BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — On June 6, 1944, the Allied Forces launched the invasion of Europe – known then and now as D-Day.
The same day, Ralph Erickson, who would make a name for himself after the war as a water polo coach and as a key individual in the scuba-diving field, arrived in Europe.
Born to parents of Swedish heritage in Benesford, South Dakota, in 1922, Erickson moved with his family to Sweden at the age of nine to survive the great Depression. After a year, the family returned to the United States and started over in Chicago, Illinois, where his mother had been offered a nursing position. Erickson was very proud of his heritage, spoke fluent Swedish, and he grew up to be a big six-foot-one, blond headed athlete.
Erickson was on a swimming scholarship at the University of Southern California when the United States entered World War II. He immediately attempted to enlist in various branches of the military, but his vision was less than 20/20 and initially they would not accept him. Several months later, when the Army offered the Specialized Training Program, he enlisted on December 2, 1942 for training as a ski trooper. He had skied as a little boy and enjoyed the woods and mountains. On April 10, 1943 he reported in for active duty and was sent to Camp Hale, Colorado, home of the Army Mountain Training Center and the 10th Mountain Division.
During Basic Training, he was recognized for his abilities and appointed acting squad leader. Erickson wrote, “Immediately after basic training, we acting squad leaders and several others were detached and sent to NCO School, run by a West Point Captain. For months we lived in the mountains, attacked 11,000-foot mountain peaks at three in the morning, and learned all phases of being a Non Com. It was the most important military training that I received in the Army. In no way am I trying to denigrate the airborne training which was just as significant, but in a totally different manner.”
After completing training at Camp Hale, Sergeant Erickson shipped out for Europe in May 1944 and arrived on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He was sent, upon request, to the 82nd Airborne Division and further assigned to the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the “Devils in Baggy Pants.” Thirty-four days after D-Day he arrived as a replacement in Second Platoon, Company E. He later said, “I don’t believe anyone, NCOs or Officers, were too happy to have a green Non Com arrive in the platoon.”
On September 17, 1944, Ralph Erickson made his first combat jump into Holland as Operation Market Garden began with the largest air assault operation in history. The 82nd Airborne Division Drop Zones were near Nijmegen, and a good dramatization of their actions are shown in the movie, “A Bridge Too Far.”
The division was moved into France following Operation Market Garden and next saw action when it was rushed forward to oppose the German advance in the St. Vith area at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. They were committed to action on December 17, 1944 and, except for a few short breaks, would remain in combat through to the end of the war in Europe.
By late March 1945, the Allied Armies had crossed over the Rhine River and were driving rapidly eastward into Germany, having swept past 300,000 German troops that were cut off and holding out in the “Rhur Pocket.” On April 2nd the 82nd Airborne Division took up positions along the Rhine River, sealing off the western side of the “Rhur Pocket,” and began launching aggressive patrols across the river. On April 4th, Sergeant Erickson was part of a 24-man patrol from Company E. He later wrote in letters home, “I was in the first boat – one of the fellows ran ten yards up the shore as soon as we were on the German side of the river, to cover us in case the Germans opened up fire. Well, he set off a mine and was blown up. Then we moved 50 yards down the river where the second boat landed. We were lined single file and started to move out on our mission. Someone set off another mine, which set off even more……only three or four survived……I did not have to go on this patrol, but all of my close friends were going on it and so I felt I should go seeing as there was a lot of boat work involved.”
He was severely wounded himself and evacuated to a general hospital. He was still hospitalized when the fighting ended for the paratroopers on May 21 with the surrender of the German 21st Army to the 82nd Airborne Division, in fact he would remain hospitalized for several more months after the war.
Sergeant Ralph Erickson shipped from Europe on December 10, 1945, having participated in the Normandy, Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe Campaigns. He arrived back in the United States on December 21st, was discharged from the Army at Camp Grant, Illinois on New Year’s Eve, 1945, and returned home to Chicago.
ollowing the war, he attended Northwestern University, earning a Bachelors of Science Degree in Physical Education (1949) and a Masters Degree in Education, Counseling and Guidance (1953). Over three decades of coaching in Chicago-area high schools and at Loyola University Chicago, Erickson led many swim and water polo teams to championships.
Arguably one of the most successful coaches in the history of water polo outside California, he helped the Ramblers of Loyola compile a 7-22 record in 10 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship appearances between 1972 and 1985. Following the program’s inaugural appearances in 1972 and 1976 in which the team tied for Seventh Place, Loyola placed sixth (1977 – 14-9 loss to Pepperdine University in the Fifth Place game), fifth (1978 – 7-6 W vs. Bucknell University), sixth (1979 – 9-5 L vs. Bucknell in the Fifth Place game), eighth (1980 – 8-4 L vs. Bucknell in the Seventh Place game), eighth (1982 – 7-5 L vs. Brown University in the Seventh Place game), seventh (12-5 W vs. Slippery Rock University), seventh (1984 – 10-7 W vs. the United States Naval Academy) and eighth (1985 – 8-6 L vs. Bucknell in the Seventh Place game).
Erickson retired as the swimming and water polo coach at Loyola in June 1987.
However, his most lasting mark was not made on the pool deck, but feet under the surface as a founding father of underwater diving.
In the summer of 1959, he started the Erickson Underwater Swimming School. With a strong desire to share his passion for scuba diving with others, Ralph attended the very first NAUI Instructor Training Course in Houston, TX in 1961 and became NAUI Instructor number 35. In the same year, Ralph wrote his own scuba instruction book, Under Pressure, which he used for his classes.
At a divers’ association banquet in 1961, Ralph met John Cronin (then Midwest Sales Representative for US Divers) and struck up, what would be, a lifelong friendship. Five years later, Erickson and Cronin formed a new diver training organization, aptly named the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), with Erickson as president.
Diver education became Ralph’s passion as he created and implemented the training programs used by PADI. Developing instructional guidelines, performance objectives and student manuals for 11 PADI certification levels Skin Diver through Master Instructor – was revolutionary in the dive industry. Many of Ralph’s ideas that were considered new and radical at the time are now the cornerstone for diver education and the backbone of PADI’s continuing education system to this day.
In 1971, Erickson and Cronin made the decision to move the PADI business to California where it could flourish. Ralph, busy with teaching diving, teaching swimming and coaching water polo at Loyola University, chose to stay in Chicago.
Upon his retirement Loyola in 1987, he continued to train divers and teach swimming as a community service. He owned and operated an International PADI Instructor Training Center in Chicago with business partner Patrick Hammer. It was through the dive center that Erickson trained thousands of divers and hundreds of instructors; often using his favorite training site, Racine Quarry in Wisconsin. Moving to Texas in 1990, Ralph and wife Karen continued teaching up until his death on May 25, 2006.
Erickson wrote many articles on diving and water sports for trade journals and magazines. He received many awards and honors for his contributions to swimming, water polo and scuba diving. In 1980, Erickson was inducted into the High School Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame. In 1986, he received the High School Water Polo Hall of Fame Award and was inducted into the Loyola University of Chicago Athletic Hall of Fame. The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) honored Erickson in 1992 with the DEMA Reaching Out Award for Education and he was inducted into the DEMA Hall of Fame. In 2004, he received the Our World Underwater Achievement Award for his contributions to diving. He was posthumously elected to the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in 2007.
