In the course of getting some information about a few cousins I had not yet researched, the daughters of Joseph Brotman, son of Hyman and Sophie Brotman, I learned that Merle (“Miki”), one of the daughters, had been a competitive swimmer. She was an alternate on the US Olympic swim team and missed the team by one stroke; she was also named to the Maccabiah swim team.

I also learned that her father Joe had also been a competitive swimmer and had once raced against Johnny Weissmuller. Her uncle Manny, Joe’s brother, was a Big Ten varsity swimmer.  Joe and Manny’s brother Saul was also an excellent athlete and a star basketball player.

Manny’s grandsons  Michael, Frank and Matt were also competitive swimmers in high school, and Matt was captain of his swim team in high school and swam throughout college also.  Also, Manny’s grandson Brian was also captain of his high school swim team; his brother Marc was also a competitive swimmer.

My cousin Jeffrey was also a competitive swimmer, as are his two children, Zachary and Jessie.

Could we have a Brotman swimming gene floating around?  🙂  Although athletics have never been my personal forte (major understatement there), it’s good to know that there are some athletic members of the family.

Any other stars in the family, in or out of the pool, on or off the fields? Maybe a Nobel Prize winner? An Oscar winner? Even a Publishers’ Clearinghouse winner??

Let’s share these family stories and accomplishments!