Heritage Association Spotlight: Gary Hood - USC Men's Swimming
January 29, 2020 | Men's Swimming & Diving, Trojan Athletic Fund, Features
Hood was born and raised in Kent, Washington, a small town right outside of Seattle. He ventured into Los Angeles and all throughout the country for various swim meets throughout his youth and into high school, but an opportunity to return to California sparked his interest. At the age of 13, he travelled to Los Angeles to participate in an elite swim camp. Hood fondly recalls a guest lecture at the camp made by infamous swimmer and coach, Peter Daland. Daland's philosophy and personal take on the sport had Hood utterly inspired. He remembers coach saying, "I work with world-class swimmers. But if you're a swimmer and you want to come swim for me, you can come to practice and be on my team." The camp excited Hood to continue his swimming career onward.
As high school came to a close, Hood recalls gathering his priorities to make his college decision. Although he competed well on the state level, he knew he wasn't going to be recruited by Division 1 schools to swim. The best of both worlds for him came along when USC surfaced as somewhere for him to get a phenomenal education and also potentially have the chance to swim on the team.
Hood was admitted out of high school and he grew ecstatic for his new beginning in California as a freshman at USC. He entered into school with a major in electrical engineering and as soon as he could, he tried out for the swim team as a walk-on and he made the cut. He recalls his largest struggle being the task of balancing the heavy workload of an engineering class schedule along with time-consuming work outs and practices for the swim team. "The camaraderie of our team at the time is something I look back on fondly," said Hood, "it didn't matter where you were in the 'pecking order' so to speak. Everyone was a part of the same team with a coach who was just larger than life."
Many formative lessons that he learned were able to translate into several aspects of his life to this day. Self-discipline and accountability were two main things from competitive sports that Hood integrated into the classroom and into his career down the road. "I learned to figure out what the goal is, figure out a plan to achieve that goal, and just stick to it until it's done," said Hood. In terms of personal advice for student-athletes today, Hood encourages the same thing to all: just stick to it. "There are going to be challenges and you may feel burned out. You may feel like you don't want to finish, but just stick to it," he said.
Hood is excited to continue following the USC swim teams and he is proud of where the program has gone throughout the years. As of right now, he believes the team is highly competitive and doing a solid job at recruiting. "I think the team is in a great place," said Hood. He looks forward to continuing his support for the swimmers.
Hood's career trajectory changed quite a bit when he graduated from USC with an electrical engineering degree, but decided that may not be his calling. After experiencing his first engineering internship after college, he decided to take a break with that and join the Navy. Hood served as a Service Warfare Officer on the U.S.S. Rentz ship, stationed in San Diego. He served on active duty from 1988-1993. His duties included planning operations at sea, missile and gun engagements, and directing where the ship was to move. He was even in a leadership position during the Persian Gulf War. Although he learned many new skills as a Naval Officer, he felt gratified that he was able to implement his strengths garnered from a lifetime of sports into the new arena as well. "The Navy made me as much of who I am as anything else. It gave me an even higher level of focus and discipline that I never had before. It also gave me leverage to soon apply these skills as a lawyer," said Hood.
The next chapter of his life included the rigorous demands of law school. Hood decided to integrate his expertise in engineering into his law career going forward, where he would focus on cases that included patent litigations. He is able to strategically apply his technical knowledge about chemistry, telecommunications, and electronics to the cases that he works on today. The Navy had also thoroughly prepared him to create efficient checklists and quick systems to tackle tasks at hand, which he also uses in his law career. Beyond that, Hood also recalls, "I apply things I learned at USC in the courtroom from a logistical perspective. More broadly, I took away a 'no fear attitude' from swimming and rigorous classes at USC."
While Hood currently works in Chicago, he still enjoys finding excuses to come to Los Angeles to visit USC as often as possible. He previously participated as a mentor for USC undergraduate engineering students who also had an interest in law. He finds it gratifying to offer the young students guidance and exchange phone calls every so often with them. Hood also has a wife and a daughter who enjoy accompanying him back to USC for the occasional visit. He is especially excited to have recently become a football season ticket holder again. There's something about the Trojan spirit that just never gets old!
Fun Fact Questions:
Favorite class at USC: GE class – Jazz Ragtime & Blues (Thornton School of Music)Favorite way to spend free time: Swimming, running, surfing, spending time with family
