In June 1950, Miss Carolyn Wattenburger, daughter of Ralph Wattenburger who was principal of Livermore High School, was a member of the Berkeley City Club swimming team and worked out in the new Memorial Pool at Livermore High.  She was soon joined by a few friends.  The pool manager, who was a swimming enthusiast, saw the girls practicing on their own and immediately recognized the nucleus of a local swimming team.  He suggested the formation of a team to the manager of the recreation district.  He also arranged for the district to sponsor the team and named it the Livermore Aquacowboys.  The name came partly from the nickname of Livermore High athletic teams, the Cowboys, and partly in recognition of the famed Livermore Rodeo.

The first dual meet was arranged in only a few weeks and the Aquacowboys, who numbered only 10 swimmers, lost to a Stockton team by only 10 points.  The team's first AAU competition was at the Far Western Swim Meet in San Francisco on July 14, 1950.  By the end of its first year the team had won five dual meets, including a victory over the San Leandro Beavers, and lost only three meets.

The famous Livermore AquaRodeo swimming meet was held for the first time on July 20, 1951, and was for years the largest age-group swimming meet in the nation.  It was the first swimming meet to include an event for every age group in every stroke--at that time included only the free-style, backstroke, and breaststroke.  The Aquacowboys pioneered many other advances in age-group swimming which are now part of the nationwide program.  These included the basic decisions that juvenile swimming be called age-group swimming and that definite age groupings be established rather than set by each team to suit its members, as had been the practice.  It was the suggestion of the Aquacowboys that swimmers change age groups the day after their birthdays, and the team also suggested the calssification of novice swimmer which later developed into A and B swimmers.  By the time of the first AquaRodeo, the team totalled 80 swimmers.  Twenty-three teams competed in that meet and 27 national records were broken.

The present Livermore Aquacowboy team is proud of its heritage.  Its swimmers, coaches, and parents work hard to maintain for themselves and for the community an organization which is a credit to the community and to the wonderful sport of swimming.