Frank Connor has fit a lot into his 77 years.

He once co-owned, and raced, a Porsche with his buddy, Carl Haas, who went on to be one of the top owners in IndyCar racing as part of the Newman/Haas racing team with famed actor Paul Newman.

And that’s not even Connor’s claim to fame.

The retired University of North Texas math professor grew up in Chicago, where he was a high school swimmer, before heading to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and picking up a new sport -- water polo.

Connor quickly discovered his talents could translate from the lanes of a swimming pool to the “field” in a water polo pool.

And after transferring to Illinois Tech after his junior year, he began playing on a team with the Illinois Athletic Club. In 1954, he moved to goalie -- at the request of his coach -- on one of the best water polo teams in the country.

“I thought he was crazy,” Connor said of his coach’s request. “But obviously, he wasn’t. I don’t think anybody played the goal and got to my level as fast as I did. Everything just worked.”

His coach definitely wasn’t crazy, as Connor went on to become one of the best goalies in the world and was named the top goalie at the 1959 Pan-American Games in Chicago, won by the United States squad -- the first Pan-Am championship for the Americans in the sport.

He was also named the first-team AAU All-American goaltender in 1958 and 1959. He played in eight national championship tournaments, winning eight.

Connor’s top honor came in 1989, when he was elected to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame, nearly 30 years after his playing career essentially came to an end in 1960, other than a brief return in the summer of 1964 for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Connor said earning the honor so long after his career was over made the accomplishment even more special.

“I was talking to a guy I knew who was on the committee, and he told me actually it’s harder to get in now,” Connor said. “He said it used to be, ‘We’d all sit around at a bar and start talking about so-and-so and should we put him in. Now you have to have a lot to show for it.’ So it made me feel a little better.”

The one that got away

What happened at the 1956 Olympic Trials nearly spoiled a life full of joy and success in the pool.

Connor’s Illinois Athletic Club squad came out on the short end of a highly-publicized game-fixing scandal, resulting in a trials win by the Southern California Water Polo Club, whose seven starters went on the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, where the U.S. finished fifth.

The Illinois Athletic Club tied the Southern California team 6-6 in the final of the trials, but lost on goal differential after the IAC beat the New York Athletic Club 10-1 in the semifinal and the Southern California first team beat the same club’s second team 15-2, in a game which allowed no spectators and was closed to the public.

Connor said he was told players from the second team handed the ball over to the first-teamers to achieve the proper goal differential. After the tie in the championship match, Southern California was able to claim the tiebreaker.

“Had I gotten out of the goal against New York and said, ‘Be my guest,’ and let them score two more goals, I would’ve played in the ’56 Olympics,” Connor said.

And he doesn’t even try to mask his bitterness, saying it’s embarrassing when people hear he’s in the Hall of Fame and ask which Olympic Games he played in, forcing him to answer, “none.”

“I was very bitter about that, and still am,” Connor said. “It really made a big difference, though, when they elected me to the Hall of Fame. … But in truth, the Hall of Fame is more of an individual accomplishment. It made up for it a little bit -- probably not all the way. I think I should’ve been in the Olympics, but it helped.”

Bringing it home

Connor has been a Denton resident since 1970, when he began teaching math at UNT, and it has long been his goal to bring the sport he loves to the masses in North Texas.

After being elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989, Dallas was chosen to host the National Outdoor tournament in 1990, and Connor decided to go check out the games after nearly 30 years of no action in the pool.

“I watched every dang game,” Connor said. “I started to realize it was still in my blood. So in January, I went down there in lousy shape at 58 years old and started to play. They knew who I was so I had a lot of respect. I played field and goal, whatever they wanted.”

He then began putting on tournaments for the Texas Cup in 1991. The Texas Cup is a trophy awarded to the club that accumulates the most points over five different tournaments across the state, three of which are held in Dallas and run by Connor.

In 2007, the Texas Cup was renamed the Connor Cup in his honor.

“I found it a bit embarrassing,” Connor said. “They asked if it was OK with me, and I told them I’d have to get back to them. I talked to my wife and kids and they said, ‘Well, why not?’

“I’m passionate about the sport. It’s nice, I’ve got to admit.”

Connor has left his mark on many players in North Texas.

He’s had a hand in expanding high school water polo in the area. So much so that two years ago there were five North Texas teams competing for a chance to be the state champion.

Last year, there were 15, thanks in part to the fact that the three Denton high schools had enough players to have their own teams. In the past, they had to combine to form one team coached by Denton ISD swimming coach Chris Cullen, who is a player for the Dallas Water Polo Club.

“A lot of high school swim coaches are afraid it’s going to hurt their swimmers,” Connor said. “It doesn’t hurt them. Many of the best swimmers in the world have played water polo. It’s simply not knowing about it and not wanting to start something new that they know nothing about.”

Cullen said Connor has been an instrumental part of the growth of water polo in North Texas.

“He’s helped the growth of the sport in the Dallas area for the high school kids,” Cullen said. “After two years of being a coach, I joined the Dallas Water Polo team [in 2002] and he was at every practice. He’s there working out. I just hope to be in that good of shape at his age. It’s great to have someone with his history who’s in the Hall of Fame.”

And Cullen isn’t the only area player who’s been impressed or touched by Connor’s expertise.

Michael Shashoua, who was one of the best high school players in the state last year at Dallas St. Mark’s and just finished his freshman season at USC, said Connor is one of his mentors and a father figure.

Shashoua, a goalie himself, was not a starter for the national champion Trojans, but still got to experience the run to the title, and said he has Connor to thank for how far he’s gone in the sport so far.

“Frank Connor took me under his wing,” Shashoua said. “He’s done so much for me. He’s always given me advice. He came to my graduation and graduation dinner. He even came out to Parents’ Day at USC along with my parents and [high school] coach [Mihai Oprea].”

Connor explained his relationship with Shashoua in much humbler terms.

“I don’t think I helped him as much as he does,” he said. “He thinks I’m the reason he became a good goalie. We’ve become very close.”

Connor was forced from competitive water polo at age 70, when he nearly suffered paralysis after having a vertebrae surgery similar to the one that ended former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin’s playing career.

But he still is thankful for what the sport has done for him and looks forward to the continued growth of the sport.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it [water polo],” Connor said. “The screwing in the Olympic Trials really took a lot off it. Sometimes I wondered if it was all worth it, but nowadays, yeah, it was all worth it.

“The friends you make in it are great. I still have great friends that I played with. Now that I got involved here the friends I have on the Dallas Water Polo Club, they’re all way younger than I am. There’s something to be said when you’re this age to have a bunch of younger friends. I particularly get a kick out of the St. Mark’s kids. They’re all young, neat guys. They know who I am and get a kick out of the old fart.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.