Bill Mulliken Passes Away
Courtesy: Miami University Athletics
Release: 07/18/2014
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Former Miami University great and Olympic Champion, Bill Mulliken, passed away Thursday afternoon at the age of 74.
Mulliken will forever be remembered as one of the greatest athletes to wear the Red and White. One of the most talented and decorated athletes in Miami swimming history, Mulliken became the first swimmer inducted into the Miami Hall of Fame in 1971.
In 1959, Mulliken won an NCAA and Olympic championship, both of which were firsts for a Miami athlete. The following year he won the Gold Medal in the 200 breaststroke at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy.
A nine-time Mid-American Conference champion, Mulliken set 15 Miami, MAC, American, NCAA and Olympic records during his tenure. Best known for setting the Miami, American, NCAA and Olympic record in the 200 breaststroke, Mulliken became only the third All-America swimmer from Miami.
Mulliken completed his degree at Miami before earning a law degree from Harvard Law School.
I first was introduced to Bill Mulliken in 1983 at the YMCA Nationals in Chicago and saw him just about every year until now. He was a very nice guy and had a great personality. He is only one of a handful of masters swimmers who have won a gold medal in the Olympics in an individual event and been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame for Swimming. In fact there is not a lot of masters swimmers inducted in the ISHOF as swimmers for swimming but as masters swimmers, contributors, and coaches. He is one of the first Olympians to embrace masters swimming and he competed just about every year he joined until about 2011 when he was not well. I talked to Bill a lot at the 2009 USAS Convention that was held near his home in Chicago.
He was involved as a volunteer for his Illinois LMSC and he was the USMS Parliamentarian at the USAS Convention from 1993 until 1997. He was also the founder of the biggest Open Water event in the midwest USA and that is the Big Shoulders event in Chicago. Bill would tell a lot of interesting stories about his Olympic experience especially when he talked to likes of a young Cassius Clay who later became known as Muhammad Ali, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Al Oerter when they were all 1960 Olympic athletes in the Olympic Village in Rome. He also mentioned a shy 13 year-old named Donna DeVerona who would later become one of the best swimmers in the world.
Bill was very active in volunteering and raising funds for the University of Miami college swimming program. I remember once seeing him at Eastern Michigan University after I got done swimming and he drove from Chicago to the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area in a snow storm to support his college at the Mid American Conference Championships. I have provided additional links about Bill Mulliken's life and Coach George Breen, who is a 1960 alumnus has a great story on the Swim Swam website about Bill.
swimswam.com/.../openwaterpedia.com/index.phpwww.miamistudent.net/.../The-Golden-Boywww.ishof.org/.../84bmulliken.html
I first was introduced to Bill Mulliken in 1983 at the YMCA Nationals in Chicago and saw him just about every year until now. He was a very nice guy and had a great personality. He is only one of a handful of masters swimmers who have won a gold medal in the Olympics in an individual event and been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame for Swimming. In fact there is not a lot of masters swimmers inducted in the ISHOF as swimmers for swimming but as masters swimmers, contributors, and coaches. He is one of the first Olympians to embrace masters swimming and he competed just about every year he joined until about 2011 when he was not well. I talked to Bill a lot at the 2009 USAS Convention that was held near his home in Chicago.
He was involved as a volunteer for his Illinois LMSC and he was the USMS Parliamentarian at the USAS Convention from 1993 until 1997. He was also the founder of the biggest Open Water event in the midwest USA and that is the Big Shoulders event in Chicago. Bill would tell a lot of interesting stories about his Olympic experience especially when he talked to likes of a young Cassius Clay who later became known as Muhammad Ali, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Al Oerter when they were all 1960 Olympic athletes in the Olympic Village in Rome. He also mentioned a shy 13 year-old named Donna DeVerona who would later become one of the best swimmers in the world.
Bill was very active in volunteering and raising funds for the University of Miami college swimming program. I remember once seeing him at Eastern Michigan University after I got done swimming and he drove from Chicago to the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area in a snow storm to support his college at the Mid American Conference Championships. I have provided additional links about Bill Mulliken's life and Coach George Breen, who is a 1960 alumnus has a great story on the Swim Swam website about Bill.
swimswam.com/.../openwaterpedia.com/index.phpwww.miamistudent.net/.../The-Golden-Boywww.ishof.org/.../84bmulliken.html
