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Arthur "Reds" Hucht

Born in September 1916, Arthur Francis Hucht grew up on the East Side of Baltimore attending St. Michael’s Parish.  Always on the go he swam in the then industrial Inner Harbor.  On Saturday he would scrub the floors to earn a few nickels of spending money.  Swimming, however, was his first love.  He competed in the twenties and later swam for Baltimore Polytechnic in the early thirties.  After Poly dropped their swimming team, Reds transferred to Calvert Hall, captained the team and graduated in 1935.  During his competitive years, he would run everywhere he went in order to get extra training much to the interest of onlookers.

Since the Calvert Hall Team practiced at the Alcazar Hotel Pool, Reds became familiar with the AAU Team, the Knights of Columbus that practiced there.  Reds got to know Coach Pat Ryan and when Ryan became ill with Hodgkin’s disease, Reds began coaching the swimmers while swimming himself.   Reds had done some coaching a year earlier at Camp Huntingfield in Kent County.   Reds’ coaching experience rapidly expanded and before he left for the Second World War, he had also coached Mt. Saint Joseph High and Loyola College all at the time he coached at the Knights of Columbus.

Reds’ coaching career paused when he enlisted in the Merchant Marine and served seven years.   Typical Reds, he would win bets by swimming from ship to ship in shark infested waters.

Finally, in l948, Reds returned to coaching and by l953 was fully involved with the Knights Team which became the Knights of Columbus Orchard Team with opening of the Towson based Orchard Swim Club.  Soon after Reds gained the coaching position at Calvert Hall.   For the next thirty-six years Reds coached both the school team and KCO earning twenty school titles and achieving countless AAU and USA swimming honors with his athletes.  Reds also served as US National Team Coach guiding teams to South American and the Soviet Union.

With the closing of the Orchard Pool in l987, KCO became year round at Calvert Hall.   Reds can still be found there in the mornings, evenings and weekends, sixty years after first coaching the team at the Alcazar Pool.