Lee Engstrand

Lee Engstrand spent most of his childhood in Bartlesville where he attended Oak Park Elementary and continued his education in Bartlesville up through his junior year at Col-Hi. During Engstrand’s time in Bartlesville he swam for both the Phillips 66 Splash Club and the Col-Hi Wildcats, the latter which was coached by Pete Payne.

Payne coached eight straight high school state championship teams; Engstrand was a member of three of those teams. Engstrand followed Payne to Houston’s Memorial High for his senior year in order to prepare for the Olympic trials, which were held in Chicago later that year. Engstrand and Payne were champions once again in 1971, winning the Texas High School State Championship.

After graduating high school Lee moved on to attend the University of Tennessee. While swimming for the Volunteers he captured individual SEC and NCAA titles in the 400-yard IM (1975) and 200-yard IM (1976) and was on NCAA champion 400 free and 400 medley relays. The Volunteers were SEC champions each year Engstrand swam for them and he earned the honor of SEC Sophomore Swimming Athlete of the Year in 1974.

In 1973 Lee placed third in the 400-yard IM at the World University Games in Moscow. Engstrand has also set previous American records in the 400 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay and he set the world record in the 200 IM in 1976. He also was an AAU champion in both the 200 and 400 IM.

Following his career as a swimmer at the University of Tennessee Engstrand became the Volunteers assistant head coach from 1976-1979. During those years the team won the SEC championship each year and were the NCAA champions in 1978. Mr. Engstrand considers John Spannuth, who invited him to join the Splash Club, Coach Pete Payne and his head coach at the University of Tennessee, Raymond Bussard, to have been very influential in both his swimming career and in life. Engstrand has already been inducted into the Oklahoma, Tennessee and University of Tennessee Halls of Fame. We now welcome him to the Bartlesville Athletic Hall of Fame.

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