Union High School District. It is the third oldest high school in Orange County, behind Santa Ana (1889) and Fullerton Union High School (1893).
Following is a timeline of the formation of Anaheim High, from its humble beginnings in an crude adobe structure to a clapboard, then brick, then a columned “Crown of the Colony” Greek Revival, to its current art deco building.
ANAHEIM HIGH SCHOOL TIMELINE
1859 – Soon after the first German colonists arrive, they petition the Los Angeles County superintendent to establish a school in Anaheim, their new home by the Santa Ana River.
1860 – Anaheim’s first school opens in an adobe building located on a lot owned by August Langenberger, a prominent merchant and colony leader. The first teacher is F
red William Kuelp. His initial nine students are: Carola, Regina and Fred Langenberger; Elmina and Louise Lorenz; Pifanio and Antonio Burruel; and Tomas and Felipe Yorba.
1862 – One hundred dollars, paid in pure gold, purchases one of Anaheim’s original city lots for a new adobe school house. The new building is destroyed shortly thereafter by flood. Classes are moved to the second story of the Langenberger building and later moved again back to the adobe where classes were first held. This building is also occupied by the Anaheim Water Co. and a third room of this building served as the town jail. The school master was also the town’s notary public and justice of the peace.
1867 – Anaheim School District is formed.
1869 – Anaheim’s first teacher Fred William Kuelp re
signs due to ill health. He is replaced by Carl Van Gulpen, who is replaced shortly thereafter by James Miller Guinn, a Civil War Veteran who becomes known as the “Father of Anaheim” education.
1870 – The first monthly report of Anaheim students lists an enrollment of 91 students, divided into two departments (Primary and Grammar) and taught by two teachers. The town’s population at this time is estimated at 1,000.
1871 – The first school exhibit is staged with a program of declamations, dialogues, farces, tableaux and music. By charging a fee for this first open house, Guinn is able to purchase charts and an outline map for the school. Guinn also establishes the first final examination dates, which included an oral exam that was open to the public.
1874 – Guinn, a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio, serves as teacher and prin
cipal, offering subjects for high school diploma and classifies students into grades. His 20 pupils attend school in an adobe building with one window, empty boxes and benches for seats and crudely constructed tables for desks.
1877 – A plot of land 231 Chartres Street is purchased for a new school building at the cost of $1,500.
1878 – Guinn writes and champions a bond to construct a new school building, raising $10,000. When the bill is passed by the legislature on March 12, 1878, it marks the first time ever in California that a school district uses a bond issue to finance new school facilities.
1879 – The new two-story Central School, called the “handsomest school building 
in the country outside of Los Angeles,” opens on January 16. The school, which features as clock steeple and bell tower, is built in the center of a two-acre lot at 231 Chartres Street. The 217 elementary through high school students are taught by two men and two women who are paid $75 a month.
1880 – Matilda Rimpau, daughter of Anaheim pioneer Theodore 
Rimpau, is the first student in the Anaheim school system to earn a high school diploma.
1869-1881 – James M. Guinn
1881 – Guinn resigns his position as teacher and principal to become Los Angeles Superintendent of Schools. From the time of his resignation through 1898, there are no high school classes taught in Anaheim.
1898 – High school classes officially begin on the second floor of Central School after C.P. Evans, principal of Loara Elementary School, convinces the school board that classes should extend past the ninth year. Evans becomes principal and, assisted by Miss Helen French, they teach a student body of 39 student, 17 boys and 22 girls in grades nine through twelve.
1900 – Football begins with the first recorded game played against Fullerton at Anaheim on Nov. 6. Anaheim wins 2-0. Local sports reporters began referring to Anaheim High teams as the “Mother Colonists.”
1901 – When Central School becomes overcrowded, citizens fund a $12,500 bond measure to buy land, build a separate high school building and equip it. Anaheim’s first high school, an imposing brick structure, is constructed on south side of Lincoln (then Center), between Harbor and Citron. Principal Fred G. Athearn over sees seven teaches. Central School’s first seven graduates are: Edith Bannerman, Alma Mills, Dora Snyder, John Dauser, Bernard Snyder, Bowman Merritt and Welborn Wallop.
1902 – The high school’s first literary effort, The Stentorian, is publish
ed in February and sold for 50 cents per year. The first issue shows a photo of the faculty and the graduating class of 1902: Arthur G. Baker, Carl Zeus, Olga Boege and Ruth D. EnReal. The first meeting of the Anaheim High Girl’s Athletic Association (GAA) is held on Oct. 5.
1905 – Principal J.F. Walker oversees a student body of 79 students.
