Squat Russell Tongay could hardly wait to
make a swimmer out of his first-born son. As a high-school boy in St.
Louis, barrel-chested Russ was a sprint swimmer himself, and earned
letters in almost every other sport. But fame & fortune eluded him. He
became a coach at municipal pools and summer camps, was anonymously
enduring World War II as a Coast Guard pharmacist's mate at Miami when
Russell Jr. was born in 1944.Misfortune halted Russ's plans for Russ Jr. almost before they had
begun: the baby died from multiple brain hemorrhages at 18 months. An
Army doctor testified at the inquest that he had heard an ugly little
story from Russ's blonde wife that Tongay had been trying to teach the
baby to float in the bathtub and had slapped him on the head because he
did not obey. But Russ's wife testified that the baby was bruised in a
fall down the stairs, and no charges were filed.In the Shower. Mrs. Tongay eventually presented Russ with two more
babies—another Russell Jr., who was nicknamed “Bubba,” and, 18 months
later, a girl whom they named Kathy. Russ began training them to swim
before they could walk. He sprinkled water in their faces from the time
of their first baths, turned showers on them at six months to teach
them proper aquatic breathing. Kathy swam 20 feet under water when she
was only ten months old. At 17 months the Tongay children paddled a
quarter of a mile a day; at two years each did five miles.Both were towheaded, wide-shouldered, active tots, bronzed by the
Florida sun. Their ribs showed. Russ, who fed them protein baby food
long after they were babies, said: “I keep them lean because they swim
better.” Eventually, both learned amazing stunts. Bubba would jump off
a 33-ft. tower with his hands and feet tied and swim two lengths of the
pool under water. Kathy swam seven miles every morning when training,
and dived 20 feet blindfolded.Down the Mississippi. Russ billed them as the “Aquatots,” and was as
proud as the owner of a top dog act. Bubba, he boasted, could hold his
breath four minutes. The lad trotted 15 minutes on a treadmill, set to
duplicate an 8% grade, to prove that his oxygen intake per pound of
weight was more than that of any recorded human other than Runner Gil
Dodds. Kathy caused Russ some embarrassment—sometimes she cried in
public. In 1949, two Miami women complained to the police that he
treated the little girl cruelly; while his car was stopped at a traffic
light, they said, they had seen him hit her with his fist and rub a
dirty rag in her face. He was acquitted. The same year. Kathy obliged
him by twice swimming five miles down the Mississippi. Bubba made 22
miles.In the summer of 1951, Russ and his wife took both tots to England, amid
a gratifying fanfare of publicity, to swim the English Channel. Bubba
was five and Kathy four. The British were horrified, and after debate
in Commons, refused to countenance Russ's fondest dream. Russ took the
kids to France, but the French turned him down, too. Eventually Russ
gave up and brought them home. They starred in Florida water carnivals
and branched out with bit parts in an Esther Williams motion picture,
Skirts Ahoy.Back to the Pool. One day last week, the roof fell in on Russ again.
Kathy died. Russ had apparently thought she was well able to swim a few
hours earlier.
