By WAYNE THOMPSON
* Swimmer, lifeguard. Died aged 71.
Frederick "Buddy" Lucas looked a hot prospect for Olympic glory in the months before the 1952 Helsinki games.
The freestyle swimmer had won a gold and two bronze medals at the 1950 Auckland Empire Games and was rated second-best middle-distance swimmer in the British Empire. He was also fast improving thanks to exposure to world-class tuition and competition on his scholarship to Iowa State University in the United States.
But the selectors rejected the Auckland swimmer's nomination for the Olympic team. The Auckland Amateur Swimming Centre was outraged, calling it "a scandal against swimming".
A plan was hatched to send Lucas to the Games anyway - just in case he was needed. A public appeal raised £500 to meet Lucas' expenses between Iowa and Helsinki.
Lucas never got to swim, but he cast aside his disappointment to support two fellow New Zealand swimmers - Jean Stewart and Lincoln Hurring.
Back in Iowa, Lucas, the son of All Black F.W. "Freddie" Lucas, resumed training and study. When the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver came around he won a silver medal for New Zealand in the 3x110 yards medley relay.
After nearly five years of helping Iowa to success in the "Big 10" swimming conference, he returned home - with American wife Pat, a polished dancing style, a love of jazz and swing music, and a powerful "dolphin kick".
He worked in his father's menswear business in central Auckland and later was a representative for May & Baker.
But at summer weekends for the next half century, he put his swimming prowess at the service of others. Thousands of times while on patrol for the Piha Surf Life Saving Club he was the belt man who braved the surf to reach bathers in difficulty.
Last year he was club patrolman of the year, still admired by younger members as a stylish body surfer who always got his wave.
He was a president and life member of both the club and the Auckland Surf Life Saving Association.
Fellow veteran lifeguard Rodger Curtice said Lucas was one of the most influential forces in the development of surf lifesaving at Piha.
Lucas retired to his beloved Piha a decade ago and kept fit by club work, walking his dogs and protecting the beach from erosion. He is survived by a daughter, Liane, two sons, Brad and Greg, and five grandchildren.
<i>Obituary:</i> Buddy Lucas
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