The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Longhorn Hall of Honor: William Paulus
11.07.2011 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Nov. 7, 2011
John Byczek, Texas Media Relations
William Paulus' family has been involved in high levels of athletics, and he was no exception. His father played football for Michigan while his brother also played football in the Pac 10, however, Paulus decided to run a different route.
As a child in Fort Worth, Texas, Paulus loved all sports. He played football, baseball, tennis and even trained in Judo. But after swimming at the Panther Boys Club, he soon realized that swimming was his gift.
Paulus received coaching at the Panther Boys Club in Fort Worth from Doug Russell, who just won the 100-meter butterfly in the Mexico City Olympics. This was just the beginning of the excellent coaching Paulus would receive.
Vigorous training and dedication led Paulus to be recruited by universities with top notch swimming programs, such as Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC and others. However, Paulus could tell the University of Texas at Austin was something special, and he decided to become a Texas Longhorn.
"I always liked UT," Paulus said. "They had just started with Eddie Reese as the swim coach, and I just had a better feeling with the program. I could sense the energy and that there was something about it that seemed better than the other schools' programs."
Paulus helped the University of Texas to its first NCAA men's swimming and diving title in 1981. He helped the Longhorns win the 400-yard medley relay three times at the NCAA Championships and led UT to new American records in the event in 1980 and 1981.
Paulus also led Texas to four consecutive Southwestern Conference team championships and won five individual conference titles. Of his four years on the Forty Acres, Texas finished no worse than third place at the NCAA Championships.
"The support for the program was great," Paulus explained. "It was just an amazing experience to be thrown in with all the people that were there at the time. Everyone was just driven and focused. It was simply a great situation to reach your potential."
Paulus also excelled on the world's largest stage: the Olympics. He earned a spot on the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team by winning the 100-meter butterfly at the Olympic Trials with a time of 54.34 seconds. Although the U.S. Olympic team did not perform in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, as ordered by President Carter in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, Paulus' 54.34 time overshadowed the winning time of 54.92.
On April 3, 1981, he set a new world record in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 53.81 at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Paulus is the first man to have beaten the 54-second mark in the event, blowing the previous world record of 54.15 out of the water. His record stood until August 1983.
Paulus credits his successes in the pool and in his life to his coaches and teammates.
"I was always lucky to have great and dedicated coaches. Part of it was that the program at UT under Eddie Reese and Kris Kubik had so much positive energy and focus that it rubbed off on everyone that was around it and couldn't help but give you that extra incentive to succeed," Paulus said. "It's not just what I did myself but everyone I was around did that same thing. Whether they won something or set a world record, they still reached their potential in the sport and outside of it, which is kind of unusual in a lot of places."
Paulus earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Texas at Austin, then went on to receive a dental degree from the Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas. He joined his father's orthodontics practice in Fort Worth in 1994 and assumed control of the practice upon his father's retirement.
"It's a huge honor to be inducted into the Hall of Honor," Paulus said passionately. "To be in the same group as Earl Campbell and Darrell Royal is an amazing honor, simply just to be recognized. It's definitely fantastic."
