Walter N. Colbath Pioneer Era: 1986 Inductee

Winner of three NCAA diving championships, Colbath ranks as one of the great collegiate divers in the history of the sport. As a sophomore, he placed second in the Big Ten Conference and won the NCAA title. The following year, he won both Conference and NCAA titles and gained a place on the U.S. Olympic team for the 1928 games in Amsterdam, where he won a bronze medal.

As team captain in his senior year, he joined the Wildcats on a 7,000-mile Pacific Coast tour in which he repeated history by placing second in the Conference and capturing the NCAA title. Colbath went on to successful careers in radio and in the steel industry. He also spent time as a swimming coach and served as a naval commander in World War II. He died in March, 1986, in Florida, where he lived with his wife, Vesta, also a Northwestern graduate.