Women's swimming at UW Oshkosh, which was then called Wisconsin State College-Oshkosh, began in 1961 through the Women's Recreation Association (WRA) as an interest group. This group held Sport's Days, which included competitive swimming as one of the days. At this time, the girls practiced on their own time without a coach. Any woman wanting to participate was allowed as long as the dues were paid.

In 1963 women's competitive swimming started and took off. Janet Moldenhauer was the coach who made women's swimming at UWO what it is today. Moldenhauer came to Wisconsin State College-Oshkosh to coach synchronized swimming and then became involved with the competitive swim team. During the competitive season, Moldenhauer coached the girl's swimming and diving team at Albee pool on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and every other Friday at 1:30 p.m. She coached the synchronized swimming team on Mondays and Wednesdays, and every odd Friday. At this time, Albee was a 5-lane, 25-yard pool with a one-meter and a three-meter diving board, which was shared by many organizations. Therefore, this was the only available pool time the girls were able to practice. The women's competitive season began in September and ran through the middle of November, which is when the men's swimming and diving season began.

The team would travel by vans to surrounding schools, using money from the WRA. The girls would compete against Beloit, La Crosse, the University of Wisconsin Madison, and even the University of Northern Illinois. Soon after Moldenhauer started coaching the intramural/WRA team, a young lady by the name of Candy Newman walked onto the team. She wanted to go to nationals and compete in the 50 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, and the 100 individual medley. Moldenhauer timed this young aspiring athlete who swam some fantastic times. Immediately, Moldenhauer called the University of Illinois where Candy had heard about this meet. She learned the details and entered her in the meet. At that time, there were no separate divisions like today; Candy competed against all the major universities. She placed second, third, and sixth overall in her events. This was an amazing accomplishment because each of her events was immediately followed by the next. At this time, there was not a set order of events, so the university hosting the meet could develop their own order of events to suit their athletes. Today there is a specified order of events that is followed at every meet. Candy was the first female swimmer from UW Oshkosh to compete and place at the national level. This event has helped inspire women to join the swim team, which is how women's swimming and diving came to be what it is today.

In 1971, one year before Title IX became law, the Wisconsin Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WWIAC) was formed. The women were now able to compete at the same level as the men. At this same time, Jim Davis, the men's swimming and diving coach, decided to step down as head coach. Moldenhauer took over the men's team and continued coaching the women's team. Women were to receive equal opportunities, which meant female coaches were to be paid just as the men were paid for their time. This is when men became more involved with coaching women's sports. Therefore, the conference combined the men’s and women's seasons from September to February. The men and women shared the pool time and competed together but were still considered separate teams.

Both the women's and the men's teams were quite small throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but they remained as teams and swam quite well despite their numbers. During the season of 1972, Oshkosh had their first women's swimming WWIAC Conference champion in the 50-yard freestyle. Her name was Barb Paslowski, and she won with a time of 26.2 seconds. She was also a member of the winning 200-yard medley relay in 1972 and the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1973. In 1974, Oshkosh had another conference champion, Sandy Karow, who swam the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 57.41 seconds and the 50-yard butterfly with a time of 28.95 seconds. Again in 1975, Sandy won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 56.59 seconds. While Moldenhauer was coaching, there were many more conference champions, including Connie Spaith in the 50- and 100-yard backstroke in 1982 and Mary Beth Justeson in the 50-yard backstroke in 1883.

There has not been much mentioned within the Oshkosh Advanced Titan, the yearbooks, or the Oshkosh Northwestern about any women's diving team. According to Coach Moldenhauer, women's diving began the same time the women's swimming did. The WWIAC record book from 1993, shows the past conference champions from 1970 to 1993 in women's swimming and diving. In 1980 Dru Therrian was the first woman from UW Oshkosh to place first on the 3-meter board and then went on to place seventeenth on the 3-meter at nationals that season. In 1995, Tammy Krug was an Honorable Mention All-American at nationals on the 1-meter board and again in 1996 on the 1- and 3-meter boards. The women's diving team continues to be strong today.

In the early 1990s, the university was building a new swimming pool in Albee hall, which was designed by a student and revised by Janet Moldenhauer. However, the pool was not built according to the plans. For a period of a year and a half, the men’s and women's teams were without a pool and were required to practice at the Oshkosh High School. The new pool in Albee was finished in February 1993, two weeks before the teams' conference meet was to take place.

After Coach Moldenhauer's retirement in 1993, Andy Salm became the coach. The women's team has continued its success since Salm has been the coach. Within the past six years, 1993-1999, there have been 14 events in which the Titan women have placed first at the conference meet, 14 All-Americans and 17 Honorable Mention All-Americans. Each year, the women smashed more and more of the pool records held at Albee pool. In the 1998-1999 season, there were six new records placed by the women's team, with many more to be broken in the years to come.

Good luck to Oshkosh's current and future swimmers.