Squat Russell Tongay could hardly wait to make a swimmer out of his first-born son. As a high-school boy in St. Louis, barrel-chested Russ was a sprint swimmer himself, and earned letters in almost every other sport. But fame & fortune eluded him. He became a coach at municipal pools and summer camps, was anonymously enduring World War II as a Coast Guard pharmacist's mate at Miami when Russell Jr. was born in 1944.
Misfortune halted Russ's plans for Russ Jr. almost before they had begun: the baby died from multiple brain hemorrhages at 18 months. An Army doctor testified...
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