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 Bruce Furniss in 1976 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Bruce MacFarlane Furniss | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team | United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1957-05-27)May 27, 1957 (age 67) Fresno, California, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 161 lb (73 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle,individual medley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Long Beach Swim Club[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | University of Southern California | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coach | Dick Jochums Long Beach Swim Club Peter Daland USC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Bruce MacFarlane Furniss (born May 27, 1957) is a former American amateur competition swimmer, Olympic double gold medalist, and ten-time world record-holder in four events. At the1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, he won theMen's 200-meter Freestyle and was a member of the winning U.S. team in theMen's 4×200-meter Freestyle Relay, both in world record time.[2] Furniss broke tenworld and nineteenAmerican records, and won elevenAmateur Athletic Union and sixNCAA titles.
Furniss was a proficient and successfulindividual medley swimmer, however it was hisfreestyle technique for which he is most often recognized and remembered. Many coaches and swimming experts lauded his "perfect freestyle stroke" and six-beat flutter kick as his best weapon against his much taller and bigger opponents.
Furniss is a 1975 graduate of Tustin, California'sFoothill High School where he was coached by Tom Delong,California Interscholastic Federation's all-time winningest high school swim coach. As a Junior at the 1974CIF-SS Championships, Furniss brokeMark Spitz's National Interscholastic High School Record in the 200-yard Individual Medley and then topped the record again at the same championship in 1975. Furniss-led teams won theCIF-SS Championship Title in 1972, 1973 and 1974. Two of those years, Furniss teamed withRod Strachan, whom Furniss would later swim with at USC and with whom he was a teammate on the 1976 U.S. Olympic Men's Swim Team. At the1976 Olympic Games, Strachan would best Bruce's older brother,Steve, winning the Olympic gold medal in the400-meter Individual Medley in a world record time.
Furniss was an integral part ofUSC'sNCAA National Collegiate Championship winning teams of1976 and1977. While at USC, Furniss was coached by the legendaryPeter Daland, who guided the school's men's swimming team to nine National Titles in his 35 years as the school's coach (1957 to 1992). During his time at USC, Furniss was one of five Trojans who would make the 1976 twenty-six memberMen's USA Olympic Swimming Team (each Olympic Swimming Medalists). Joining Furniss was older brotherSteve, 1977James E. Sullivan Award Winner,John Naber,Joe Bottom, andRod Strachan.
All four Furniss brothers attended, competed and graduated fromUSC. Each would swim and/or play water polo for the Trojans. Both Steve and Bruce shared in the school's1976 National Team Title, which at the time, was by the largest margin of victory.
Furniss was a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic men's swimming team, which was coached by three American swimming giants,Indiana University'sDoc Counsilman,Santa Clara Swim Club'sGeorge Haines, and theUniversity of Alabama'sDon Gambril, allInternational Swimming Hall of Fame Coaches. The 1976 U.S. Olympic Men's Swim Team dominated, winning 12 of 13 (92%) possible gold medals and 27 of 35 (77%) possible total medals. Furniss won Olympic gold in the200-meter freestyle, (one of three Americans to win this Olympic event;Mark Spitz in 1972 andMichael Phelps in 2008 being the other two), and the4×200-meter freestyle relay, setting world records in each event. On July 19, 1976, the second day of the 1976 Olympic swimming program, Furniss won the200-meter freestyle with a winning time of 1:50.29, leading an American sweep finishing ahead of fellow AmericansJohn Naber (silver) andJim Montgomery (bronze). Two days later, on July 21, 1976, he teamed up withNaber,Montgomery andMike Bruner on the4×200-meter freestyle relay with a winning time of 7:23.22. On that relay, Furniss, who swam the second leg, became the first person to break the 1:50 second barrier, splitting 1:49.56 (53.77/55.79).
Furniss also garnered two gold and two silver medals in the1975 World Aquatics Championships in Cali, Colombia and1978 World Aquatics Championships in West Berlin.