1908 – Citizens unite to form Anaheim Union High School District. AUHSD becomes the largest union school district in California, covering 46 square miles. Students feed into Anaheim junior highs from Anaheim, Cypress, La Palma, Stanton, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and portions of Garden Grove, Orange, Fullerton and Buena Park. Anaheim High is joined in the District by Loara District and, by petition, Magnolia District.
1910 – The student body is outgrowing Central School. There’s demand for more room, as well as for a richer course of study. An auditorium and rooms for manual training and domestic science are added. Physical education is added to the curriculum. Up to this time, the curriculum consists of math, English, Latin, German, biology, chemistry, and history.
1911 – Music and commercial subjects were added to the curriculum. Principal Walker teaches science while overseeing 10 teachers. Voters approve a $150,000 bond to purchase 11 acres a half block from existing school site at the northeast corner of Lincoln (then Center) and Citron. Construction of a Greek Revival high school begins and, within the year, a group of six buildings is erected.
The school building at 608 W. Center (now Lincoln) is sold to the elementary school district for $25,000. The building is demolished in 1937 to make way for the construction of Fremont Junior High, which was closed in 1979 and demolished in 1980.
1912 – New Greek-revival Anaheim Union High School is dedicated and graduates its first class of 17 students. By the following year, almost 200 had earned a high school diploma from the school’s combined campuses.
1918 – Class of 1918 becomes the first to wear caps and gowns at graduation.
1919 – The school adopts a logo (or crest) of a laurel wreath, topped by an open book, with the school’s initials AUHS appearing in the center of the wreath. This design appears on the cover of the 1919 yearbook.
1920s – Music education begins with teacher Joshua Williams giving free lessons in an effort to assemble a complete orchestra. He continued this practice over three decades.
1920 – March 19 of this year Volume 1, Edition 1 of the Anaheim High School newspaper is published. The paper was 7 ½ inches-by-10 inches. It not only contained news pertaining to the school, but also included a Chinese student directory, news on the Russian Bolshevik movement, and a United Press story on new games being played by girls and boys.
1921 – In November of this year an official mascot name is selected by Anaheim High’s staff and student body. In a spirited contest, the three top name choices were the “Homers,” “Pioneers,” and “Colonists.” The school newspaper reported: “Colonists was the final choice as the appropriate, dignified name for the representatives of the “Mother Colony.”
1924 – First high school swimming pool in Orange County opens on the AHS campus.
1927 – Clayes Stadium in constructed and, at some point in the school’s history, is named after Joseph Clayes, Anaheim High’s longest serving principal. The athletic field is called Clayes Field. Painting the stadium with class years becomes a Colonist tradition.
1928 – Principal Joseph Clayes, who first joined the school staff as a teacher of art and commerce, designed the first logo of a pilgrim profile embedded in the book-topped laurel wreath. The new Colonist logo appears on page 2 of the 1928 yearbook with a copyright notation.
1929 – The Colonist pilgrim logo appears on the yearbook cover.
1933 – Long Beach earthquake irreparably damages AUHS, requiring its demolition. Construction begins on a new art deco administration building as part of the Work Projects Administration (WPA) project #8291.
1936 – A new art deco AUHS main building, library and auditorium are dedicated.
1937 – A sunken garden and fountain in school’s central patio is created.
1939 – The Class of 1940 football team wins the Sunset League Championship.
1940 – Robert Morton theater organ installed in Cook Auditorium, and a new swimming pool replaces its 1924 predecessor.
1950 – Beginning of the coach Clare Van Hoorebeke’s legendary football era, which endured through 1972.
1953 – Anaheim High’s first drill team is formed and is coached by Helen Gruenfelder.
1956 – On Dec. 14, Anaheim Colonists tie the Downey Vikings in the CIF Southern Section title game at the LA Memorial Coliseum. Considered the most highly attended high school football game in California history, both teams came into the legendary game undefeated. Unmatched in terms of local interest, young idols and a record-setting crowd, the game is still being celebrated by historians, football fans and alumni from both high schools.
1957 – Western High School opens with students who graduate as seniors in 1960, ending Anaheim’s reign as the city’s only high school. According to Louise Booth’s AUHSD history.
1959 – Anaheim plays Western in football, marking the first time Anaheim played a high school within the same district.
1960s – School district returns Anaheim High to its original name, dropping Union from its title. New buildings are constructed during this time, replacing the remaining pre-earthquake coded buildings.
1960 – On October 16, Anaheim High hosts the NBA world champion Boston Celtics against the new Los Angeles Lakers in an exhibition matchup held in the gymnasium.
