Former UNC Coach Rich DeSelm Leads North Carolina Swimming Hall of Fame Class
Former North Carolina head coach Rich DeSelm is among the five-member Class of 2026 for the North Carolina Swimming Hall of Fame, announced on Tuesday.
Joining him in the hall class are Joel Black, Stephanie Peacock, Brooks Teal and Patty Huey Waldron.
“Our Class of 2026 is a very impressive class of inductees,” said Jonathan Watson, Co-Chair of the North Carolina Swimming Hall of Fame Committee. “They represent a wide range of important aquatics achievements including swimming, coaching, officiating, and administrating.”
“Importantly, these inductees are distinguished by so many lifetime contributions to swimming and aquatic sports in our state,” NCSHOF Co-Chair Erika Braun said. “They have been leaders in their field while constantly giving back to their sport and community.”
The Oct. 2 induction ceremony in Greensboro will feature Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones as a featured speaker.
Black is a long-time official in football and swimming, starting the latter in 1981. He became a certified official for NCAA, USA Swimming and North Carolina High School Swimming in 1989 as well as serving as an officials instructor. He spent 26 years on the Officials Committee of North Carolina Swimming, 16 as the chairman. He also served on the Officials Committee for USA Swimming for 23 years, including as the co-chair from 2004-06.
Black has worked a litany of top regional and national events. He’s been on deck as an official, starter, deck referee and meet referee at 22 YMCA National Championships, earning the Connie Carroll Award as the YMCA’s Most Outstanding Official in 2009 and its Joseph R. Rogers Award for Service to Competitive Swimming in 2017.
He’s worked for the Atlantic Coast Conference as an official for 27 years in various roles and worked three NCAA Division I Men’s Championships from 2001-13. For USA Swimming, he’s worked seven national championships (Juniors, Seniors and U.S. Open), three Pan Pacific Championships and five U.S. Olympic Trials. Black was awarded the Ken Pettigrew Award as USA Swimming’s Outstanding Official in 2005.
DeSelm swam at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill from 1974-78. A captain as a senior, he left Chapel Hill with team records in five events, named the team’s hardest worker in 1975 and its MVP the next three years. He became an assistant coach for the Tar Heels for 15 seasons from 1978-93.
DeSelm left Chapel Hill in 1993 to become the head coach at Davidson, where he won seven Southern Conference Championships (four women, three men) and five conference coach of the year awards in seven seasons. He became an assistant coach at the University of Florida for six seasons, part of the Gators 12 combined top-10 NCAA finishes and seven top-five results.
He returned to North Carolina in 2007 as the head coach, a position he held for 12 years. He mentored 58 All-Americans and 26 ACC champions, leading the women’s team to eight top-10 finishes at NCAAs and the men to three top-15 results. He worked as a manager for various international delegations, including as the assistant manager for the U.S. Olympic team at the 2000 Olympics, and as the head coach for the U.S. at the World University Games in 2011.
Peacock swam for DeSelm at UNC, where she set the ACC record in the 500 free as the ACC freshman of the year. The native of Florida was the ACC Swimmer of the Year and ACC Championships Most Valuable Swimmer as a sophomore, winning the NCAA title in the 1,650 free and breaking Janet Evans’ 22-year-old NCAA record.
Peacock also had a distinguished international career, swimming at the World University Games on three occasions. She won gold two relay medals in 2011 and set a meet record in winning the 1,500 free at the 2013 edition as well as silver in the 800 free. In 2015, she won bronze in the 10-kilometer open water.
Teal is a native of Tarboro, N.C., who walked on at NC State in the 1970s. He began coaching club swimmers in hometown before nine years as the head coach of the YMCA of Raleigh (now the YMCA of the Triangle). There, he coached NC Swim Hall of Famer and world record holder David Fox and won a YMCA National Men’s Team Championship.
Teal was an assistant at Indian River Community College from 1989-92, then became the head coach at James Madison for seven seasons, winning six straight Colonial Athletic Association titles and three Eastern College Athletic Conference championships. Teal moved to NC State as the head coach from 2000-11, coaching national champions Cullen Jones and Kristen Davies. He spent the 2011-12 season at Clemson as an assistant before returning to the YMCA of the Triangle, at Kerr Family Y and Taylor Family Y before retiring in 2026.
Waldron swam at UNC from 1981-84, three times earning the Hill Carrow Spirit Award. She began coaching at Mecklenburg Aquatic Club in Charlotte as the head age-group coach and eventually became the head coach of the Masters swim program at SwimMAC. She was recognized in 1998 with North Carolina Swimming’s the Volunteer of the Year Award and in 2014 with U.S. Master Swimming’s Kerry O’Brien Coaching Award.
She also was the head coach of Charlotte Latin School, winning 22 CISAA championships and nine independent high school state championships. She currently serves as the volunteer director and organizer for Charlotte’s Swim Across America chapter.
The 2026 induction will be held at the Terrace at the Greensboro Coliseum on Oct. 6. The ceremony is presented by the 2029 World University Games, which will take place in North Carolina.
