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"The way I remember it was ... The men all were at a meeting complaining about the many trips down the shore when the weather got too hot in West Philadelphia. Someone said we ought to have a pool in the neighborhood and they all agreed and so they started a committee."
This is the way someone of the second generation recalls the start of the University City Swim Club. The dry reality of the report by attorney Joseph Moloznik reads, "Mid.- 1963: Jim Cox and Leo Molinaro, together with a number of other individuals, began actively to explore interest in the community as a whole regarding the feasibility of constructing a Swim Club in the greater University City area."
A newspaper article of the time reported "...in June of 1963, when it first occurred to Dr. Cox, it appeared to many to be a wild, improbable, hair-brained scheme."
Try to imagine the reaction of many. It was the sixties, an eastern urban area, what is now regarded as inner-city, and the bank wanted each member to be personally responsible for his or her pro-rata share of any unpaid mortgage balance. On top of that, the bank wanted 250 of the 300 memberships sold before it would advance the funds to begin construction. Talk about trying to sell a pig in a poke. There were reports of people, both white and black, refusing to join because it was to be integrated, as the neighborhood was integrated. There were no quotas set about race, occupation or financial status. Yet it became a thriving reality.
The work was initiated by an organizing committee who went door to door in the neighborhood, trying to get people who would commit a month's salary to join an integrated private pool. James L. D. Cox, M.D. was the chairman and Leo Molinaro Executive Vice President of the West Philadelphia Corporation was an enthusiastic supporter. Charles Borkon, Charles Campbell, Gordon Callaghan, Louis Dill, William Grant, David Gray, Hilburn Harbridge, Maurice Hertzfeld, Walter Livingston, Joseph Moloznik, Oliver Williams, and Marvin Wolfgang joined in to fill out the organizing committee. (Cox, Livingston and Moloznik are still active in the club.)
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