Hero of Galveston Island: The Legacy of Leroy Colombo (1905-1972)

Here is another deaf athlete (similar to Dummy Hoy who David wrote about) who our readers may not be familiar with–Leroy Colombo, a deaf lifeguard of Galveston, Texas.

 

Boys at Swimming Hole, 1922
Image courtesy of Jean F. Andrews

Leroy Colombo, best known on Galveston Island for his swimming prowess, was a gifted athlete, an indefatigable lifeguard, and an admired humanitarian who saved 1,000 lives from drowning deaths in the Gulf of Mexico from 1925 to 1970. What is remarkable about Leroy’s heroic achievements was not that he was deaf; he lost his hearing at the age seven purportedly from meningitis, but that he achieved so much during an era when deaf people faced enormous societal barriers. Leroy harnessed his athletic abilities and became a champion sea-water racer and a lifeguard who saved the lives of vacationing tourists who were enticed into the Gulf’s warm, shallow and inviting waters, but treacherous rip tides.

 

Dedication of Leroy Colombo Swimming Center in Galveston, TX.
Image Courtesy of Jean Andrews

To the deaf community Leroy was a hero, a legend in Texas swim racing, lifeguarding and an inspiration for not letting his deafness hold him back. Throughout his life of 68 years, Leroy suffered from poverty, societal discrimination toward his hearing loss, and alcoholism. None of his hearing family members or hearing lifeguard colleagues learned sign language. Leroy’s membership in the deaf community is an aspect of his life that defines him and may have contributed to his choice of careers as a lifeguard, a job that requires keen visual and motion detection skills. His legend is documented in numerous newspaper articles about him archived in the Rosenberg Library in Galveston, and in deaf periodicals. Even today his name is honored in an annual 5K Leroy Colombo race held each summer in Galveston. In 2002, Leroy was inducted into the Texas School for the deaf Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2005, by an act of the legislature, the natatorium at the Texas School for the Deaf was named, the Leroy Colombo Swim Center.

Texas School for the Deaf (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Related articles

• What I Learned from a (Deaf) Baseball Player – From Lipreading Mom (deafinprison.wordpress.com)
• What I Learned from a (Deaf) Baseball Player (lipreadingmom.com)
• Armed lifeguards patrol Galveston seawall (khou.com)
• Deafness doesn’t need to be a barrier to sport (earth.co.uk)
• Armed lifeguards on patrol on Galveston Island (star-telegram.com)