As a 7-year-old in 1964, Furniss was inspired by the four gold medal performance of American swimmerDon Schollander, who broke the 200-meter freestyle world record eleven times during his career. Twelve years later, Furniss became the twelfth of fourteen Americans in history to break the 200-meter freestyle world record. During his career he broke the200-meter freestyle world record four different times. At the1975 World Swimming Championships team trials in the Belmont Plaza pool inLong Beach, CA, Furniss accomplished the rare feat of breaking the 200-meter freestyle world record twice on the same day (June 18, 1975). Later that same summer, Furniss would break the world record in the event for the third time at the 1975 AAU Senior National Outdoor Championships inKansas City, KS. His fourth crack of the event’s world mark occurred in the 1976Men's 200-meter Freestyle Olympic Final.
Furniss also broke the world record in theMen's 200-meter individual medley at the 1975 AAU Senior National Outdoor Championships inKansas City, KS. He laid claim to the 200-meter freestyle world record from 1975 to 1979 and the 200-meter individual medley world record from 1975 to 1977. In total Furniss either broke or was on relay teams that broke ten world records in four different events over a three year period.
Furniss is the third of three successful aquatic brothers, often referred to as "Orange County California's First Family of Swimming."[citation needed] Older brotherSteve Furniss, a two-time swimming Olympian (1972 Bronze Medalist in the Men's 200-meter Individual Medley and 1976 U. S. Men’s Olympic Swim Team Captain), and Bruce are among a rare group of siblings, in any sport, to make the same Olympic team.
Oldest brother, Chip, aUSC Collegiate Swimming All-American, finished fifth in the 1972 Olympic Swimming Trials in the200-meter Butterfly (behindMark Spitz andGary Hall Sr). Youngest brother, Craig, also attendedUSC, where he was a two-time Collegiate All-American Water Polo Player and wasUSC'sValedictorian of his 1981 graduating class.
Bruce and Steve remain in an exclusive group of three sets of brothers to win Olympic swimming medals, joiningDuke Kahanamoku andSamuel Kahanamoku and Spain'sDavid Lopez-Zubero andMartin Lopez-Zubero.
The Furniss family's impact on competitive aquatics goes beyond competing in swimming and water polo. Upon his retirement from collegiate and international swimming, Steve became a leading innovator in competitive aquatic apparel foundingTYR Sport in 1985.
Bruce and Steve share the distinction as the only known brothers to have held and broken one another's world records consecutively. In August 1975 at theUnited States Swimming National Championships, Bruce broke Steve's200-meter individual medley world record in a race in which Steve also competed. In that same meet, Bruce and Steve, swimming for Long Beach Swim Club, shared the equally unique accomplishment, (along with teammatesTim Shaw and Rex Favaro), as the last swim club team to break a swimming relay world record (4×200-meter freestyle relay).
The decision by theInternational Olympic Committee andFINA to remove the200-meter individual medley from the1976 Summer Olympics robbed Bruce and Steve of the unique opportunity to compete against each other in an Olympic swimming event. Thus, Furniss's dream of winning a third, and, quite possibly, a fourth Olympic Gold Medal was thwarted when the200-meter individual medley and the4×100-meter freestyle relay (an event the United States had won in all three previous Olympics and both World Championships) were removed from the1976 Summer Olympics competition schedule. As the reigning200-meter individual medley world record-holder from 1975 through 1977, Furniss was the apparent favorite for the event's 1976 Olympic gold medal. At the time, Bruce, the event's existing world record holder, and Steve, the event's previous world record holder, were poised to race in the event against Great Britain'sDavid Wilkie, who had previously shared the world record with brother Steve, and Canada'sGraham Smith, who would break the world record in 1977.
Furniss was also the United States' fourth fastest swimmer in the 100-meter freestyle in 1975, and was a member of the world champion and world record-holding quartet (Furniss,Andy Coan,Jim Montgomery &John Murphy) in the4×100-meter Freestyle Relay, an event the Americans were favored to win in 1976 and up unto that time, one the U.S. had never lost in Olympic competition. Ironically both events were permanently reinstated into the Olympic program eight years later at the1984 Summer Olympics inLos Angeles, CA.
