Terry Denison

• Born: 7 December 1940

Terry Denison

It was an all-night conversation which ultimately led to Terry Denison becoming one of Great Britain’s most successful swimming coaches.

A history teacher at West Leeds Boys High School, Denison also taught swimming – but his other love was rugby union and he was the coach of the school team.

However, his focus was to change in 1967 when the English Schools Championships were held in Leeds and legendary coach Deryk Snelling stayed at Denison’s house.

The two engaged in a lengthy chat and Denison was so enthused by Snelling’s passion for coaching swimming that he enrolled onto a course.

He became the chief coach at City of Leeds SC and turned them into one of Britain’s most successful clubs.

They were crowned national champions 15 times in addition to becoming European Community Men’s Team Champions in 1990 and top age group club on 14 occasions.

His swimmers have won nearly 50 national championships with 98 of them gaining international honours at either junior or senior level.

Amongst these, was Adrian Moorhouse, who won gold in the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games, Andrew Astbury, who gained a team bronze and James Hickman, who was world short course champion.

Denison coached at six Olympic Games, two World Championships, four Commonwealth Games and seven European Championships.

He was voted Coach of the Year by the British Swimming Coaches Association 10 times and, in 1989, he was awarded an MBE for services to swimming.

He retired in 2003.