Alligators, Superman and water polo were just a few things on the agenda when Francis Vallis joined “Chummy” Hayward’s swim classes.

The legendary sportsman and event promoter, whose given name was Whitfield, was the nine-year-old’s cousin and mentor.

“We were very close,” the 93-year-old said. “He was a big influence on my life.”

After taking a swim team to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, Mr Hayward was determined to build up the sport here. He arranged for world-class swimmers and divers to teach classes under the banner of the Bermuda Athletic Association.

“In the summer, every morning we would pedal over to the Hamilton Princess,” Mr Vallis said. “First we would stop into the Bermuda Bakery across the street from the hotel. We would get a cream puff and that would be our lunch.”

His instructor, William Brooks, had been coach of the Harvard University team that went to Berlin.

“After the Olympics, Chummy invited a lot of the Olympians to Bermuda to perform,” he said. “On Friday nights we would have a water carnival. It was just for the hotel guests but evolved into something bigger than that. One of the acts might be a guy wrestling with an alligator that had been brought in from Florida; there was another guy who dove into a bucket.”

Mr Vallis remembers wearing a Superman costume while swimming at one of the events. There were also frequent water polo matches, which he loved.

“We had a lot of fun,” he said. “It was really exciting.”

Mr Vallis soon discovered he was a great short-distance swimmer. Completing a 100-yard swim in under a minute was a proud moment for him.

“That was thought to be unheard of,” he said. “But it was a mental thing. Once I did it, everyone else on the team did it also.”

The classes continued throughout the Second World War, eventually shifting to the pool at Eagle’s Nest Hotel in Pembroke.

Mr Vallis trained with Mr Hayward’s group until he graduated from Mount St Agnes Academy in 1947.

At that time, his father, Boyd Vallis Sr, was running the Bermuda War Veterans Association.

“A war veteran who had been gassed came to him and said he wanted to go to school in Canada and needed financial help,” Mr Vallis said. “He wanted to go to the commercial school at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.”

Mr Vallis’s father agreed to help the man and decided that his son should go on the yearlong course as well. Part of the way through it, however, Mr Vallis received a letter from Mr Hayward. He was putting a team together to swim in the 1948 Olympics in London and wanted him to join them.

“My father had not had the chance for an education,” Mr Vallis said. “He wrote to me and said you might as well stay there and finish your education, or come home and work. I could never disrespect my father and say ‘Forget it, I want to go to London.’ I finished the course and came home.”

By that time the Bermuda Olympic team had left. They did not win medals.

“We were well represented but we were not a world-class team,” said Mr Vallis, who regrets that he did not get his chance to compete.

However, he did go to the Olympics four times, as a member of the Bermuda Olympic Association. During the 1964 Games, in Tokyo, Japan, he carried the Bermuda flag during the closing ceremonies.

Mr Vallis went to work at the family wholesale firm, J S Vallis Ltd, which later merged to become Butterfield & Vallis.

“My stepmother, Irene, said it was time I paid rent,” he said.

His father bought him a Francis Barnett motorcycle, so that he could ride back and forth between the business on Woodlands Road in Pembroke and the Customs Department on Front Street.

“I had to go down there and clear all the goods,” Mr Vallis said. “My father would make the entries. If customs said there was a mistake, I would have to go back to my father so he could fix it and then go back to customs again.”

Although he enjoyed other types of sport, such as downhill skiing and water polo, Mr Vallis continued to swim for fun. When he bought his own home, he built an exercise pool in his backyard that allowed him to swim against a strong current.

At the age of 56 he travelled with his daughter, Sarah, to Toronto to participate in an event for seniors, the World Masters Games.

“I swam against 80 other people,” he said. “I swam in all the events.”

“For the 1,500 metres you have a counter who calls out ‘two, four, six’ until you do 30 laps,” he said. “Sarah was calling out the numbers.”

He did not win anything but he is still proud to have taken part.

He is also proud of his volunteer work with the Hamilton Rotary Club and remains a member today.

“In 1967, I became the youngest president of the Hamilton Rotary Club,” he said. “I also was awarded the Paul Harris Fellow in 1987. We were very activate with fundraising. We would have a very popular barbecue on the South Shore. We also had Christmas baskets delivered to the less fortunate, working with the Salvation Army.”

Vertigo has stopped his swimming.

“The challenge isn’t so much swimming, but just getting to the water,” he said. “If I went to the beach I would have to crawl across the sand.”

Today, he splits his time between Bermuda and a 27-acre horse farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

“The horse farm is my wife Gillian’s project,” he said. “We have been married for about 30 years. She is my second wife. We run leadership clinics on the farm and we are in the process of building a second bed and breakfast in a barn on the property. People do not want to stay in hotels any more.”

Mr Vallis has four children, Paul, Boyd, Sarah and Alexandra, and eight grandchildren.

Lifestyle profiles the island’s senior citizens every Wednesday. Contact Jessie Moniz Hardy on 278-0150 or jmhardy@royalgazette.com with the full name and contact details and the reason you are suggesting them