Gregory Buckingham/LB Mention
 

[Playing the guitar, pshaw]

In Menlo

http://inmenlo.com/2012/07/30/m-a-gr...-appendicitis/

by Linda Hubbard Gulker on July 30, 2012
In Faces of Atherton,Schools,Sports

M-A grad Dick Roth won Gold at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, swimming with acute appendicitis

t this year’s Olympics, TV commentator Rowdy Gaines described the 400-meter individual medley — won at the 2012 Games by Ryan Lochte in a time of 4 minutes, 5.18 seconds — as “the most grueling event in swimming.” So imagine competing with acute appendicitis. But that’s what Dick Roth did when he won a Gold Medal swimming that distance and setting a World Record (4:45.4) at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. But, listening to the Menlo-Atherton High School grad (class of 1965) talk about his victory, it just may have come because of the attack — at least partially.

The “summer” games that year weren’t held until October. (The 1965 M-A yearbook notes that the always powerful water polo team lost the title that year due to Dick’s absence). Dick was 17 and admits the enormity of the Olympics hadn’t really sunk in when he headed off to the Games. “As a swimmer, you’re just looking at the next meet,” he remembers.

He’d been posting nationally-ranked times for only about a year when he made the Olympic team. At the Games, he experienced what he called “stomach pain.” He checked in with the Olympic nurse on duty, who called a doctor. Next thing he knew he was at the U.S. Army hospital in Tokyo.

“The diagnosis was acute appendicitis, but I said ‘no way I’m having surgery,’” he recalls. “Being just 17, I didn’t have the final say. I was kept in the hospital and prepped for surgery. They brought in someone from the Olympic committee and went looking for my parents, who were enjoying a day of sightseeing before the competition.

“By the time they found my parents, it was six or eight hours later. There I sat, fully prepped for surgery on the gurney. But by that time, things had stabilized.

“I begged them to let me swim. My parents wanted to give me the chance to swim. My mother was particularly strong-willed, shall we say. They called Dr. Robert Jamplis at Stanford. Jamp advised monitoring my white blood count and putting me on antibiotics. On a logical level, it must have been an incredibly difficult decision for my parents, but they let me swim.”

Dick swam in the trial heat during the worst of his appendicitis. “I was in a lot of pain and swam 15 seconds off my pace, but I qualified for the Olympics final,” he says.

This is where the “was-it-because-of-appendistis-story?” takes its turn. Dick was put into the infirmary where he couldn’t visit or talk with anyone. He didn’t eat any solid food.

“I did what’s common place today,” he recalls. “I started to swim the race over and over in my mind. I also got progressively better. The finals were two days after the trial and that gave me time to recuperate physically and psychologically.”

Dick says he remembers nothing about the swim and never did. “The best swimmers always swim through a curtain of pain,” he says. “You’re thinking processes don’t work very well.

“Swimming is a strange sport. When I’d be working out, if I could do subtraction in my head, I wasn’t swimming hard enough.”

After M-A, Dick attended Stanford, where he got beat for the first time in years. During his sophomore year, he was on the team that won the NCAA title. “After that I didn’t have any desire to go on,” he says. “It wasn’t like today when you can make a living at it.”

There is a postscript to Dick’s story, and it’s commemorated in a plaque that stands next to the current Menlo-Atherton pool, which opened in 2001. Four years after Dick competed in the Olympics, another M-A grad, Greg Buckingham broke his World Record.

“I still marvel about it,” Dick says, “that two swimmers from the same neighborhood could go on to be best in the world. And I look back at the Buckingham parents, who had two boys with such extraordinary talent. Lindsay swam and played water polo, but he wasn’t a ‘real’ swimmer like his big brother. He was much more interested in records and playing the guitar. Their parents supported them both.” [Lindsey Buckingham is best known as a member of Fleetwood Mac, along with another M-A grad, Stevie Nicks. Greg Buckingham won a silver medal in the 200 individual medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics.]

Today Dick says he doesn’t swim much, mainly because he really doesn’t like pools. “I loved working out in open water when I was a kid at Searsville Lake and Stevens Creek Reservoir,” he says. “And I still enjoy swimming in the ocean.

“Winning the Gold Medal did change my life. It led to absolutely amazing, wonderful things. But being only 17, I couldn’t help but think, ‘what’s next.’ It informed my life a lot. The drive I had to win Gold has always been there to call on. But sometimes self-expectations are high.”

Footnote: Subsequent to the 1964 Olympics, Dick had another attack of appendicitis and eventually had surgery by Dr. Jamplis. After graduating from Stanford, he ran a large chain of natural food stores in Santa Barbara during the 1970s; worked a half million acre ranch in Elko County, Nevada for another decade; and during most of the 1990s was a manager and workshop facilitator for the Covey Leadership Center, according to an author’s bio that accompanied a book he wrote on menopause titled No, It’s Not Hot In Here. He lives today in Park City, Utah, retired from what he describes as a “company that develops renewable power plants for utilities.”

