The person who coined the old saying about a fish taking to water could have had Ray Ruddy ’32CC in mind.
The native New Yorker – whose father Joe competed for the United States in the 1904 Olympics – was just 16 years old when he qualified for the 1928 summer Olympics in Amsterdam. He finished a strong sixth in the men’s 400-meter freestyle with a time of 5:25.0, and took fourth place the 1,500-meter freestyle in 21.05.
Ruddy moved onto Columbia, where he won the 1930 national collegiate championship in the 440-yard freestyle with a time of 4:55.6. He also swam for the New York Athletic Club and was dominated the competition, winning the prestigious President’s Cup seven years in a row – the first when he was just 15 years old -- and the National Long Distance Championship for six consecutive years.
As good as he was as a swimmer, Ruddy might have been even better at water polo, competing for Columbia and the NYAC. He was “usually considered the ablest water poloist in the world,” Time magazine said in a 1935 article. He qualified for the U.S. water polo team in the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin. The team took ninth place.
He demonstrated his versatility in the water in the 1929 season-opening contests was City College, starting at center forward on the water polo team and swimming the 440-yard race in the swimming meet.
Sadly, Ruddy died as a result of brain injuries sustained in an accidental fall in 1938; he was just 27 years old.
