Bob Lutz: Olympian Jeff Farrell returns to Wichita

Jeff Farrell guesses he was 3 when he first dipped into a swimming pool, and it about scared his father to death.

“It was a hot summer day and my family was at the swimming pool at the Detroit Boat Club,” Farrell said. “My father was in a suit, having just come from his job at a bank. I wandered over to the kids pool and just went in. He saw that happen, jumped in with his suit and shoes on and pulled me out. Before we had a chance to dry off, I wandered over to the pool and did the same thing. And he came in after me again.”

Felix Farrell, Jeff’s dad, should have known what to expect. His son became a standout swimmer at East High and Oklahoma, then a 1960 Olympian who fought back from an appendectomy six days before the 1960 U.S. Olympic trails and not only made the team, but anchored the United States’ 400- and 800-meter relay teams to gold medals in the Rome Olympics.

Farrell has been back in the Wichita area this week – his younger brother, Tucker, lives in El Dorado – to attend his 60th high school reunion this weekend. He also was at the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony last weekend to see Caroline Bruce McAndrew, another outstanding swimmer from Wichita, receive her honor.

“She’s a relative of mine,” Farrell said. “But I’m not sure what the term is. Caroline’s grandmother is my sister’s sister-in-law.”

Farrell also has written a book, “My Olympic Story – Rome 1960,” which expands on the 1970 Farrell biography, “Six Days to Swim,” written by Jean Henning.

“Jean’s book was very well written and she did a good job of telling the story,” Farrell said. “But I knew there were some things that needed to be tweaked a little bit and some things that were left out. I never actually spoke to Jean about the book; I was living in Southeast Asia at the time. So I just got to thinking about doing my own.”

Farrell, who has sold real estate in Santa Barbara, Calif., for more than 30 years, took an adult education class in creative writing in preparation for tackling the book.

“I have a full-time job, so the book was done under some pressure,” Farrell said. “This took a great deal of time away from my livelihood. And selling real estate, even in Santa Barbara, is hard. You have to work hard.”

The focus of the book is Farrell’s battle to participate in the Rome Olympics. He had established himself as the world’s fastest swimmer in 1959, winning seven national and international titles in the 100-meter/yard and 200-meter/220-yard freestyle events and setting 11 individual national records. Farrell considered himself a near lock for an Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle.

“But,” he writes in his book, “fate had something else in mind for me.”

On July 26, 1960, Farrell felt a sharp pain in his right abdomen. He was in a daze created by the intense pain and the pain killers he was given to make him more comfortable.

The operation was successful, but no one expected Farrell to be ready for the trials, let alone make the U.S. team.

“As the book came together, I think certain elements were emphasized,” Farrell said. “Goal setting, perseverance, keeping after it . . . if there was one lesson, I think that was it.”

Farrell also writes about his childhood experiences in Wichita, after the family moved from Detroit when he was 7. He tied a national high school record in the 220-yard freestyle during his senior year at East while being coached by Bob Timmons, who later would coach distance runner and future Olympian Jim Ryun at East and the University of Kansas.

Farrell said he tried other sports, but not for long.

“I really wasn’t very good at any of them,” he said. “Football, basketball, baseball – all the sports that most kids want to do. But swimming is where I really had a talent.”

Through encouragement from his father and legendary Wichita businessman Willard Garvey, who formed the Wichita Kiwanis Club swim team in the 1940s, Farrell stuck with swimming. He competed in his first AAU meet in Blackwell, Okla., in 1949, when he was 12.

Farrell continued to swim competitively, even after he moved to Southeast Asia in the early 1960s to work for CARE, a humanitarian aid company, and Medico, which provides health care and educational services to people in developing countries. He met his wife, Gabrielle, in Thailand and they were married in 1969.

“I was interviewed recently and one of the questions I was asked was that if I could re-live a year of my life, which one would it be?” Farrell said. “I said it would be one of the 2 1/2 years I spent in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in 1963, ’64 and ’65 because I was able to help people. I visited orphanages and we had wonderful programs of relief. Food and tools and visiting surgeons who would come to Saigon and devote a couple of months of their time at their expense. We were really helping people, saving lives. It was a wonderful experience.”

Farrell and his wife spent 13 years in Thailand before moving to Santa Barbara in 1980. They have two children and one granddaughter, 6-month-old Eloise.

Farrell visited his childhood home on North Roosevelt earlier this week and was impressed that the same brick street still exists.

“Everything pretty much looks just the same,” he said.

Farrell still swims occasionally after stopping for several years after open-heart and bypass surgery. He’s not as young as he once was.

“What’s really unsettling about this 60-year reunion is that it’s already been announced that it’s the last reunion we’re going to have,” Farrell said. “You read between the lines, and you’re like, hmmm. You never think of yourself as getting old. Or at least you’d like not to.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2014 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Olympian Jeff Farrell returns to Wichita."