Inductees

He has been in and around competitive swimming for so long that folks may assume the H in water’s chemical name, h2o, stands for “Halliburton.”

Yes, Jim Halliburton has given his life the sport. Not that anyone is surprised. After all, he went undefeated as a Ladue High School swimmer decades ago, broke Big Ten and Indiana University records set by nine-time Olympic champion Mark Spitz and was ranked No. 1 in the world twice in the 100 butterfly.

Ever since, he has coached club, high school and college swim teams to great heights, and it’s not lost on the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, which proudly inducted Halliburton with the Class of 2018.

“My high school coach, Craig Canatsey, and my college coach, Doc Counsilman, both encouraged me to go into coaching,” Halliburton said. “They both thought that I would be a great swim coach because I loved the sport.”

Just look at what he has done at Saint Louis University since August 2001. His SLU teams are 517-156-1, ranking Halliburton sixth in all-time wins among all Division I swim coaches. Which is a remarkable run.

He took SLU men’s and women’s teams that were 2-40 in four prior years and then went 48-2 in 2006-2007.

The women’s squad went unbeaten in dual meet competition for three consecutive seasons, winning 61 consecutive duals. The women have broken 20 of 21 school records while the men have all 21 school marks during Halliburton’s tenure.

Previously, Halliburton helped guide Lafayette High School to 11 state swimming team titles and coached Marquette High School to three state championships.

In 30-plus years, he has coached 96 Missouri state champions. That figure is more than any other Missouri coach.

From 1982 to 2011, Halliburton was the head coach and aquatics director for the Rockwood School District. He took a program with 38 swimmers and turned it into a national championship squad of 590 swimmers. In 1999, the team won the 18-and-under junior national championship.

More than 50 of his swimmers have been ranked in the Top 16 in the U.S. in their age group, including eight ranked No. 1. He also coached Steve Crocker and Julie Cooper to world records and two other swimmers swam in the Olympics. Some 290 swimmers went on to compete in college.

Additionally, he was named U.S. National Team Coach three times and Region 8 Coach of the Year six times.

Since 2011, Halliburton also has coached the FAST swim team (Flyers Aquatic Swim Team).

And many of his swimmers have again won high school state titles, made the Olympic trials and have been ranked in the top 16 in the U.S. for their age group.

“I think that the reason I have had some coaching success is that I get along well with my swimmers,” Halliburton said. “I have also been surrounded by a lot of other good assistant coaches.”

In March 2009, the Missouri Athletic Club inducted Halliburton into its Hall of Fame for his coaching achievements.

A former member of the Clayton Shaw Park (CSP) swim team, Halliburton became the seventh male swimmer, and 11th person overall, inducted into the Ozark Swimming Hall of Fame that same month.

As a competitor at Ladue, Halliburton remains the only Missouri high school swimmer to go undefeated, winning eight state titles. His 100 butterfly record lasted for 13 years and his 200 freestyle state record lasted 19 years. He coached both swimmers who broke both.

At Indiana University, he won seven Big Ten titles and was named the Big 10 Swimmer of the Year three times and was a four-time NCAA All-American. He broke Spitz’s 100 butterfly Indiana pool and Big 10 meet records.

In 1980, the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Summer Olympics. Halliburton actually swam faster than the winning gold medal time on three occasions, and beat the gold medalist the only time in head-to-head competition in an Olympic size pool.

At age 50, Halliburton competed in the Senior Olympics and won 11 gold medals in 2009 and, a year later, set records in 14 swim races.

Halliburton has kept family at the forefront, too. He and his wife, Joanne, have two children, Dr. Kaleigh Adrian and T.J., who swims for his dad at SLU.

“A lot of the credit for my success needs to go to my wife Joanne,” Halliburton said. “A swim coach’s schedule is so crazy. She was supportive and did a lot of work behind the scenes to help me.”