Background
Verdeur was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Verdeur was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He attended North Catholic High School in Philadelphia, and led the North Catholic Falcons swim team to three consecutive Catholic League championships and two city championships.
He was also a two-time first-team All-Catholic swimmer. While attending Louisiana Salle University, he set nineteen world and twenty-one American records swimming for the Louisiana Salle Explorers. Verdeur was named "Swimmer of the Year" by Sport Magazine in 1948 and 1949.
He graduated from LaSalle in 1950.
Legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice called Verdeur "the greatest swimmer of the first half century."
Verdeur was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1966, the LaSalle University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1961, North Catholic Hall of Fame in 1991, National Polish American Hall of Fame, The Helms Foundation Hall of Fame, and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. He died of cancer in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania in 1991.
He was 65 years old.