Frank Thompson
I was at that meet where the DQ occurred and remember it clearly, but obviously my memory sucks!
Actually your memory is good. I went back looked at the results of the 1971 NCAA Championships and found out that Mark Spitz did indeed jump in the pool after the relay but it was after John Kinsella jumped in and he was the first one to do it and that is what I remember. Both swimmers realized that the third place team had not finished because they were almost a 25 behind at over 12 seconds and even though both swimmers jumped in and jumped out in almost the same instant and did not interfere with the other lanes finishes and no collision to the opposing team did not matter, they were immediately disqualified and USC won the race and set the record. Both teams went 10 seconds faster than the previous record.
USC actually won the race and Frank Heckel held on to the lead that his swimmers got him in the relay and touched out Gary Hall at the finish by the hundredths of a second. The DQ not only lost Indiana 26 points but nullified the 200 Free swim of Gary Hall of 1:38.37 which would have been the fastest split by a second over what anyone had done previous to that point. This swim happened just 15 minutes after he swam the 400 IM and set an NCAA/American record and won by 5 seconds. What else is interesting is that he went out in :46.74 which at that time was an unheard of split and many feel that he even would have gone faster if he had not done the 400 IM earlier.
At that meet and the two years previous, Gary Hall was the greatest swimmer in the world and Mark Spitz did not become the equal of Hall until the summer of 1971 when he became the first swimmer to win four National titles at one meet in Houston. At the meet Hall split the fastest 100 Fly ever in the 400 Medley at :47.70 and Mark Spitz won the 100 Fly at :49.42 in the individual event. Gary Hall won the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 Back and set NCAA/American Records in each event.
Doc Counsilmen called Hall's performances the greatest in the history of swimming up to that point in time. He said he watched great swimmers for 3 decades and rates Hall's performance as Number 1. "He was in five events," Counsilman notes, "and in every one of them, he swam faster than anybody ever had before. He was fantasic."
Frank Thompson
I was at that meet where the DQ occurred and remember it clearly, but obviously my memory sucks!
Actually your memory is good. I went back looked at the results of the 1971 NCAA Championships and found out that Mark Spitz did indeed jump in the pool after the relay but it was after John Kinsella jumped in and he was the first one to do it and that is what I remember. Both swimmers realized that the third place team had not finished because they were almost a 25 behind at over 12 seconds and even though both swimmers jumped in and jumped out in almost the same instant and did not interfere with the other lanes finishes and no collision to the opposing team did not matter, they were immediately disqualified and USC won the race and set the record. Both teams went 10 seconds faster than the previous record.
USC actually won the race and Frank Heckel held on to the lead that his swimmers got him in the relay and touched out Gary Hall at the finish by the hundredths of a second. The DQ not only lost Indiana 26 points but nullified the 200 Free swim of Gary Hall of 1:38.37 which would have been the fastest split by a second over what anyone had done previous to that point. This swim happened just 15 minutes after he swam the 400 IM and set an NCAA/American record and won by 5 seconds. What else is interesting is that he went out in :46.74 which at that time was an unheard of split and many feel that he even would have gone faster if he had not done the 400 IM earlier.
At that meet and the two years previous, Gary Hall was the greatest swimmer in the world and Mark Spitz did not become the equal of Hall until the summer of 1971 when he became the first swimmer to win four National titles at one meet in Houston. At the meet Hall split the fastest 100 Fly ever in the 400 Medley at :47.70 and Mark Spitz won the 100 Fly at :49.42 in the individual event. Gary Hall won the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 Back and set NCAA/American Records in each event.
Doc Counsilmen called Hall's performances the greatest in the history of swimming up to that point in time. He said he watched great swimmers for 3 decades and rates Hall's performance as Number 1. "He was in five events," Counsilman notes, "and in every one of them, he swam faster than anybody ever had before. He was fantasic."
