Joe Bernal: Swimming Coach at both Fordham & The Prep during our time in school named in sexual harassment suit
I met Coach Bernal a few times, via a swim team member, during our freshman year at school. He seemed like a nice guy and as the “other shoe drops” I guess I have to add-you don’t really know people. The late Joe Bernal gained early notoriety as the Head Swim Coach at Fordham University in the 1970s. While there, he was able to transform what was described as “a lowly Fordham men's team” to the heights of winning seven Metropolitan Collegiate Swim Championships in a row . In 1976, he received the Vince Lombardi Trophy for coaching excellence. He also produced his first Olympian, Robert Hackett (Fordham Prep Class of ‘77) for the 1976 Games in Montreal, Canada where he won a Silver Medal. Bernal: Photo from Obituary 2022. Bernal was also inducted into the Metropolitan Swimming Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Fordham University Hall of Fame in 2009. After his successful time at Fordham, he became the Aquatics Director and Head Men's Swim Coach at Harvard Unive...