Brian Johns’ outstanding university swimming career will be recognized as part of UBC’s 2015 Sports Hall of Fame induction class.
The three-time Olympian, who is now an assistant coach with the Thunderbirds, will be honoured at the university’s Big Block Awards and Sports Hall of Fame Dinner scheduled for next April at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. Johns won a remarkable 33 gold and one silver in 34 career races at the CIS Championships. His wins included a world short course record of 4:02.72 in the 400-metre medley, established in 2003.
The now 32-year-old represented Canada at the 2000 (Sydney), 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing) Summer Olympic Games. Other career highlighted included a silver medal (400 IM) at the 2002 World Championships and a bronze in the 4x200 freestyle relay at the 1999 Worlds.
Johns will be inducted into the Hall of Fame’s athlete category along with another Olympian, Kelly Stefanyshyn, while his longtime coach Tom Johnson will be honoured in the builder category.
Under the guidance of Johnson from 1998 to 2007, UBC's swim teams of this era — he aptly named ‘Decade of Dominance’ — won 10 consecutive men's and women's CIS Championships and produced 42 international competitors. To recognize the achievement 125 UBC alumni swimmers, including Johns, will also be honoured in the team category, making it the largest induction class ever.
“For the longest time the selection committees have struggled with how to honour these amazing swim teams,” said Ashley Howard, UBC's managing director of Athletics and Recreation.
“Even after examining performance data and consulting with coaches and alumni, nobody was willing or able to decide which among the teams of that 10-year period was most meritorious for induction. To not recognize them was unthinkable, so we put forward an extraordinary nomination, which I was thrilled to know was unanimously endorsed by the selection committee.”
The remarkable period in UBC sport history began in the fall of 1997 when some 35 athletes began classes and a year of training under the direction of Johnson and assistant coach Randy Bennett. Six months later they travelled to Sherbrooke, Quebec and captured the first of ten consecutive CIS Championship banners, with the men's team amassing 660 points to claim a 223-point victory over the second-place Calgary Dinos. The final dual championship performance occurred in 2007 at Dalhousie University in Halifax, with the men's team finishing with a CIS record-breaking 787.5 points (surpassed by UBC's women's team in 2012 with 811.5 points).
Johnson came to UBC in 1989 after almost a decade of serving as head coach of the Canadian Dolphins Swim Club. The native of Hudson, Quebec has long been affiliated with Canada's national team and has coached at every Olympic Games since 1976. During his time at UBC he synchronized the resources and expertise of the Dolphins and UBC Thunderbird swim programs to create a revered national training centre in 1998. Since his arrival 25 years ago, UBC's swim program has won 17 women's and 12 men's CIS championships, four of which were won under the guidance of current head coach Steve Price.
“Looking back on it today, I have an even better appreciation of how incredible that 10 year-period was,” said Price, who came to UBC to mentor under Johnson in 1995 and later served as a UBC assistant coach. “Tom had a vision right from the get-go to create the best possible swimming situation from the community level all the way up to the highest level possible, and he stood for excellence all the way through. He was instrumental in creating the culture to allow championship swimming to occur at UBC.”
The 42 international competitors who emerged from these teams also includes three-time Olympian Brent Hayden who won bronze in the 100-metre freestyle in London in 2012.
