Ron Ballatore
| Sport(s) | Men's swimming |
|---|---|
| Biographical details | |
| Born | 1941 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | April 27, 2012 Gainesville, Florida |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1967–1978 | Pasadena City College |
| 1978–1994 | UCLA |
| 1994–1996 | Brown |
| 1996–1999 | Florida |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| NCAA Championship (1982) | |
| Awards | |
| Pac-10 Coach of the Year (1981, 1982, 1984, 1994) | |
Ron "Stix" Ballatore (1941 – April 27, 2012) was an American college and international swimming coach. From 1978 to 1994, Ballatore was the head coach of the men's swimming and diving team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he coached his UCLA Bruins swimmers to an NCAA national championship in 1982.
In sixteen years at UCLA, Ballatore's Bruins never won a Pacific-10 Conference team championship, but finished second in the conference ten out of sixteen seasons. Nevertheless, he was chosen as the Pac-10's Coach of the Year four times. Nationally, however, his Bruins teams were perennial top-ten contenders in NCAA competition. Ballatore's swimmers won twenty-six NCAA championships in individual events, plus another two NCAA championships in relay events. His UCLA swimmers also compiled a 98 percent graduation rate.
A combination of Title IX compliance problems and the weak financial condition of the UCLA athletic department in the early 1990s forced UCLA to disband the Bruins men's swimming program after the 1993–94 season. Ballatore became the head coach of the Brown Bears swimming team at Brown University from 1994 to 1995, and the Florida Gators swimming and diving team at the University of Florida from 1996 to 1999. Before UCLA, he coached the Lancers swim team of Pasadena City College from 1967 to 1978.
While leading the UCLA Bruins swimming program, Ballatore coached twenty-eight Olympians, including gold medalists Brian Goodell and Tom Jager. He also served as a coach for five Olympic swimming teams, including the United States team at the 1984 Summer Olympics and 1988 Summer Olympics, the Peruvian team in 1968, the Ecuadorian team in 1972, and the Israeli team in 1976. He also served as the head coach of the U.S. national swimming team at the 1975 Pan American Games, where his American men's swimmers won twenty-six medals in individual and relay events.
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