SUNY Potsdam Athletics

The 1977-78 SUNY Potsdam men's swimming and diving team produced possibly the most unexpected championship the College has ever seen. The Bears were the defending SUNYAC Champs after having dominated the conference the previous season. A successful showing at the National Championships had resulted in five swimmers earning All-American status. However, the program had lost Dave Allen, the hall of fame coach that built the juggernaut, as well as three All-Americans and future hall of famers to graduation. The Bears swimmers were determined to repeat. They still had a lot of skill and talent on the roster, but instead of always blowing opponents out of the water, as they had the previous year, they needed to use their patented work ethic and strategy.
 
Allen left big shoes to fill, but Potsdam was fortunate to hire Jim Kelly to do just that. Kelly came to the North Country from Genesee Community College. He brought his own scientific and motivational style to Maxcy Hall and was described by his swimmers as a "master strategist" and "ebullient storyteller." The Bears quickly became fans of their new coach.
 
"He knew he had a tough act to follow and was the new guy on the block" said team captain and All-American Peter Eberhardt '78. "But he assured us that everything was okay and was going to work out. He exuded quiet confidence in us, and we knew what we had to do. It was exactly what we needed."
 
"Coach Kelly had an uncanny ability to understand what each swimmer needed to do to improve," said Mike Taber '79. "To illustrate this, he began requiring me to swim butterfly or 1,000 yards on a regular basis. He had noticed a fundamental problem with my shoulder flexibility and corrected it with those 1,000 butterfly swims. I believe almost every member of that team has a similar story."
 
The Bears opened the season with a tight 61-52 victory at Oneonta on December 3. Five days later, Potsdam crushed Saint Michael's 91-44 and upended Norwich 91-63 in Burlington. On December 10 at Cortland, the Red Dragons overpowered Potsdam, 70-43.
 
"Though we lost the meet, every race was contested tightly, and it was obvious that we had a great amount of depth that ultimately would be the trademark of our team," said Jason Anderson '79. "Instead of being down after the loss, the bus ride back to Potsdam was filled with optimism and confidence."
 
The team headed home for an abbreviated winter break but was back right after Christmas to resume training.
 
"The team completed 133 miles of swimming between December 27 and January 17, which is commonly known by the festive name of 'Christmas Workouts,'" said Taber. "But there was nothing festive about those days. The team would train throughout the fall just to be in shape for what the Christmas Workouts were going to bring. They brought an 8 a.m. wake-up for a 9:30 a.m. to noon workout approaching 10,000 yards. At noon it was time to return to the dorm and prepare a calorie-filled lunch. At approximately 4 p.m. we would return to the pool for another 7,000 yards to be followed by more meal prep back at the dorm."
 
To no one's surprise, the grueling workouts paid off. On January 14, the Bears finally held their home opener, breezing by Queen's 76-36. Next, Potsdam was off to Albany to face the Great Danes on January 28.
 
"One of my fondest memories, was our road meet at Albany," said Coach Kelly in a 2013 letter. "They had a strong team with two All-Americans. I remember the Albany coach saying 'You guys aren't going to beat us again this year like you have in the past.' Then we proceeded to win the opening medley relay even though his All-Americans were in the event. After that, we surprised him by entering three people in the 1000-yard Freestyle that normally did not swim that event. At that point, the Albany coach thought he had us beat, but we went 1-2-3 and took a 15-1 lead. The coach then threw his clipboard and yelled at me across the pool saying 'Where in the hell do you get these guys?'"
 
The Bears captured a 61-52 win in the Capital District and Bob Ryan '79 set a program record in the 200 Breaststroke. Following a close setback to powerful St. Lawrence, 63-48, Potsdam capsized Brockport 71-38 on February 4. Al Rickard '79 won the 50 and 500 Freestyle races to lead the Bears over the Golden Eagles. A week later, the Bears swept Oswego (83-20) and Binghamton (78-25). On February 15, Potsdam topped Plattsburgh 59-31 at home. They closed out the regular season with a home loss to Division I Colgate. The Bears were 9-3 and primed to defend their title.
 
