About

Bea Thomas and Gertie Goose

Bea Thomas was born in January 1912 and passed away in December 2014 at the age of 102. She was raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Temple University in 1933, where she participated in intramural sports. From 1935-1945, she taught physical education in Palmyra, then retired to raise a family. Her son Peter was born in 1945 and her daughter Christine was born in 1946. In 1948, Amanda Pond formed the swimming team at Moorestown High School. Bea was named the first head coach of the program, while her husband Al coached the boys team. The South Jersey Swim League was formed in 1950 with four schools: Moorestown, Collingswood, Haddon Heights and Merchantville. In the girls league, there were eight meets plus a group meet and the interscholastic meet held in Philadelphia. League meets were held at the Camden YMCA and the Moorestown Community House, each being a 20 yard, four lane pool. Individual events were 20 yard freestyle for “novices,” (once you won the novice meet you were no longer allowed to compete in it) 40 yard freestyle, 40 yard backstroke, 40 yard breaststroke and 80 yard freestyle. The two relays were 60 yard medley and 80 yard freestyle. In 1952, the butterfly stroke was introduced but it did not become part of MHS Swimming until the 1955-56 season. There were two heats of butterfly, unlike the other events, because in a four lane pool there was not enough space for four swimmers at the same time. The mascot Gertie Goose was born during the 1955-56 season. Gertie lived with the captains of the swim team each year. The Gertie Goose song was written to the tune of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song. To this day, she continues to inspire the girls at each meet. From 1949-1978 the girls’ swim team won more than 300 meets and at one point Thomas’ teams won 99 straight meets. She had 250 total wins in 27 years. The state meets did not start until 1973. Bea’s last season coaching the girls swim team was 1975-76. After retiring as girls swim coach at MHS, Bea continued coaching 8th and 9th graders in hockey and lacrosse. After retiring from that, she helped coach the varsity field hockey team goalies by sitting behind the goal cage in her lawn chair until she was 92 years old. Over her lifetime Bea coached hockey, basketball, lacrosse and softball but only coached swimming at the varsity level. She was a national official in hockey, basketball, softball and lacrosse. And she was the hockey goalkeeper on the National Team in 1953. She continued to play hockey until she was in her 70’s.

Written by Ruth Rogers

March 15, 2019