Elite swim coach Jackson to be inducted into Hall of Fame

Elite swim coach Jackson to be
inducted into Hall of Fame

Published 3:24 pm Saturday, August 1, 2026

MOULTRIE – For a few years, Tommie Lee Jackson Jr. quietly constructed a profession of teaching among the nation’s prime swimmers.
And now, he has been acknowledged for his accomplishments a number of occasions lately.
In 2023, the Moultrie native was inducted into the Georgia Aquatic Hall of Fame.
In June of 2025, the reworked pool in northwest Moultrie adjoining to the A.F. Shaw Gymnasium was devoted in his honor because the Tommie Lee Jackson Jr. Aquatics Center.
And in October, Jackson will return to Moultrie from his house in Atlanta to be inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame.
This is the third in a sequence highlighting the 11 people and two state championship groups that might be inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 15.
The whole Hall of Fame Class of 2026 might be launched the next evening earlier than the Colquitt County-Valdosta soccer recreation on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.
Follow on Facebook at Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame.
At age 40, Jackson started a profession as a swimming coach that together with producing champions on the senior, Olympic, Paralympic and masters ranges.
He additionally was a pioneer concerned in selling variety and inclusion in swimming and has been the chairman of the Georgia Local Swimming Committee’s Diversity Committee for a variety of years.
He additionally has served on the USA Outreach Committees and Camps, the USA Swimming National Committee for Diversity and Inclusion and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Southern Zone.
In 2016, he was the primary coach of shade to obtain the USA Swimming Diversity and Inclusion Award and, 4 years later, was offered the Jim Ellis Diversity in Aquatics Award.
Also in 2016, he was honored on the thirtieth annual Black History Invitational Swim Meet held in Washington, D.C., for working to incorporate variety in swimming and enabling swimmers to develop via efficient coaching.
When the northwest Moultrie pool was named for him final 12 months, Moultrie City Council and Moultrie-Colquitt County Parks and Recreation Authority board member Wilma Hadley mentioned, “Who could have imagined that the young boy diving off the board here would go on to help change the face of swimming, not only in Moultrie, but across the country.”
Jackson mentioned his profession path bought its begin on the pool simply three blocks from his boyhood house at 435 Ninth Street Northwest.
“This is where I learned to swim, to compete and where I learned to teach swimming,” he mentioned.
Jackson lettered in soccer and basketball at William Bryant High after which enlisted within the U.S. Army, serving three years, together with one in fight in Vietnam.
After his navy service, he returned to South Georgia and attended Albany State from 1972-1976, lettering as a swimmer and a diver and graduating cum laude.
While at Albany State, he started a protracted profession with the Red Cross as an teacher licensed to show water security instruction and lifeguard coaching.
Jackson was inspired by Wilburn Campbell, certainly one of his Albany State instructors, to make a profession in aquatics.
Jackson credit Campbell for a lot of his success as a instructor and coach.
After incomes a grasp’s diploma in training with a focus in bodily training at Georgia State, Jackson taught elementary faculty in Adel and in 1978 was named a well being and bodily training teacher at Fort Valley State.
In 1982, he returned to Georgia State to check train science and returned to Fort Valley, the place he labored till 1985.
He additionally taught at Heath Slater Elementary School and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Atlanta, the place he taught bodily training and swimming till 2005.
In 1986, he was named an assistant coach of the Atlanta Dolphins swim group and three years later grew to become its head coach.
While main the Atlanta Dolphins, he has helped a variety of swimmers earn scholarships to attend faculty whereas creating state-, regional-, national- and internationally-ranked swimmers.
Among the athletes he coached was Curtis Lovejoy, thought of one of many nation’s most excellent Paralympians.
Lovejoy broke 12 world information, 5 Pan Am information and 14 U.S. information and in 2013 was himself inducted into the Georgia Aquatic Hall of Fame.
In 2002, Jackson was named an “Icon of Paralympics” by USA Swimming.
In 2016, Jackson was chosen to teach Naomi Grand-Pierre, who represented Haiti within the Rio Olympics within the 50-meter breaststroke and 50-meter freestyle occasions.
He additionally coached Marianne Countryman, certainly one of USA’s prime masters swimmers, from 2012-2023 and was a United States Swimming National Team coach in 2009-2010.
Jackson additionally helped develop a variety of U.S. Olympic Trials qualifiers.
Jackson is the son of the late Tommie and Odessa Jackson and is the brother of Ophelia Lyles and Elaine Daniels of Moultrie.
He and spouse Delores Humber Jackson have 5 kids and three grandsons.