1964 – New “cereal bowl” fountain replaces sunken garden.
1967 – The Class of 1968 Varsity Football Team wins the CIF Division AAAA Championship.
1972 – The Art Quad and other buildings are constructed to replace old barracks that had been “temporary” quarters for 15 years.
1977 – “Wimpy’s Stand,” a popular student landmark for several decades, is changed into the Student Activities Office. The building was taken down in 2007.
1997 – Alumni join with the Class of 1997 to plan the school’s 100th anniversary in 1998. It turned out to be a great day with activities all throughout the campus, starting on the athletic field with a ceremony and band performance. The day ended with a musical program presented by AHS alumni and presentations by members of the planning committee.
2008 – Two new buildings with 49 state-of-the-art classrooms open. Classes begin February 2009.
2009 – In February of this year, Anaheim High graduates established the school’s first federal- and state-recognized non-profit corporation. The mission of the Anaheim High School Alumni Association (AHSAA) is to promote and support opportunities and programs for the benefit of the Anaheim High School students
2009 – On October 10, the AUHSD holds the Grand Re-Opening of Anaheim High celebrating the construction of two new buildings and other campus improvements. The newly formed AHS Alumni Association plays a major role in the dedication ceremony.
2014 – Anaheim High Varsity Soccer Team wins the CIF Division III Southern Section Championship.
2017 – Robert Saldivar from Class of 1996 becomes the first alumnus to become Principal of Anaheim High School.
2017 – On December 28, demolition of Clayes Stadium begins. Constructed in 1927, it was the oldest structure on the campus at 90 years old.
2018 – Anaheim High School launches a digital newspaper, Anaheim Exclusivo. Previously, Anaheim High’s school newspaper was published from 1920 through the 1990s. For several decades it was named “Anaranco” under advisor Lawrence Quille.
2018 – In October of this year, the Fassel Fitness Center is dedicated by Jim Fassel ’67, in memory of his father, Bud Fassel, Anaheim High’s longtime athletic trainer. The new state- of-the-art equipment aids in the training of the football team and other athletic teams at Old AU.
2019 – On December 13, the AUHSD unveils the new Jon Urbanchek Aquatics Center, a state-of- the-art facility that includes a swimming pool, offices and new locker rooms. Anaheim High soon debuts a new swim team, the first in 29 years. Shortly thereafter, a water polo team is established, the first since 1991.
2019 – On March 13, the AHS campus is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Classes are conducted virtually through the rest of the school year. The Class of 2020 graduates with a virtual ceremony, the first in the school’s history
2020 – The Class of 2020-21 continues with virtual learning and the campus remains closed throughout the school year.
2021 – In spring, sports teams are able to practice on campus, but competition starts and stops due to COVID-19 surges. The Class of 2021 is able to graduate in person with only parents attending. The ceremony is held at Western’s Handel Stadium.
2021 – On August 11, classes resume on campus. During the 17 months the campus is closed, the campus receives numerous upgrades. Solar-powered lunch tables are installed for students to charge their devices. A new lunch area and additional benches are added to provide more shaded seating areas for students. The campus is beautified with new murals representing Colonist Spirit, Pride, and Tradition, and the school’s entire exterior receives a fresh coat of paint. Improvements were also made to the athletic fields, and to HVAC, fire alarm and security systems.
Photos: Courtesy of Anaheim Public Library & the AHSAA
References:
“One To Twenty-Eight – A History of Anaheim Union High School District” by Louise Booth
AUHS and AHS yearbooks, especially copy written by Vice Principal Bella J. Walker.
Scrapbooks donated to the AHSAA.
“Anaheim” by Elizabeth J. Schultz and Stephen J. Faessel, a chapter in “A Hundred Years of Yesterdays,” published by the Orange County Historical Commission.
“Anaheim Colonists Football – A Century of Tradition” by Dennis Bateman
Other sources: “Anaheim High (Central School)” by Brad Pettigrew
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Class of 1958 graduate and former ASB President Bobby Hatfield, the famed tenor member of the Righteous Brothers duo, is among four outstanding Colonists inducted to the Anaheim High School Hall of Fame at a recent dinner and half-time football ceremony the following evening.
Other inductees include Dean Philpott, an outstanding athlete and educator from Class of ’54; Lydia Cano, a Class of ’61 grad who is being honored for her contributions to community and county; and Olympic coach Jon Urbanchek, who led Anaheim High’s swim and water polo teams to multiple championships from 1964 to 1978. They join 34 other inductees who have been named to the school’s Hall of Fame since the program’s inception in 2003.
Click on the link below to view photos of the induction events:
