So many people have mentioned this story to us that we decided to revisit it as part of the Broad Ripple Park series. It's a sad tale, but it is mentioned almost as much as the fact that the Broad Ripple Park swimming pool was the site of the 1924 Olympic Trials in which Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) swam.

Twenty-one year-old Jack Shaffer was the head lifeguard at the Broad Ripple swimming pool in 1931. He was an experienced and powerful swimmer having won the annual 3-mile swim in White River three times. He had 32 medals and cups attesting to his skill, and was the captain of the undefeated Hoosier Athletic Club swim team in 1930-31.

Ironically, his strong swimming may have led to his death. Oscar Bauer, owner of the Broad Ripple pool, had a discussion with Jack about a drain pipe near the bottom of the pool. Mr. Bauer claimed that the depth and distance of the outlet pipe placed it well outside the reach of an ordinary swimmer. Evidently Jack Shaffer, Arnold Wade, and William Tomlinson were testing this theory with a red rubber ball on that fateful Monday, July 20, 1931 .

"The pool drains by gravity and the weight of the water above the pipe. As water in the engine house tank, lower than the deepest point of the pool, is pumped into the filter tanks the main tank is refilled by natural flow from the drain pipe . . ." (Indianapolis Star, 21 July 1931, page 10).

Jack was a powerful enough swimmer to transverse the 35 feet underwater to reach the pipe with the ball, but not powerful enough to avoid being accidentally sucked into it. Newspaper accounts do not state how big the pipe was - only that it held Jack under 13 feet of water for over 20 minutes.

Arnold Wade, William Tomlinson, Robert Gray, and Norman Hannah, a swimming buddy, all tried to bring Jack back to the surface. His body was doubled up and wedged in to the pipe, so they grabbed some rope from the side of the pool and wrapped it around him in an attempt to pull him out. It broke three times. He was finally extricated using a one inch cable borrowed from a nearby concessionaire - 15 men pulled on it.

It was too late for Jack Shaffer, but the experts and his friends would not give up. They took turns giving him artificial respiration, a technique Jack often taught to others. Lieutenant Carl Sims of the Broad Ripple Fire Station helped alongside Francis Hodges, the Marion County Red Cross life saving director. Bud Swain, Shaffer's trainer on the Hoosier Athletic Club swim team, also took a turn, along with the aforementioned lifeguards. Ten or twelve men worked for five hours, until dark, but without success.

Jack's funeral was held on Thursday, July 24, 1931, at All Saints Episcopal Church. His fellow swimmers were the pall bearers; he was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery. He had lived with his father, Edward C. Shaffer, and a younger sister at 707 East 57th Street. His brother, Ted, lived with their mother, Treva Hussong, in Dayton, Ohio. Jack had graduated from Shortridge High School, and Butler University, and had attended IU.