From December 1973 to the end of his career in August 1980, while swimming for Long Beach Swim Club (LBSC), Furniss's daily training partner was 1975James E. Sullivan Award Winner,Tim Shaw. While at LBSC, Furniss was coached by twoInternational Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) coaches,Dick Jochums andJon Urbanchek.
Prior to their 1973 arrival at Long Beach Swim Club, both Furniss Brothers were coached by anotherISHOF inducted coach,Ralph "Flip" Darr, who coached noted Olympic medalist swimmersGary Hall Sr. and siblings,Shirley andJack Babashoff, while at Huntington Beach Aquatic Club.
Furniss was twice named World Swimmer of the Year bySwimming World Magazine, once in 1975, and again in 1976. In 1974 and 1975, Furniss was awarded the prestigiousRobert J. H. Kiphuth Award as the country's high point winner at theUnited States Swimming National Championships. He was inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame in 1984, as an "Honor Swimmer" in theISHOF in 1987,[3] and theUniversity of Southern California Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001. Furniss also participated in carrying the Olympic flame as a participant of the 1984, 1996 and 2004Olympic Torch Relays in the Los Angeles area.
In April 2000, Furniss was selected to "USA Swimming's Swim Team of the 20th Century", an honor bestowed on only 26 U.S. male swimmers deemed to be the best of the best in the 20th century. In January 2004, Furniss received theNCAA'sSilver Anniversary Award. The award is presented annually to six former collegiate athletes in recognition of their 25 years of post-graduate career achievements, contributions to professional organizations, as well as charitable and civic activities within their community.
In February 2016, both Furniss brothers were selected to thePac-12 Conference's All-Century Men's Swimming and Diving Team, recognizing them among the Conference's 32 best swimmers in the previous 100 years. In 2018, Furniss was cited as one of the top 100 swimmers of all-time in John Lohn's book, "The 100 Greatest Swimmers in History." Both Furniss brothers were inducted into theLong Beach, CA'sAquatic Capital of America Hall of Fame in 2019. Furniss was also one of four former collegiate athletes inducted into theCollege Sports Communicators Academic All-American Hall of Fame Class of 2020, one of only 170 Collegiate Academic All-Americans so recognized since its inception in 1988.
Furniss graduated in 1979 fromUSC'sAnnenberg School for Communication and Journalism with a bachelor's degree in journalism. Upon his retirement from swimming in 1980, Furniss worked in sports marketing and public relations and wrote forSwimming World Magazine.[1] During this time he performed account work forManning, Selvage & Lee andBurson-Marsteller. Most of his work involved supporting the marketing efforts of several major corporate sponsors of the1984 Olympic Games inLos Angeles, CA. Since 1985, Furniss has been self-employed as a commercial real estate broker. He is a managing director withBerkadia inIrvine, CA. Furniss is married and resides inVilla Park, California. He is the father of three sons and a daughter, each of whom, like Furniss, attended USC.
Furniss is a part time Assistant Senior Coach at SoCal Aquatics in his original hometown ofTustin, CA.[4]
Throughout much of his prime swimming career, Furniss became noted for achieving athletic success in spite of waging a quiet battle against the crippling arthritic disease,Ankylosing Spondylitis.[5]
On May 1, 1980, Furniss had his childhood home burglarized. The only items stolen were his two Olympic medals, neither of which has surfaced, been returned, or located.
On March 29, 2020, while asleep at home, Furniss suffered acardiac arrest. He was admitted toSt. Joseph's Hospital inOrange, California, where he was treated withtherapeutic hypothermia (medically induced cooling) and was eventually released.[4]
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Men's 200-meter freestyle world record-holder (long course) June 18, 1975 – April 7, 1979 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Men's 200-meter individual medley world record-holder (long course) August 23, 1975 – August 4, 1977 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Men's 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay world record-holder (long course) July 25, 1975 - August 28, 1977 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Men's 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay world record-holder (long course) August 25, 1975 - August 23, 1983 | Succeeded by |
| 220 yards | |
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| 200 metres |
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