Ara Hairabedian, champion athlete, honored coach and educator and passionate defender of Fresno State aquatics, has died at age 77.

Hairabedian, who died Wednesday, joined the Fresno State faculty as a physical education professor in 1953 and in the following two dozen years coached football, swimming, gymnastics, swimming and water polo. Today only women's swimming and football remain.

He resigned from his final coaching job, water polo, in 1977 and retired from the university in 1993.

"Ara, more than anyone I know, had the best sense of balance in how education and athletics are supposed to fit into the entire scheme of things," said Red Estes, retired Fresno State track and cross country coach.

Hairabedian was an Amateur Athletic Union gymnastics champion in 1950 and '51, competing in floor exercise for USC. He taught physical education and coached gymnastics and football at Penn State, then joined the Fresno State coaching staff as a football assistant in 1953.

He started the Fresno State swimming program in 1954 and the water polo program four years later. In 1978 the NCAA awarded Hairabedian its Master Coach Award for swimming.

After Fresno State eliminated men's swimming and water polo in the 1990s, Hairabedian became a frequent vocal supporter of the programs.

Tom Milich, who coached water polo and swimming at Fresno State and taught with Hairabedian, said his mentor was "a legend."

"Ara was one of the biggest supporters of the swimming community in the Valley," said Milich, who now runs swim programs for Clovis Unified School District and the Clovis Swim Club. "He did more for starting swim and water polo programs in the Valley than anyone.

"He was constantly writing [letters to The Bee] trying to get the programs brought back to the Valley, not because of any self-interest but just for the love of the sport and what he thought was best for kids."

Many of Hairabedian's letters concerned what he felt were gender injustices under Title IX that resulted in men's sports being cut.

"I know of no male coach who is opposed to athletic competition for women," he wrote in a letter to The Bee in February 2000. "We are opposed to the threats of removal, censure and unfair treatment."

Hairabedian earned three degrees in physical education -- a bachelor's from USC, a master's from Penn State and a doctorate from Stanford -- and was a member of numerous educational and athletic organizations.

An Olympic historian, Hairabedian attended many Olympics, including this summer's Athens Games.

Hairabedian played football and gymnastics at Roosevelt High in Los Angeles and football and wrestling at Los Angeles City College, then competed on U.S. Army teams in gymnastics, boxing, track and field and badminton.