A hallmark moment in the storied history of Allegheny College celebrates its golden anniversary this week.
Fifty years have passed since Allegheny and the city of Meadville hosted the first-ever NCAA Division III Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the Richard King Mellon Pool. For four days from March 19-22, 1975, a capacity crowd filled the gallery as the small hillside campus became the center of attention for more than 70 colleges and universities in attendance.
The 1975 national championships remain one of the College’s most significant athletics events for a multitude of reasons. Not only was it the first championship meet for Division III after the NCAA reorganized in 1973, but it was also a key moment that helped turn the Gator swimming program into a regional and national contender throughout the ’70s, ’80s, and into the ’90s. During this historic event, Allegheny also crowned its first-ever national champion in any sport, as Jeff Gordon ’76 won gold in the one-meter dive.
As a team, the Gators finished ninth in the country, while eight student-athletes earned All-America accolades in six different events. Marty Pfinsgraff ’77, a 1988 Hall of Fame inductee, led the way with four All-America awards in the 200- and 400-yard individual medleys and the 400- and 800-yard freestyle relays. Gordon, a Class of 1987 Hall of Famer, was recognized in both the one- and three-meter dives. Doug Stewart ’75 also received multiple All-America awards as a member of the 400- and 800-yard freestyle relay teams.
The Birth of Division III
Allegheny is a charter member of both the NCAA and Division III. In fact, the College was one of 13 institutions represented by then-President William H. Crawford at the conference held in New York City in 1905 that led to the creation of the NCAA’s predecessor, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS). However, the current NCAA structure, which divides its membership into three divisions, wasn’t implemented until 1973.
When Raymond A. Cox, Jr. ’58 became the first Gator swimmer to garner All-America honors in 1956, only one national championship meet was held for all NCAA programs. Cox swam head-to-head against student-athletes from the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Stanford. In 1964, the swimming championships were separated into university and college divisions, splitting many of the largest universities from their small-school counterparts. Even then, it wasn’t easy for Allegheny to match up against institutions that provided athletic scholarships or had more resources.
“You could tell you were from a small college,” Gordon said. “Just by the demeanor of those athletes, you could tell these competitors were on scholarship, and that was their whole focus at the school. In comparison, I knew I was there to get an education and that my athleticism was only an entree into the school, not the end-all, be-all. It was intimidating, so when Division III came along, I felt it was more of a level playing field for these small colleges.”
“We actually started thinking about trying to vie for a national championship,” Pfinsgraff said. “It absolutely made a difference in positioning us with teams that were more our size. I think some of the schools had scholarships, whereas obviously, none of the Division III schools had scholarships.”
Talks of reformation were a hot topic at the NCAA convention in January 1973, but the membership rejected a proposal to split the association into two divisions for large and small schools. Instead, a revamped deal was approved eight months later in August. An Associated Press article in the August 7 issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette read, “In the first special convention in its 67-year history, the NCAA favored by a 366-13 vote the historic reorganization of which puts the major football powers in Division I and some 310 smaller schools in Divisions II and III.”
Today, Division III, guided by its priorities on academic success and a well-rounded student-athlete experience, is the largest in the NCAA, with more than 430 member institutions and 200,000 student-athletes.
Change of Plans
When the NCAA passed legislation to reorganize, the association noted that each division should have championships in baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, outdoor track and field, and wrestling no later than the 1975-76 academic year. Had the NCAA followed through with its original plans, fellow Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) institution Washington and Jefferson College – not Allegheny – would have hosted the first-ever Division III Championships in the sport of swimming in March 1976.
As outlined in the NCAA’s executive committee minutes from May 1974, “In the reorganization proposal adopted by the special Convention, August 1973, the first Division III Swimming Championships were to be inaugurated in March 1976.”
In the same session, a motion to accelerate the start of the Division III Championships was passed. As outlined in the minutes, “In view of the fact that Allegheny College has expressed interest in serving as host for this meet, the Committee recommended the Executive Committee sponsor an appropriate amendment at the 1975 Convention to permit conduct of the meet in March 1975.”
The NCAA granted the final stamp of approval in January 1975, but the Gators had anticipated the move long before then. The April 3, 1974, edition of the student newspaper, The Campus, quoted Pfinsgraff as saying, “Tentatively, division 3 of the NCAA (small college swimming teams not giving swimming scholarships) will be held at Allegheny next year.”
Bob Goff of Swimming World Magazine, who provided the preview story in the meet program, also took note of this change to the NCAA’s timeline: “The Division III championship was to be held in 1976, but Allegheny offered to host the meet this year and at the January NCAA meeting, their bid was approved.”
Richard King Mellon Recreation Building
If the NCAA needed one good reason why Allegheny would be a suitable host for the first Division III meet, it was the Gators’ new pool.
When constructed in 1969, the pool was the centerpiece of what was known as the Richard King Mellon Recreation Building, which also had classrooms and courts for squash and handball. It was a significant upgrade over the basement-level pool inside the former David Mead Field House. According to historian Jonathan Helmreich, the College was eager to show off its new facilities.
“That’s why the meet was held there, because we had this new pool which was, at that time, very modern,” said Helmreich, Allegheny’s dean of instruction and the head timer for the national championships.