Oswego hosted the 1978 SUNYAC Championships on March 2-4. Swimming World Magazine had picked the Bears to finish third behind Cortland and Geneseo prior to the start of the season, but the defending champs had other ideas. The previous year Potsdam had piled on the points with multiple wins and high finishes. This year the strategy was getting as many points from as many top-12 finishes as possible.
 
Day 1 saw the Bears in third place, 21 points back of Geneseo. The tide turned the following day.
 
"Day 2 began with the 400-yard Individual Medley," said All-American Michael Spencer '79. This is a particularly grueling event where each swimmer swims 100 yards of each of the four strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle) in a single event. Geneseo took first and 10th places. In what would become a recurring theme, Potsdam took second, fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth and 11th. By the end of the day, Potsdam had taken the overall lead and caught more than a few people by surprise."
 
The Bears were tied for the lead, 235-235 at the completion of the second day.
 
"March 4, 1978 will forever be emblazoned in my memory," added Spencer. "The first event of the final day was the 1650 Freestyle. That event is just shy of a mile. When the finals were over, Geneseo was jubilant. They had taken first and second and the team was chanting 'One-Two . . . One-Two' . . . no one seemed to notice that we had actually outscored Geneseo until we started our own chant 'Four-Five-Six-Seven-Eight.'"
 
Following the event, Spencer and Ryan set Potsdam records in the 200 Backstroke and 200 Breaststroke, respectively. Spencer was fifth and Ryan was second, claiming more critical points. Senior Stephen Micciche and junior Chris Miller extended the Bears' lead to 13 points with sixth and eighth place finishes in the 3-meter dive. Rickard, Spencer, All-American Dan Matthews and Eberhardt then put the Bears over the top with a fourth-place finish in the 400 Freestyle Relay. After winning the 1977 title by 110 points, Potsdam repeated with a 10-point victory, 391-381 over Geneseo.
 
"We barely won that meet by outscoring our closest competition by 10 points," Taber said. "That would be like winning the Super Bowl by .25 of a point. We needed to swim every yard, get every bit of coaching, compete with each other intensely day in and day out and remain close as a team."
 
"Geneseo won nine of 18 events," said Spencer. "Potsdam won only a single event. The top two (and four of the top six) point scorers were from Geneseo. However, they only had three other swimmers in the top 40. Potsdam had a staggering 11 of the top 40 scorers, just over 25 percent. The Championship was truly a team accomplishment!"
 
At the start of the season, Potsdam had t-shirts printed with their goal of "Going for the One" on them from the title of a Yes rock album. There was a secret message printed on the inside of the shirts that they revealed after the victory.
 
"The best moment of the championship meet might have been on the final night when our team lined up on the bulkhead at the end of the pool wearing our shirts," Kelly said. "Then in unison, the team turned the shirts inside out to reveal the message on the other side 'Still the One.' Throughout the year, we convinced ourselves that we could win the championship. Wearing those shirts all year knowing what was written on the inside served as powerful motivation for us to train hard. We didn't put any limitations on ourselves."
 
The Bears had completed their amazing repeat, but the season wasn't over yet. Seven Bears qualified for Nationals in Grinnell, Iowa on March 16-18. Spencer was eighth in the 100 Butterfly, earning All-American honors for the second time. He then joined Dave Voorhees, Ryan and Matthews to set a Potsdam record in the 400 Medley Relay. Ryan set a program record in the 200 Butterfly. Chris Root, Rickard and Eberhardt also competed at the championships.
 
The Bears had a final highlight in 1978. Taber, who is legally blind, won three gold medals and broke three world records (100 Freestyle, 100 Butterfly, 200 Individual Medley) at the National Championships for Blind Athletes in Macomb, Ill.
 
Coach Kelly passed away in January 2025.