Jack Cody (April 1, 1885 – April 11, 1963) turned the Multnomah Athletic Club swim program into a national champion and developed a group of girls into a media favorite. His work ethic helped athletes flourish through two world wars and The Depression.
Cody developed as a diver at the MAC but made his greatest impact there as a coach of both swimmers and divers starting in 1913. He coached Louis “Hap” Kuehn to gold and Thelma Payne to bronze medals at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics in diving and worked to develop youth programs at the club. He used weights as a training method, an unusual practice at the time for swimmers and divers.
In the late 1930s, a group of girls reached the national level and became known as “Cody’s Kids,” winning national titles in 1943, ‘44 and again in ‘49. The girls: Nancy Merki, Brenda Helser, Suzanne Zimmerman and Joyce Macrae, were featured in a 1942 issue of LIFE Magazine.
Led by “Cody’s Kids,” who were also joined by Geneva Klaus and Mary Anne Hansen, MAC swimmers won 42 individual and 16 relay titles at the national level. Although they were deprived of fame with the cancellation of the 1944 Olympics, Helser and Zimmerman competed at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. Helser won gold as part of the 4×100-meter relay team, and Zimmerman won silver in the 100 backstroke.
Cody’s success with his training program led a generation of swimmers at the MAC to call themselves “Cody’s Kids” long after he retired from the club.
In 1956, he was coach of the US women's team at the Melbourne Summer Games. That group won six medals.
Jack Cody is a member of the American Swimming Coaches Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame.