Celebrating a New Aquatics Center and Honoring a Longtime Coach

Excellence: It’s the first word that comes to mind when Doug Rachlin, A85, A20P, A22P, thinks of what the new aquatics center at Tufts University will represent. 

“When you look at the recent projects for athletics, be it Ounjian Field, Bello Field, Gittleman Park, or the Tufts Tennis Center, they are beautiful,” he said. “The aquatics center has been a missing piece, and it's great to see it moving forward.”

Rachlin, a member of the Board of Trustees and an avid swimmer, provided the lead gift for the state-of-the-art center, which will include a 50-by-25-meter Olympic-sized swimming pool and two 1-meter and two 3-meter diving boards. The facility is expected to be open by the fall of 2028 and will provide a new home base for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams as well as for programs for the Tufts and Medford/Somerville communities.

A Team Effort

An event was held on September 18 at Joyce Cummings Center to celebrate the new facility and thank those who helped make it possible, including Rachlin, for whom the center will be named. The event also recognized the support of Trustee Rebecca J. Neary, J87, A22P, and her husband, Jim Neary, A87, A22P, Nathalie Giauque, J92, A23P, and her husband, Nicolas Giauque, A23P, and Cummings Foundation, founded by Bill Cummings, A58, H06, J97P, M97P, and his wife, Joyce, H17, J97P, M97P, and supported in its work by Cummings Foundation Trustee Dennis Clarke, A26P, and Executive Director Joyce Vyriotes.

Together, they and other generous supporters, including swimming and diving alumni, parents, and friends, have helped Tufts nearly reach its $27.5 million fundraising goal for the project, which represents about half the construction costs. The balance of the project costs will be funded by the university in recognition of the importance of the project.

Thanks to the gifts from the Nearys and Cummings Foundation specifically, the Rachlin Aquatics Center’s natatorium, or main pool, will be named for Don Megerle, who coached the men’s swimming and diving team from 1971 to 2004. Now the director of the Tufts marathon team, Megerle has championed the vision of a new aquatics center for decades.

Also announced at the event: the establishment of a fund in honor of Nancy Bigelow, who retired from the university in 2018, after coaching swimming at Tufts for 36 years. Two former swimmers led the effort to establish the fund.

Ted Tye, A79, A06P, A13P, vice chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the Athletics Board of Advisors, has spent more than a decade energizing the Tufts community about plans for the center. 

“We’re so pleased that Doug, the Nearys, the Giauques, and Cummings Foundation, as well as all of the other donors to the project, have embraced the vision we developed and have so generously supported it,” Tye said.

Tye credited President Sunil Kumar’s leadership and the work of the Department of Athletics, the Tufts Operations Division, and the Tufts Board of Trustees for bringing the project to fruition. “It was a great team effort,” he said.

Incredible Impact

The new facility will replace Hamilton Pool, which opened in 1946 and is too small to host NESCAC swimming and diving championship meets or allow for concurrent practices for the Tufts swimming and diving teams.

Despite the challenges with the current pool, the head coach for swimming and diving, Adam Hoyt, “has led one of the best programs in the country,” Tye said. The women’s swimming and diving team won 2022 and 2023 NESCAC championships, while the men’s swimming and diving team finished in the NCAA Division III top 10 from 2023 through 2025. Sixteen Tufts swimming and diving athletes earned All-American honors at the 2026 NCAA Division III championships.

“The impact that the new facility will have on our swimmers and divers will be incredible, because it will be a state-of-the-art training center and allow Tufts to host intercollegiate competitions,” Tye said.

The space will also be open to the broader Tufts community, including students, faculty, and staff, for open swimming hours and water aerobics classes, among other activities. Residents of Medford and Somerville will also have the opportunity to use the pool for swim lessons, and the university hopes to host a proposed swimming classic between the cities’ two respective high schools. 

Honoring Coach Megerle

For Rachlin, one of the most exciting aspects of the project is to see Megerle honored. 

“Coach Megerle is the number one cheerleader for Tufts Athletics,” Rachlin said. “He’s been at Tufts for more than 50 years, and he’s still cheering on all the Tufts teams. I was told by a couple of recent student swimmers that he would give speeches to the Tufts swim team early in their season to pump them up.”

Miles Rubin, A81, a good friend of Rachlin’s, was a captain of the Tufts men’s swimming and diving team in the 1980s. The pair didn’t know each other in college but have bonded as adults. They have been swimming with the same group of masters swimmers in Scarsdale, New York, for the past 25 years.

Rachlin loves hearing his fellow Jumbo reflect on the impact that Megerle had on his life. Rachlin said that Rubin told him, “Coach Megerle was more than a coach; he was a confidant, a supportive father figure who held everyone’s attention when he spoke. His leadership qualities started at the pool but emanated way beyond the swim team. Coach was serious when he needed to be and was funny and disarming when the team needed a lift.”

Rachlin said, “When I think of Coach Megerle, I think of other Tufts legends like professors Sol Gittleman and Dan Ounjian,” who were also recognized for their influence on generations of Tufts students by having athletic facilities named after them. “Tufts swimmers see him in that light, too, so it’s great for him to be honored in this way.”