Rowdy Gaines is the director of the Outreach Program at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. He devotes a great deal of his time and energy to bringing as many Alabama children to the Hall of Fame as possible. With access to the thousands of kids that do visit the museum, Rowdy has the oportunity to positively influence many of Alabama's youth. He inspires them, motivates them, and challenges them to set goals and become what ever they want to be in life. Mr. Gaines has recently said that "the Outreach Program is important to me because it is a way to give back to a state that gave so much to me". Rowdy is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame (inducted 1984). He was the fastest male swimmer in the world for five years, Ambrose "Rowdy" Gaines IV's reign in the pool spanned the years 1980 untill the summer of 1985. In 1982, Rowdy set the world record in the 100-meter freestyle and, at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he capped his phenomenal career with a triple gold-medal winning and double world record setting performance. Setting a new Olympic record just .45 seconds short of his own world record, Gaines swam to victory in the 100-meter freestyle. He also won gold in the 4x100 relay and the 400-meter freestyle. Rowdy was born in Winter Haven, Florida. He began swimming when he was a junior in high school at the age of 17. From there he went on to swim for Auburn University. At Auburn, Rowdy was a five time NCAA individual champion, was an individual SEC champion numerous times, and was selected as the 1981 South Eastern Conference athlete of the year. Rowdy Gaines was also named World Swimmer of the Year in 1980, and won the Mcdonalds spirit award in 1982. Rowdy is currently a resident of Birmingham, Alabama and works for the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. He also does work for HealthSouth Corporation. He was a commentator at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games (for swimming/diving events) for NBC, and is scheduled to comentate for thenext Olympic games on NBC and can be seen on the swiimming/diving broadcast at the upcoming Goodwill Games in New York.