It was supposed to be just another Yale swimming meet. The Bulldog dynasty, beaten only once in its last 219 meets and untouched by Harvard since 1938, was once again the power in the Eastern Seaboard Swimming League.

Yet 1962 was in some strange way an exceptional year. All season Harvard had surprised the league. Time after time it had pulled out crushing victories over strong teams. Mighty Princeton had fallen 58-37 for the last Crimson victory before the Yale meet on March 3.

It was in New Haven. It was at 4:30 p.m. And, as the CRIMSON later reported, "It was unbelievable," perhaps more so for Yale coach Phil Moriarity than for anyone else.

Nothing went as predicted. Time and again the outmanned Crimson team came back to stall off the powerful Eli machine. It was the story of a small group of Harvard stars swimming again and again to thwart the Bulldog depth.

First Shock

The first shock came when Harvard's captain Bob Kaufmann climbed out of the pool after winning the 50-yard freestyle, got back up on the blocks, and took third place in the 200-yard individual medley. Kaufmann had not swum any event that included backstroke since Christmas. It was a carefully guarded secret that he had injured his shoulder, forcing him to give up backstroke or risk permanent injury. Kaumann's unexpected appearance in the I.M. was the first of several monkey wrenches that Crimson coach Bill Brooks threw into the Eli machine.

The next shocker and the meet clincher came in the 200-yard breaststroke. Harvard's sophomore star Bill Chadsey ranked a clear favorite to beat Yale's Jerry Yurow, but the Harvard backup men were, as usual, inadequate. Harvard had to sweep the event. The score stood at Harvard 40 Yale 39 going into the breaststroke with only the freestyle relay to go. The relay was Yale's as the exhausted Crimson freestylers could do no more. Only eight points--a first and a second in the breaststroke--could have the meet.

Moriarity Foiled

Eli coach Moriarity settled back to watch his sure victory, and two thousand screeming sons of Eli were set to enjoy the same. Then Brooks pulled another surprise. Up to the block stepped junior backstroker John Pringle. Pringle had just finished winning the 200-yard backstroke and had not swum the breaststroke all season. But he was one of Harvard's superstars and the crowd tensed.

A strong start put Pringle out in front. After 150 yards he was in solid possession of second place, two yards behind Chadsey and four feet ahead of Yurow. Then in the last length Pringle began to tire. The rested Yurow started to close the gap. With ten yards to go only inches separated the two, and the inches were rapidly disappearing. But Pringle proved to be the champion, touching out Yurow by one-tenth of a second and sending the Eastern Championship to Harvard for the first time in 24 years.

In all, Harvard won eight of the eleven events, five of them in record time. The superstars had come off the bench or out of the water again and again to stem the tide of Yale's reserves. Kaufmann swam in three individual events, Pringle in three, and Freestyler Bill Zentgraf in two. Between the three they accounted for five of Harvard's eight victories and 30 of Harvard's 48 points. It was a story of good coaching and individual efforts. Time and again Bill Brooks' delicate distribution of his tired stars foiled Moriarity. Yale saved too many of its stars for meaningless victories in the relays.

It was a glorious and unbelievable meet. But unfortunately it proved to be Harvard's dying gasp in Eastern League Swimming. The freshman meet that day foretold a bleak Crimson future. The Elis, led by Steve Clark, crushed the Yardlings 61-34, setting NCAA, pool, and University records with reckless abandon.

The next year Harvard managed to finish second in the League, but in 1964 the Crimson fell to fifth and has not risen since.

But 1962 isn't that long ago, and the glorious win over the undefeated Elis gives Harvard something to look back on with pride. It makes Yale a little less mortal, and gives people like 1968 swimming captain Marty Chalfie some backing when he says of the Yale meet "We can always hope."