Jerry Crim

National Swing Dance Hall of Fame Inductee —1990
U.S. Open Swing Dance CHAMPION—1990
U.S. Open Swing Dance Winner—1985, 1988

Jerry (Tulsa, OK)  is  considered by many as the founding father of Swing in Tulsa, and even Oklahoma.  Many successful competitors and teachers took their first lessons from Jerry.  In 1968 Jerry founded the Supreme Swing Dance Club. He was the first recipient of the U.S. Open Swing Dance Championships Humanitarian Award in 1985.

Jerry placed in the top five at the U.S. Open Swing Dance Championships in 1985 and 1988 with dance partner Jody Bridges.   He was a well-known teacher of Ballroom, Country Western and Swing for over thirty-two years, was a member of the National Swing Dance Council and editor of Danscene, and wrote the original “Slotted Swing Dance” book, with a section on how to form local and national Swing clubs.

Jerry was faculty advisor and teacher for the National Dance Masters Conventions in 1985 and 1986. In Ballroom competitions he won Best Swing Choreography at the Dallas Invitational in 1986, Best Overall Routine at the September Fiesta 1986, and honors at the San Antonio Invitational in 1992. He took 1st in the Las Vegas Matinee Jack & Jill in 1987 with Sandy Trent and in the National Swing Dance Convention Jack & Jill with Sherry Lawson 1989. In 1990 Jerry was inducted into the National U.S. Swing Dance Council Hall of Fame—the same year he took 1st place at the U.S. Open Swing Dance Championships in the Overall Jack & Jill Division.  (Jerry Crim passed away in 2003.)