SMU Athletics

Jim Stillson – Diving Head Coach 1983-2017

Jim Stillson was a three-time NCAA Coach of the Year and 16-time conference Coach of the Year, helping the Mustangs claim 33 conference titles. He coached four individuals to eight NCAA Championships and 20 student-athletes to 71 All-America honors. He has also mentored three NCAA Divers of the Year and 10 U.S. National Champions and saw 21 SMU divers win 89 conference championships. On the International level, he coached three Olympians to four appearances, including Scott Donie (USA), who won silver in 1992. Stillson served as one of the U.S. Diving National Team coaches from 1987-91 and again in 1997. In addition, he was selected as a team leader for the USA Diving team at the 2007 Pan American Games. He earned the United States Olympic Committee Diving Coach of the Year award in 1999 and the Mike Malone Memorial Award given for outstanding contributions to diving by the national governing body of the sport in 1992. Stillson received the Paragon Award from the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2015 for his outstanding contributions to competitive diving and USA Diving's Phill Boggs Award in 2017 for individual excellence and giving back to assure the sport's continued success. He was a 2024 inductee in the Texas Swimming & Diving Hall of Fame. He was a high school All-American at Campbell High (California) and went on to compete at Ohio State where he earned NCAA All-America honors on 3 meter his senior year. 

I Wasn't Supposed to be Here

"SMU shaped my life in ways nothing else could. To the divers who competed under me: I hope you felt my belief in you. I hope you know you were more than your scores. That I cared about who you became." - Jim Stillson