His trademark horn-rimmed glasses allow him to focus on the thousands of gentlemen he’s helped create, not the tally of state championships won. The black spectacles allow him to make clear eye contact with each swimmer, not just the svelte ones.
In his 56th season as head coach of the Edina swimming team, Art Downey has been molding boys into men. To the dean of Hornets sports, success in life is more valuable than the 19 conference, 14 section and 10 state championships.
Ken Dragseth, a former coach, principal and superintendent at Edina, has seen Downey’s influence as countless middle-aged men have come back to rave about his impact.
“They would go on about what a great person he was,” Dragseth says. “How he influenced them in their lives. How he continues to be concerned about their lives and how successful they are long after they’ve left the program. I think that speaks to his legacy.”
The origins of Downey’s legacy start, naturally, with the influence of his coaches at St. Paul Central High School and the University of Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
“They taught me, not directly, but by example, that people on the team come first,” said Downey, a freestyler turned coach in 1956.
Just as naturally, Downey has inspired others to coach, including Rich Dunham, a Hornets captain in the early 1970s.
“The model I used and the reason I got back into coaching after getting out was Mr. Downey, and the fact that he has had a positive influence on so many young men,” said Dunham, an roofing estimator and club swimming coach.
After moving to Edina from Texas in 1968, Dunham has kept a piece of paper Downey handed to team members at the beginning of that season.
“The first thing it has on there is [be a] gentlemen 365 days a year, 24 hours a day,” Dunham says. “He exemplifies that more than anyone I know. That’s the primary focus.”
Dragseth says Downey is a conservative, no-nonsense guy steeped in his traditions. Dunham says Downey is a caring man grounded in fairness. Scott Johnson, an Edina assistant coach, says Downey is a great listener based in desire to learn.
Through all those principles and traits is this “aura,” Johnson says.
“Knowing that at 4:30 on a Friday, you are going to see Art Downey on deck wearing a white pair of shorts and a stopwatch, that piece hasn’t changed for 55 years,” he says.
Downey has produced winners through repetition in both tactic and phrase. Two sayings serve as his go-to lines, Johnson says.
“He always wants the athletes to wear caps, so he always says: ‘A head with nothing on it is a head with nothing in it,’ as well as, ‘Life by the yard is hard. Life by the inch is a cinch. And if you get enough inches, you can be the ruler.’”
Downey might be the ruler of Edina swimming, but Johnson refers to it as more of a “grandfather-like demeanor.” And that’s about as close as Downey will come to revealing his age. (And Johnson isn’t sharing either.)
“I’ll only admit to 28,” Downey says with a laugh. “If you don’t believe me, just ask my grandchildren. That’s what I tell them. They say, ‘how can you be 28 when my dad is 35?” He then laughs harder, hinting at a possible secret to his longevity.
“It’s mind-boggling when you think about it; that he is older than my parents,” says Mitch Lentz, the 17-year-old captain of this year’s Edina High School Swim and Dive Team.
Lentz says Downey’s reach goes “full circle” from his club coach who swam for Downey in the 1980s to his barber who was a student in Downey’s physical education classes at Southview Junior High.
“Almost everyone in Edina sports or Edina alum knows him,” Lentz says. “He’s such a class guy.”
To honor Downey’s longevity, coaching colleagues gave him a surprise tribute during last season’s Class AA state meet. Lakeville South’s coach, Rick Ringeisen, bought about 50 replica pairs of Downey’s black, horn-rimmed glasses and handed them out for coaches to wear.
“He had no clue what was happening,” said Johnson, who tipped Downey to the presentation moments beforehand. “He wouldn’t want to do that, of course, because he is too modest, but he played along and was a good sport. … It was a tasteful thing, and I think he liked it in the end.”
To a local TV station, Downey cracked wise, “I think these people look a lot better than when I came in.”
