The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame joins with the family of Ellen Gale Hopkins Green in mourning the passing of one of the state’s elite swimmers. Her success helped spring-board Springfield into a championship swimming community.
Ellen Gale passed away on Monday, July 20 in Gainesville, Fla. She was 97. Mass will be held at 12:45 p.m. on Aug. 1 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Springfield and burial will be at Hazelwood Cemetery. A celebration of her life will follow at University Plaza Hotel.
She was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
One of Missouri’s earliest premier swimmers, Ellen Gale shattered virtually every swimming record known during her heyday of the 1930s. Between 1934 and 1939, she won 62 individual titles.
Her best year was 1937, when she captured 20 individual medals and a National Junior AAU championship. Most impressive was her 1937 time of 1:06 in the 100 meter freestyle. The previous year’s Olympic gold medalist swam it in 1:05.09.
Almost certain to be a pick for the U.S. Olympic team, Ellen Gale’s hopes were dashed as the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled due to World War II.
Nevertheless, Ellen Gale’s rise in swimming came suddenly.
Ellen Gale excelled in baseball and basketball for Springfield’s Greenwood High School. While splashing around in Fassnight Pool one night, a lifeguard noticed her natural swimming ability. The guard arranged a race at Doling Park against a top swimmer. Without any formal training, Ellen Gale easily beat the other swimmer.
Her father began training her and her sisters, Bettie Jane and Anna Lou, by waking them early in the morning before school for pull-ups on the door frames, push-ups and other calisthenics. He also created training devices to increase their strength, such as railroad ties with tennis shoes nailed to them. The girls would lace themselves into the shoes and swim while dragging the ties behind them.
By the time Hopkins was 15, she was already a swimming sensation, earning her picture on the front page of the Springfield daily newspaper. In 1934, Hopkins earned a varsity letter from Greenwood High School for her other endeavors. While at Greenwood, Hopkins’ popularity only grew. She eventually earned the nickname “Springfield’s Mermaid” and was a regular feature in local newspapers.
Hopkins was not the only member of her family to succeed in the pool. On her Amateur Athletic Union team, Ellen Gale swam with her sisters along with Faustina Woods.
One of Ellen Gale’s most memorable performances came in 1936, when she swam at the Grant Beach AAU meet and won the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and the 440-yard freestyle. She set pool records in each race, and all in front of a crowd of 1,200. Her performance prompted the newspaper to say, “She’s perhaps the most outstanding swimmer in the Missouri Valley Division.”
Ellen Gale was named one of the “Men of the Year” for 1937 by the News-Leader, the only woman to ever achieve that honor. Following that, she was named Athlete of the Year by the same publication for the next four years.
Shortly after high school graduation in late 1935, she left Springfield for St. Louis in order to train at Washington University-St. Louis, with members of the U.S. Olympic team. While practicing with Coach Eilers and the Olympians, she received a check for $86 from the Springfield Chamber of Commerce. The money was to be used to try out for the 1936 Olympic Games. Due to scheduling problems, Ellen Gale arrived only minutes before she was due to compete for a spot on the Olympic team.
She did not make the team. However, Hopkins’ personal-best time of 1:06.0 in the 100 meter freestyle would have won a silver medal in the Olympic Games, given the 1936 silver medalist, Jeanette Campbell, swam in 1:06.4.
In 1937, Ellen Gale returned to Springfield to enroll in the Springfield Teacher’s College, which would become Missouri State University. In her freshman year, the school built an Olympic-sized swimming pool to accommodate Ellen Gale and her sisters in their swimming regimen. Page 93 of the 1937 Ozarko names Ellen Gale Hopkins as a “Who’s Who at Springfield Teachers College” and it read, “Ellen Gale Hopkins … Springfield’s outstanding woman swimmer … only 18 and has won more meets than all the quins have teeth. Teachers College’s new pool is for Ellen Gale to practice in … from Greenwood High School.”
In 1938, the college named swimming a varsity sport. The new team was led by A.W. Briggs, who also coached basketball and football while serving as the Director of Athletics. The team began strong, winning its first meet in school history in the Missouri Valley AAU-sponsored events.
Ellen Gale, born Nov. 19, 1917, married E.H. (Bud) Green in 1939 and retired from swimming in 1940 after the birth of their first child. They went on to have seven children and enjoyed raising and showing American Saddlebred horses for many years.
Ellen Gale is preceded in death by her husband, Bud, and her daughter, Anne Green. She is survived by her children Janet Green, John Green, Diana Green, James Green, Patty Green-Warner and Holly Blair as well as her nine grandchildren and her 11 great-grandchildren.