Frank McKinney


Frank Edward McKinney Jr. was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder. He later became a prominent executive in the American banking industry, but died in a mid-air collision of two aircraft.
McKinney was the son of Frank E. McKinney, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a former owner of the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates. He was the youngest member of a U.S. national swim team that set a world record in the 4×100-meter medley relay at the 1955 Pan American Games. At the Pan American Games, the 16-year-old high school student also won a gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke.

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, he did the most to introduce modern backstroke techniques. Following Yoshi Oyakawa as the premier U.S. backstroker, McKinney was the pioneer of the modern bent-arm backstrokers, even as Oyakawa had been the last of the straight-arm school. McKinney was the leader of a remarkable group of teenagers who won the U.S. Nationals for the Indianapolis Athletic Club alongside Mike Troy, Bill Barton, Bill Cass and Alan Somers. Later, they would all swim for the Indiana Hoosiers swimming and diving team under coach Doc Counsilman at Indiana University.

McKinney captured a bronze medal in the men's 100-meter backstroke at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, and then entered Indiana University.
At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, he received a silver medal for his second-place finish in the men's 100-meter backstroke. He also won a gold medal by swimming the lead-off backstroke leg for the first-place U.S. team in the men's 4×100-meter medley relay.
McKinney retired from competition after graduating from Indiana University in 1961, and went into banking. He was the president of Bank One of Indiana, headquartered in Indianapolis when he died, aged 53, in a mid-air collision between two aircraft in 1992. As part of the merger, he also became president of the Columbus, Ohio-based parent company, Banc One Corporation, while still serving as the chief executive officer of the Indiana subsidiary. McKinney was traveling to Columbus, Ohio, with 3 other civic leaders, who were also killed along with the pilots of both aircraft.
He is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.