Issue link: http://www.wacmagazine.com/i/1524796
WAC Legacy | WAC Artifact | Take a trip to Paris 24 WAC Magazine | wac.net Club Heritage WAC Artifact Reciprocal club Club Life By Darrick Meneken It's hard to imagine what it must have felt like in 1936, standing over the outdoor pool in Berlin, moments from the most important swim of her life. When WAC member Olive McKean dove in for the women's 4-by-100–meter freestyle relay that August day, she would never again be the same. By the time the race finished, McKean would be an Olympic medalist. Nearly 90 years later, holding a photo of Olive taken in her prime, her nephew, James McKean, simply calls her "Aunt Olive." In the picture, her hair wet, Olive smiles for the camera. "ey were great athletes," James says of his aunt and the other women swim- mers of the 1930s. "ey were popular public figures, celebrities in their time." It shouldn't surprise. e 1936 Olym- pics were the first to be televised. Back then, just being on TV made you a star. James McKean, also a WAC member, knows something about stardom. As a 6-foot-9 member of the Washington State University men's basketball team in mid-1960s, he was a big man on a small campus. Enshrined into the WSU Hall of Fame in 2013, James spent most of his working life teaching English and cre- THE MCKEAN FAMILY Member James McKean recalls his aunt, Olympian and WAC member Olive McKean CLUB HERITAGE James McKean with a photo of his Aunt Olive. The McKean family's legacy of WAC membership dates to the 1930s. Olive won Olympic bronze in 1936.