Ford, as a 19-year-old Yale college student, bettered the 100-yard freestyle mark held for 16 years by Weissmuller, the greatest swimming champion of the 1920s and star of the "Tarzan" movies. Robert Ford told , The New York Times his father died Nov. 3 of emphysema, the result of longtime smoking habit.

Ford later went on the better his own mark in the 100 freestyle several times, becoming the first swimmer to break the 50-second mark in 1943, a record that stood for another eight years, the newspaper said.

World War II forced the cancellation of the 1944 Summer Olympic Games, costing Ford his best shot a gaining a gold medal. After he came out of the U.S. Navy, he participated in the 1948 Summer Games in London, winning a silver medal in the 100 freestyle, the Times said.