“To have a separate diving well back in that day was a big deal,” Gordon said. “And to have a one- and three-meter board, that was pretty incredible. That’s pretty much what drew me to Allegheny.”
The Richard King Mellon Foundation provided funding for the new facility. Helmreich recalled that the philanthropic organization demonstrated a keen interest in supporting physical education for America’s youth in the 1960s. Although Allegheny President Lawrence L. Pelletier had inquired about a donation for the College’s academic programs, he audibled with a proposal for a new swimming pool when the foundation showed little interest in his initial request.
Today, the Mellon Pool sits inside the expansive David V. Wise Center, the College’s on-campus sports and recreation hub. The Wise Center was built around the stone facade of the original structure in 1997, adding space for multi-purpose courts, a gymnasium, a weight room, and an office suite.
Charismatic Coach Freas
A renowned figure in the swimming world, Sam Freas arrived in Tool City, USA, shortly after Mellon Pool opened. Described by his peers and former student-athletes as a polarizing, larger-than-life personality, a young Freas was in the early stages of what quickly developed into an extraordinary coaching career when he was hired by former athletic director Harold McElhaney.
Head coach from 1971 to 1977, Freas transformed a middle-of-the-pack program into a nationally recognized name. Not afraid of challenging the top teams across the country, he led the Gators to a 64-12 dual meet record, five consecutive PAC titles, and three top-10 finishes at the NCAA Division III Championships. He was also the driving force behind the bid for the 1975 national championship.
“Our coach was the reason we got (the national championship),” Pfinsgraff said. “It was an opportunity to put Allegheny on the map. If you’re a good recruiter, you’re a good salesman; Sam was a good salesman. He sold the NCAA and the powers that be in NCAA swimming that Allegheny could pull this off.”
A January 21, 1975, copy of The Campus describes Freas’ efforts to secure the championship in Meadville. It began on the West Coast at the 1974 College Division Championships, where “the tankers’ Commander in Chief started conducting presentations at a number of national meetings in Long Beach, California, showing how Allegheny could provide a good championship.” The article also points out how he “began to climb the political scale” by joining the All-American selection committee and College Forum of Coaches.
“In marketing the team and the pool and the school, he was very, very good at it,” said Joan Lange Pfinsgraff ’76. Without a women’s swimming team at Allegheny, Freas welcomed Joan to compete with the men. She was one of the first two women to win a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship after being nominated by her coach in what Joan described as one of his many “outside-the-box” ideas. In 1988, Joan was inducted into Allegheny’s Hall of Fame alongside Marty, her former teammate and now husband.
“(Freas) was also very good at convincing swimmers they were at least as good as they thought they could be, and probably better,” Joan said. “Because he could convince them that they were really good, he tended to have really good teams and really good team spirit.”
After Allegheny, Freas climbed to the Division I ranks, spending time at the University of Arkansas, Louisiana State University, and the University of Hawaii. He was named conference Coach of the Year at every stop and mentored numerous All-Americans, American and world record-setters, and future Olympians. His final act before passing in 2019 was starting the swimming and diving teams at Oklahoma Baptist University and guiding the Bison to multiple national championships.
It Takes A Village
Not only did the Allegheny campus come together to cheer on the swimming and diving team at the 1975 national championships, but the entire Meadville neighborhood rallied behind their Gators. The gallery overflowed with students, family members, and supporters from the local community.
“It was an exciting time for the college and the town,” Marty Pfinsgraff said. “You could not help but be energized and pumped. You wanted to be able to do your best on a stage with the spectators all there, both your own fans and obviously people cheering for competitors. It absolutely raises your adrenaline level.”
Allegheny’s national champion on the diving board, Gordon, credits the crowd for elevating him to a gold medal. Although he trailed Charles Stahley III of Lowell Technological Institute and Larry Hoercher of SUNY Geneseo by more than three points after the semifinal round, Gordon surpassed both in the finals. Determined to put on a show, he beat Stahley, the silver medalist, by more than 10 points with a final score of 394.92.
“It’s the reason why I won, because there were divers that were better than me, to be honest,” the Pittsburgh native said. “I can’t tell you what a thrill it was to have the faith and confidence of the entire college community, my family, and my swim team members.”
Gordon jokingly remarked that the audience often used the diving events as an intermission during regular-season meets, so he felt compelled to wow the sold-out crowd with every twist and turn. It was the kind of showmanship that helped the All-American diver turn his aquatic aerial stunts into a lifelong entertainment career as a circus clown for promotions like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and Big Apple Circus, and at the France Pavilion at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center.
“I just remember at one point saying, ‘Oh my God, I could win this,’” Gordon said. “I became a better diver with that kind of support. I was on this adrenaline rush, and I just felt the love and support of so many people.”
All In
It’s been 50 years since one of Allegheny’s most influential athletics events occurred. Not only were the 1975 NCAA Championships a springboard that launched the swimming and diving program into its next era of excellence, but the meet illustrates the College’s “all-in” mentality. Together, with the help and support of the administration, campus community, and the city of Meadville, the Gators united to host the biggest athletics competition in school history, crown its first individual national champion, and once again etch its name into Division III history books. Today’s student-athletes share that legacy by swimming in the same facility and representing the same Blue and Gold colors.
