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Joe Bernal: Former Swimming Coach at both Fordham & The Prep named in sexual harassment suit 

I met Coach Bernal a few times, via a swim team member, during our freshman year at school. He seemed like a nice guy and as the “other shoe drops” I guess I have to add-you don’t really know people.   

  The late Joe Bernal gained early notoriety as the Head Swim Coach at Fordham University in the 1970s. While there, he was able to transform what was described as “a lowly Fordham men's team” to the heights of winning seven Metropolitan Collegiate Swim Championships in a row. In 1976, he received the Vince Lombardi Trophy for coaching excellence. He also produced his first Olympian, Robert Hackett (Fordham Prep Class of ‘77) for the 1976 Games in Montreal, Canada where he won a Silver Medal.

Bernal: Photo from Obituary 2022.

Bernal was also inducted into the Metropolitan Swimming Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Fordham University Hall of Fame in 2009. After his successful time at Fordham, he became the Aquatics Director and Head Men's Swim Coach at Harvard University starting in 1977. (1977-1991) 

Accused of Sexual Abuse in 2024 Lawsuit

Amanda Le was one of those girls.

The 33-page lawsuit alleges Bernal sexually abused Le while she was a minor—he started coaching her when she was 13 and finished when she was 18.

Bernal died in October 2022. His coaching career took off when he transformed the Fordham University men’s team into a force while also starting up the school’s women’s swim team. He went on to serve as the head coach at Harvard, getting the nod to work on two U.S. Olympic staffs in 1984 and 1988. Inducted into the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Hall of Fame in 2015, Bernal also founded Bernal’s Gator Swim Club, in New England (renamed Gator Swim Club), where he trained Ms. Le.

Dropped From Fordham University Hall of Fame

In February 2016, Bernal was given a lifetime ban by USA Swimming for sexual abuse of an unnamed “Athlete A,” which the lawsuit states was Le. Later that year, his place in the Hall of Fame of both the ASCA and Fordham was rescinded.

“The lawsuit states that Le would sleep in Bernal’s room on several team trips, and she would get picked up from Bernal to skip school and go to his house for sex. Le went to college from 2011 until 2014, and during her junior year, Bernal impregnated her and paid for the abortion, the lawsuit says.”

The lawsuit goes on to say that Le’s mother found her diary, and despite her parents showing it to another coach at Bernal’s Gator Swim Club, that coach did not contact law enforcement and “did nothing to protect Amanda.”

The suit also alleges that USA Swimming “was aware of complaints about Bernal’s inappropriate behavior with minor female swimmers” before Le began competitive swimming. It accuses Bernal, USA Swimming and other defendants of violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Bernal was previously named in an August 2021 lawsuit in which Kimberly Stines accused him of a “five-year campaign of systemic emotional and sexual abuse” beginning in 1976. 

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Notes: 

Hackett, mentioned above, who would eventually receive an MBA from the Ivy League University, went along to Harvard at the same time as Bernal. He would have participated in the 1980 Olympics had the USA team not boycotted the Moscow games that year.

Bernal also mentored legendary swimmer David Berkoff, inventor of the revolutionary "Berkoff Blastoff" underwater backstroke start. (Gold Medals at both the Seoul ‘88 and Barcelona ‘92 Olympics.)

-Kevin Bergin

 Is the admin for the Fordham Class of 1980 Facebook site:    https://www.facebook.com/groups/537184563628982