CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- One Chicago sports legend and the widow of another have teamed up to help save children from drowning.
Former-Cub Andre Dawson and Connie Payton, the widow of Bears great Walter Payton, are behind the Baby Otter Dawson/Payton Swim School. The classes at the InterContinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue teach children as young as 8-months old how to swim and save themselves from accidental drowning.
Connie Payton said drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death for children under the age of 4 in the U.S., while some parents mistakenly think floats and inflatables will keep their children safe.
"What we think are all the right equipment - the floaties and the tubes and the swimming vests - and we put them in the water, but what we are doing is truly giving them a false sense of how to swim and a false sense of security," she said.
Payton admits she also needs to learn how to swim and plans to do so this spring so she can spend time in the water with her grandchildren.