Legendary swim coach Frank Busch touched the lives of everyone around him, in and out of the pool

“Sorry to hear about Frank’s passing,” the message said.

Fink, the SMU associate head swim coach who had long run the dominant Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics club in Tucson, said it took him 15 minutes to figure out what Frank that could possibly be.

“I was like, ‘There's no way it could be Frank Busch,’ ” Fink said Monday afternoon of the legendary former UA and USA swimming coach, who passed away suddenly Sunday at age 75. “He was just here in Dallas two weeks ago visiting Frank Jr. and his grandkids, who live here, and I got a chance to get a meal and a couple beers with him and, then…”

How could it be Busch, dying suddenly at the Phoenix airport upon returning from fishing in Idaho and stopping by USA Swimming in Colorado?

Busch was known for keeping a close eye on his own fitness and that of others, the guy who coached former Tucson car dealer Jim Click back from a 2020 heat procedure the same way he coached his wildly successful UA and USA swimmers.

Click said it is Busch, more than anybody, who helped him recover over the course of six years, first walking a block with him, then taking longer walks and reaching a couple of miles before the two began taking exercise bike rides together.

“I’m finally almost back, thanks to his friendship,” Click said. “He picked my ass up off the horn, and off we’d go. He would push me just like he would an athlete. He made me warm up. And the last thing I heard from him was after I told him I was gonna see him Saturday, he said: ‘Don’t forget to do your balance.’ ”

Click won't get to see him again. Nor will former Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood, who worked with Busch for 16 years at UA only to later find him, too, a mentor of sorts while Livengood recovered from a nasty bout of sepsis and three knee surgeries over the past year.

Having last worked for Livengood in 2011 before he left for USA Swimming, but living again in Tucson since retiring from USA Swimming in 2017, Busch called over the summer to say he and Click wanted to take Livengood out to lunch and see how he was doing.

He was always checking in.

“Frank and I have had lunch a number of times, and it's just... I guess the best way to put it, it was a shock because he's been healthy,” Livengood said. “I know he's gone through different things, but he's been healthy. He was very concerned and watches his health very carefully.”

Busch's passing was a profound loss for Click, a longtime sponsor of that Ford Aquatics program, as well as for Livengood, Fink, countless UA swimmers, USA swimmers, coaches and, really, any number of others connected to the sport who gravitated toward Busch for mentoring, coaching or friendship.

The broad connections were a hallmark of Busch’s UA career from 1989 to 2011, when he became a six-time NCAA coach of the year and led both the Wildcat men’s and women’s swim teams to the NCAA title in 2008.

“In my opinion, he did the impossible,” Click said, referring to that 2008 sweep. “No one — no one — will ever do that again.”

Busch also coached Team USA to 31 Olympic medals at the 2012 London Olympics, and another 33 at the 2016 Rio Olympics, plus another 81 medals over three World Championships during his USA Swimming tenure.

Yet, again, that was only part of it. Statements from both USA Swimming president and coach Kevin Meehan also indicated Busch's influence extended well beyond the pool.

“Along with so many people whose lives Frank impacted, I’m heartbroken by his passing,” Meehan said. “Frank was a wonderful man who cared deeply about his family, his friends, and the sport of swimming. He was the type of person who left you feeling hopeful after every conversation. His servant leadership set him apart, and his impact on USA Swimming is immeasurable.”

All that influence, all those connections, made for a busy schedule. Click said he’d bet that Busch attended at least 50 weddings of former swimmers, and Fink didn't put a limit on his influence.

“That was a theme — whether you swam for him, worked for him or anything, he treated people like people, got to know them, and let them know that he cared about them first, and then everything else was second,” Fink said. “I think that's part of the reason why he was able to have so many great things happen to people, whether they were Olympians or not.”

But while Busch may have become best known internationally for coaching USA Swimming to high-profile success, he developed a deep bond at Arizona.

Having grown up in Tempe and attending ASU for three years, Fink realized that much once he showed up to coach Ford Aquatics at Arizona’s Hillenbrand Aquatic Center wearing the wrong gear for the turf he was on.

“I came on deck after practice and I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not really hired by the university, so I can wear my Sun Devil stuff,’ ” Fink said. “He said, ‘Hey, we need to get you some gear.’ He gave me a couple (UA) shirts, some shorts, a couple sweatshirts.

“And as we're locking it up and leaving, he's like, ‘Oh, Coach Fink, I don’t ever want to see you wearing that ASU hat on my deck again.’ But he did it in such a way that was just magnanimous. He didn’t get angry.”

Busch put a UA stamp, and his stamp, on virtually everyone who entered his program. Even though Busch was hired by then-AD Cedric Dempsey in 1989, Livengood was hired at the end of 1993 and grew to see Busch and his influence for 16 years.

“Man, his impact, and I'm not overstating this because I don't want to overstate it, but his impact was unbelievable as the amazing swimming coach both for the U of A and for the USA,” Livengood said. “In and around McKale, he was so instrumental with other coaches and so supportive.

“He would be the first one to say to people, ‘Hey, you need to get out to football games and buy football tickets.’ That was Frank. He cared about everything. He cared about the facility right next door to him, the gymnastics, and what they were doing. He was just an amazing, amazing human being."

At Arizona, it all started with a simple ask. Click still chuckles about that one.

Having arrived at UA in 1989 after successful stints in Cincinnati with a club team and the University of Cincinnati, Busch gently approached Click about an arrangement he had to use a car.

“Frank came out to my office with a gentleman from the athletic department when he first got the job; they introduced him to me, and I obviously gave him a big old warm welcome and told him how glad we were to be here,” Click said. “He kind of sheepishly said, ‘You know, Mr. Click, I’ve got five kids, and would it be OK if I just had a used minivan?

“I said, ‘Son, you can do whatever the hell you want.’ He was so excited. This was like stepping up from little league into major league baseball. It was the start of a great friendship. We stayed great friends forever.”

Especially since his 2000 heart surgery, Click said he has spent more days with Busch than without him, doing everything from rehab workouts to fly fishing at Click's Idaho ranch.

“I always sat in the front of the boat, because that’s where you’re gonna catch the most fish,” Click said. “He sat in the back of the boat and he’d still beat me. ... He outfished me off all the time. Made me mad. I thought I was a much better fisherman. I still do, but he always caught more fish than I did."

Considering Click's sometimes errant fly casting, sitting in the back of the boat wasn't Busch's only obstacle, either.

“He’d laugh and say, ‘Hell, between fishing, I’m trying to dodge your flies, but they’re coming whistling by,’ ” said Click, who then fessed up. “Yeah, I hit him. But hell, I hit myself, too.

“Oh, God, we had fun.”