BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of a unique championship team from the pre-Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) days.
In 1964, the Yale University men’s water polo team – then a club which competed during the Spring semester – under the tutelage of former New York Athletic Club (NYAC) player Fred Basett defeated the United States Military Academy for the New York Division title. At that time Yale’s league consisted of teams from the New York metro area along with Army and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Yale had a unique advantage on its roster due to utilizing its swimming team as the championship squad included four Olympians (Mike Austin, Steve Clark, Dave Lyons, Ed Townsend) along with All-America swimmers Dale Kiefer and Roger Goetche.
A little bit about the four Olympians:
Michael MacKay Austin (born August 26, 1943) represented the United States at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and won a gold medal in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay with teammates Steve Clark, Gary Ilman and Don Schollander, setting a new world record of 3:33.2. Individually, he placed sixth in the 100 meter freestyle with a time of 54.5 seconds.
He competed for Yale from 1962 to 1964. In August 1963, swimming with the New Haven Swim Club during a summer break, he came in second in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 55.2 at the National AAU Outdoor Meet in Chicago. In intercollegiate National competition with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, he won the 50-yard freestyle in 1964 and helped Yale win the 4×100 yard free relay in both 1963 and 1964. He graduated from Yale with his bachelor’s degree in 1964. Austin donated his Olympic gold medal to his alma mater in 2006.
In later years, he worked in the financial field, where he labored overseas for many years before coming back to America and taking a position as CFO for Cambridge, Massachusetts’s Strategic Science and Technologies LLC, currently a biotechnology company.
Stephen Edward Clark (born June 17, 1943) attended and swam for Los Altos High School under Hall of Fame Coach Nort Thornton Jr., who would later coach the University of California Berkeley. He qualified for the Olympic team in 1960, while still attending High School. Demonstrating his early mastery of the event, at the March, 1961, AAU National Indoor Swimming Championships in New Haven, Connecticut, Clark set an all-time age group record in the 100-yard freestyle of 46.7. With exceptional talent, the Los Altos High School team was considered strong enough to compete with many varsity college teams, and competed against the Stanford University freshman team in 1961.
Clark attended Yale University and won five NCAA titles. He also captured six individual and five AAU relay championships while swimming for the Santa Clara Swim Club, under Hall of Fame Coach George Haines. Clark was the Santa Clara Club’s first outstanding male swimmer, and the first of many outstanding swimmers mentored by Haines. A sprint specialist with exceptionally efficient flip turns, he set nine world records, but would have set more as short course records were not accepted for world records at the time. As a senior, he was the Yale swim team captain; he graduated from Yale with his bachelor’s degree in 1964. In 2005, he donated one of his three Olympic gold medals to his alma mater.
At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Clark swam for the first-place U.S. relay teams in the preliminary heats of the men’s 4X200 meter freestyle relay and men’s 4X100 meter medley relay. Both American relay teams won gold medals, but Clark was ineligible for a medal under the Olympic swimming rules in effect in 1960 because he did not compete in the event finals.
He won his first international gold medal at the 1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo, Brazil, winning the men’s 100 meter freestyle in a time of 54.7 seconds, and narrowly edging American swimmer Steven Jackman (54.8 seconds).
At the 1964, U.S. Olympic trials, Clark had developed tendinitis in his shoulder, and was only able to make the team as a member of relays, though he would meet with great success at the Olympic finals.
After traveling with the team to Tokyo for the 1964 Summer Olympics, Clark won three gold medals in record times as a member of three highly competitive U.S. relay teams. His first win in the 4X100 meter freestyle, was a world record with a time of 3:33.2. Clark’s individual 100 freestyle leg was a world record, and one of his most notable swims, as the fastest leg of the relay with a time of 52.9 seconds.
Clark also won gold in the 4X200 meter freestyle with a world record combined time of 7:52.1.
His final gold was in the 4X100 meter medley with a world record time of 3:58.4.
After Yale, Clark enrolled at Harvard Law School and authored a widely selling book on swimming, entitled Competitive Swimming As I See It.
He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an “Honor Swimmer” in 1966.
David Chandler “Dave” Lyons (born January 23, 1943) earned a gold medal as a member of the first-place U.S. team in the men’s 4X200 meter freestyle relay at the 1963 Pan American Games. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, he swam for the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the men’s 4X200 meter freestyle relay. Under the 1964 Olympic rules he was ineligible to receive a medal, however, because he did swim in the event final.
Lyons began his competitive swimming at New Trier High School, Winnetka, Illinois. He was part of the high school national championship team in 1961. The team later placed third in the 1961 AAU championships. In 1961, he was the second swimmer to go under 1:50 for the 200-yard freestyle, Steve Clark of Yale doing it one day earlier. Lyons swam for Yale from 1963 to 1965. He won three consecutive NCAA national championships as a member of winning Yale teams in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Lyons later earned both M.B.A. and M.D. degrees.
Robert Edward Townsend, Jr. (born September 13, 1943) won a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. team in the men’s 4X200 meter freestyle relay at the 1963 Pan American Games. He participated in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where he swam for the gold medal-winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the men’s 4X200 meter freestyle relay. Under the 1964 Olympic swimming rules, he was ineligible for a medal, however, because he did not swim in the relay final.
Townsend attended Yale and swam from 1963 to 1965. He won an NCAA national championship in the 400-yard individual medley (1963), and three more as a member of winning Yale teams in the 400-yard freestyle relay (1963, 1964, 1965).
Front Row — Szilagyi, Sessions, Capt. Howells, Jones, Clark. Back Row — Lyons, Goettsche, Harris, Balfour, Strotz, Leveaux. Middle Row — Watters, Thorne, Brown, Townsend, Sidell, Rice, Bassett.
