The Missouri swimming and diving program will celebrate its 40th anniversary and honor former coach Joe Goldfarb on Saturday, Sept. 24, when it hosts its annual alumni meet. The event also marks the first official races in the brand-new Mizzou Aquatics Center.

The new $16 million facility was paid for by an increase in student recreation fees. Mizzou spared no expense when developing the students and athletes of this University these two state-of-the-art aquatics facilities. Sunlight pours (by way of skylights) into the indoor competition pool which is 50 meters x 25-yards with two bulkheads and a movable floor- enabling various aquatic classes. This natatorium also features a diving well with a 10-meter tower offering various heights of platform diving. There is springboard diving included in the diving pool as well. A whirlpool is available for the competition pool to relieve aching muscles. One would be hard pressed not to notice the gigantic tiger’s head made from thousands of tiles on the bottom of the floor in the diving pool – reminding competitors that they are in “Tiger” territory.

"There’s some really cool things that we talked about from circulation to air quality to making sure that the pool was clear all the time and the chemical system,” Hoffer said. “It’s all the highest tech stuff that’s out there right now. There’s nothing that I felt that they skimped on as far as those kind of important things.”

“We feel extremely confident that it’s going to be a very fast pool because we’ve looked into all those things.”

On board with the design was the Counsilman-Hunsaker design team. Counsilman Hunsaker is the chief underwriter of the National Collegiate Swimmer-of-the-Week awards.

Over 100 Tiger alumni are expected to attend the meet, and those that swim will be given the chance to set pool records in the team's state-of-the-art new facility.

"We are excited about hosting our alumni this weekend," Mizzou Brian Hoffer said. "We have had 40 great years of swimming and diving and we are looking forward to showing the alumni the new Mizzou Aquatic Center and what the future holds."

"We’d been watching this pool get built from the ground up, so every now and then we’d get to come in it and we’d see progress — the platforms getting built from 1 meter to 10 meters up, watching the water come in, the blocks come in, the timing system come in,” said senior David Darmitzel.

A number of those alumni are also coming back to honor Goldfarb, who was at the program's helm for 23 of its first 25 seasons. The Indianapolis, Ind., native began his coaching career at Withrow High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, before coming to Missouri as an assistant coach in 1966.

He became the head coach the following year and compiled a 153-97 (.612) dual record in 23 seasons. During his tenure, 42 Tiger swimmers won conference championships, and his 1979 squad finished 20th at the NCAA Championships.

Goldfarb, who holds bachelors and master's degrees from the University of Indiana, is currently a professor in MU's College of Education.

The changes put pressure on Hoffer to make the MU program among the Big 12’s elite.

“There’s a lot more pressure and pressure that I want and really have been looking forward to,” said Hoffer, who was an assistant at Arizona State before coming to Missouri. “For me, it’s been a long process because I really like coaching at that level, and I feel I can, and I feel that Missouri can be successful at the very elite level.”

“Now, Missouri’s had 41 years. We’ve had some good years, and we’ve had some rough years, and so we now have to start building some tradition, I think, from scratch at this level. We’ve got a lot to prove.”