Though Mark Spitz is best known for winning 7 gold medals in swimming at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, he also had a legendary NCAA career as a student-athlete at Indiana University from 1968 to 1972.
Though Spitz was already an Olympian and Olympic medalist from the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, the ’68 Games were far from the result Spitz had hoped for. Fortunately, Spitz was young and had his entire NCAA swimming career ahead of him, which he chose to spend at Indiana University under the tutelage of Doc Counsilman, who was also his Olympic coach in Mexico City.
Spitz’s first season as an NCAA student-athlete swimmer was also the first year in NCAA history that freshmen were allowed to swim at the NCAA Championships, meaning Spitz would get four goes at history on the national stage and not just three like his predecessors.
The video below shows some of Spitz’s best individual swims as an NCAA student-athlete. Some of the most interesting differences between the swimmers then and now include the techniques used for starts, the number of swimmers per heat, and of course, the “ordinary” swimsuits and the lack of caps and goggles.
Mark Spitz‘s Individual NCAA Titles, 1969-1972 (SCY)
| YEAR | RACE | TIME | MEET |
| 1969 | 200 Freestyle | 1:39.53 | 1969 NCAA Championships |
| 1969 | 500 Freestyle | 4:33.48* | 1969 NCAA Championships |
| 1969 | 100 Butterfly | 49.69 | 1969 NCAA Championships |
| 1970 | 100 Butterfly | 49.82 | 1970 NCAA Championships |
| 1971 | 100 Butterfly | 49.42 | 1971 NCAA Championships |
| 1971 | 200 Butterfly | 1:50.10 | 1971 NCAA Championships |
| 1972 | 100 Butterfly | 47.99 | 1972 NCAA Championships |
| 1972 | 200 Butterfly | 1:46.90 | 1972 NCAA Championships |
*The commentator notes that Spitz went a 4:33.2 in the prelims. Spitz is swimming in lane 3 for the final, but the pool only has 6 lanes which makes the swimmer in lane 3 the top seed.
A crazy fact: Greg Buckingham, whose 500 record they mentioned Spitz broke and who won a silver in the 200IM in ’68, was the older brother of Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac.
Get him some goggles, swim cap and a shave and I bet he drops 3 seconds on the 500 that same day. Can’t imagine swimming like that. The sport has evolved quickly since his time, but he still holds up even against modern swimmers with some “modified stoke and start”.
I think at least one host site, Indiana, had flat-topped blocks. By that I mean parallel to the deck, no down angle. Maybe all had that set-up.
I remember that my summer league pool had flat-top blocks until at least 1981. When did 10° down-angle blocks become common?
Mexico City Olympics in 1968, swimmers were allowed up to 15 degrees. FINA met then and agreed on the 10 degree down angle. It was still uncommon for several years after that.
I think everyone is forgetting how atrocious everyone’s start was in this heat. So poor start, no cap, no goggles, no jammer, no underwaters, poor turns and still goes a 4:33. That would probably convert into a 3:27 in 2020
So you’re saying he’s the original Dean Farris?! Same lineage? 😃🤔
It’s a real pity that the announcer had to wake up from his nap to call the 500 free.
Made Ben Stein sound like Ric Flair
Why weren’t freshmen allowed to swim at NCAAs?
Freshman ineligible rule – to study and get used to college.
Interesting, Doug Russell’s fly looks a lot more like modern fly than Spitz’s.
1972 was also when Eddie Reese got his first head coaching gig at Auburn. The team he inherited didn’t place a swimmer in the finals or consols of the SEC championships the year before. Guess he did ok.