Early swim coaching at USC, Dad's Club Beginning his coaching career with a great learning experience, he was an Assistant coach at USC for three years from around 1975-1977, where he was mentored by Hall of Fame Coach
Peter Daland during the period the Trojans won three consecutive NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. He coached at Dad's Club AAU Swim Club in Houston, Texas from around 1977-1979. A high performing group, under Orr's leadership Dad's Club took first place in a competition between twenty-three teams at the South All-Star Qualifying Swim Meet in Edinburg, in South Texas, in November '78.
Coaching career at Princeton After being hired by Athletic Director Bob Myslik, Orr served as the head men's swim coach at Princeton University from 1979-2019, announcing his retirement from the school at the end of his tenure at the age of 68. With outstanding performance in the Ivy League Conference during Orr's coaching tenure, the Princeton team shared or won the Ivy title 11 of 12 years, and had eight seasons with a perfect 7-0 Ivy League record in dual-meets. His overall 330 dual meet victories placed him at his retirement as the men’s coach with the third most victories in
NCAA Division I competition. In July of 1980, with extra time due to America having boycotted the Moscow Olympics, Orr worked as a swim coach and staff director at a six-week summer swim camp at Ocean Beach in New London, Connecticut along with Princeton swim coach
Frank Keefe. During his service at Princeton, he was the head coach at the 1991 Olympic Festival and in 1993 was the women's head coach for the U.S. national junior team. His career record in
dual meets, at Princeton as of 2017 was 322-57, which included a 115-2 record at Princeton's DeNunzio Pool (the first loss came after a 107 meet winning streak in DeNunzio). Orr coached the Tigers to five top 20 finishes at the NCAA Championships. In 1989 and 1990, Princeton's 200
medley relay team won the event at NCAA's in
American record time. Orr has been described as "part nutty professor [and] part genius" and is also "one of the most beloved." As of 2019, Orr's 330 wins in dual meets make him the swim coach with the third most wins in Division I swimming athletics history.
Outstanding swimmers Orr coached a number of Olympians, beginning with 1988 200 backstroke Olympic finalist
Dan Veatch, 1992 Olympic double gold medalist
Nelson Diebel,
Juan Pablo Valdivieso a 2000 and 2004 Olympian, and 2008 Olympians
Bryan Tay and his assistant coach at Princeton Doug Lennox. In service to the swimming community, Orr served on the NCAA Swimming and Diving Committee, and was the head women’s coach for the 1993 U.S. national junior team.
Honors In 2015, Orr was awarded the Richard E. Steadman Award by the College Swimming Coaches Association, a distinction annually given to a coach who has gone the furthest to spread happiness in the sport of swimming and diving. Orr has been the EISL or Ivy League coach of the year six times. == Personal life ==