Bim Stults

Bim Stults

Full Name:  Newton Baumann Stults
     Born:  January 12, 1908, Toledo, Ohio
     Died:  April 7, 1991, Tallahassee, Fla.

Legacy Bricks:  Legacy Walk Map Link
   1978 Coach HOF - Loc 17

FSU Career

Coaches & Administrators
C

Member of the FSU Hall of Fame

Elected into the FSU Hall of Fame in 1978

Bim Stults was the head coach when Florida State inaugurated an intercollegiate swimming program in 1949. Twenty-five seasons later when he retired in 1973, Stults' teams had won 185 meets while losing only 43. Six times Florida State went undefeated as Stults established one of the South's strongest intercollegiate swim programs. Under Stults' direction, 20 Tribe swimmers won All-American ranking. Two of Coach Stults' divers, Curt Genders and Phil Boggs, won NCAA championships. Boggs was to later win a gold medal for the United States in the 1976 Olympic Games. Stults served as president of the College Swimming Coaches Association and was a member of the board of directors for the Swimming Hall of Fame. He also was a member of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Diving Committee and a U.S. Olympic Trials judge. For 25 years Coach Bim Stults created a brilliant tradition for Florida State swimming and was a major figure in intercollegiate swimming throughout the United States.

Obituary for Newton Baumann "Bim" Stults
From the Tallahassee Democrat, April 8, 1991, page 19.
By Bill McGrotha, Democrat Sports Editor

Newton 'Bim Stults dies at 83.
Stults was Florida State's first swimming coach, and he built the program into one of the South's most powerful.

Newton Baumann "Bim" Stults, one of the most successful coaches in the history of Florida State University athletics, died Sunday morning following a short illness. He was 83.

The first coach of FSU's swimming teams, Stults built the program from scratch into one often called the South's strongest during most of his 25 seasons.

Six times his swimming Seminoles had undefeated seasons while running up a dual-meet record of 185 victories, 43 defeats.

Twenty of his swimmers won All-American acclaim. Two divers, Curt Genders and Phil Boggs, won NCAA championships, and Boggs later was an Olympic gold medalist in 1976.

Stults served as president of the College Swimming Coaches Association and as a member of the diving committee of the National AAU. He also was a member of the board of directors of the Swimming Hall of Fame, and a U.S. Olympic Trials judge. He became, in 1978, one of the first persons chosen for FSU's Athletic Hall of Fame.

Stults disliked his given name of Newton, and was simply "Bim" to his swimmers, friends and acquantances.

"Bim was like a father to me," said Mike Tschirret, director of the Tallahassee Sports Authority and captain of FSU's 1957 swimming team. "He was a great, great man - a motivator, a quality person."

Stults was a professor-emeritus at FSU. In 1984, the aquatic center at FSU was named in his honor. He was also a member of the Elk, a Mason, a retired Navy Lieutenant Commander and a World War II veteran.

Long after his retirement in 1973, Stults remained active in swimming and other endeavors. He seemed in splendid health, and played tennis regularly.

Only last week he attended the US Swimming Championships in Texas.

Not long after his return from Texas, he had a stroke and entered Tallahassee Regional Memorial Hospital.

"It was the first time he had been in the hospital - ever," said Susan Coxen, his daughter.

He is survived by his daughter Susan and son-in-law Dale Coxen of Shell Point and two granchildren, Jennifer Coxen and Daniel Coxen of Shell Point.

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