I love these little glimpses into Lindsey's past, and recollections from those that knew him back then. Nice find :)

Cool. I thought of Greg Buckingham when watching swimming on the Olympics this week. Stunning that such a fit guy died so young from heart troubles!

ETA: Scroll down to the bottom of this Standford Champion Swimmer Webpage if you want to see a photo of him poised to dive.

Before Phelps & Lochte the 200 IM belonged to...
 

:thumbsup:


Sports Illustrated April 03, 1967

Stanford's Big New Splash
Gregory Buckingham is tall, dark, handsome and, suddenly, a star of American swimming. In the NCAA title meet his record-breaking victories lifted the Indians above strong Southern California and Indiana.

Kim Chapin


Last Saturday's breakfast was not a-happy meal for the Indiana University swimming coach, Dr. James Counsilman It was the morning of the third and final day of the NCAA championships, and things were going badly for the usually well-stocked Hoosiers. "Our divers are doing fine, of course," he said grumpily, "but, outside of a couple of standouts, we don't have the swimmers. Stanford has all the stars, and Southern Cal isn't going to win an event, but they're nickeling and diming both of us to death."

Dr. Counsilman was wrong. The five-and-dimers had their moments in the meet at Michigan State, but in the end Counsilman and Southern California's Peter Daland were both dollared to defeat by the shiniest new coin out of Stanford's mint.

His name is Gregory F. Buckingham, and he suddenly is the dominant swimming personality in the U.S.—quite possibly the world, as well. Not incidentally, Stanford is the new NCAA champion, breaking into the cozy club to which only Michigan, Ohio State, Yale and Southern California have belonged since the NCAA began keeping track of such things way back in 1937.

Buckingham, a wanderer who attended San Jose State and San Mateo Junior College before landing at Palo Alto, won two individual events, the 200- and 500-yard freestyles. Then he anchored Stanford's triumphant 800-yard freestyle relay team with an amazingly swift clutch performance in the meet's last event, assuring the Indians the team title over the Trojans and the Hoosiers. He set American records of 1:41.3 in the 200 and 4:37.0 in the 500 and shared in the unprecedented 6:54.5 for the relay, overshadowing not only that bemedaled Olympian, Don Schollander of Yale, but also stars of the magnitude of Michigan's Carl Robie.

Buckingham also could have won a contest for the most memorable name had it not been for the presence of one Zach Zorn, a UCLA sophomore. It was a sad Zach who won the 50-yard freestyle. "So I won," Zach shrugged. "I wanted the record, and I wasn't within two-tenths of it."

The surprising thing is that until three years ago nobody, except a few people in the Bay Area, had ever heard of Buckingham. At Menlo-Atherton High School he had been an All-America swimmer, but his scrapbook was thin. He was not a prodigy (he is actually older than Schollander by a few months), did not come up through the well-publicized age-group swimming programs, as have so many Olympic and national record-holders, and he had a tendency not to train very seriously.

Then he sought out George Haines, coach of the Santa Clara Swim Club and the developer of Schollander, Steve Clark and Donna de Varona. The encounter took place in the locker room of the Santa Clara High School. "I went to George and said I wanted to swim for him," Buckingham said. "I didn't know it at the time, but Schollander was in the room and quickly left. He told me later that he couldn't bear to be around when George told me no."

Well, George said yes, and the second son of a California coffee packer was on his way. "I owe my whole life to Haines," Buckingham said.
Buckingham is 21 and dark-skinned, with sparkling blue eyes, scraggly sideburns and, except for a heavy intake of protein supplements and wheat germ, is reasonably normal in his habits. The only thing kooky about Greg is his exuberance over swimming. In this age of kid champions a man of 21 should be jaded and near retirement.

"I think I have an advantage over a lot of the other guys," he explained. "Swimmers like Schollander have been competing for years at the top. You can take it physically, but after awhile it burns you out mentally. I'm even looking forward to the day when I can give it up."

Buckingham's greatest moment at East Lansing came in the 200-yard freestyle Friday night, when he defeated Schollander—for the first time in his life at any distance—and took Schollander's American record to boot. (Because the meet was held over a short, or 25-yard, course, no world records could be set; these must be established in a 50-meter pool.) "That last length was like a dream," Buckingham said. "I knew when we came out of the last turn I had him. When I first met Don three years ago I was awed. He was way up here and I was way down there, but I found out he's human after all."

Schollander has the reputation of setting a relatively slow pace through the first 100 yards, then going all out in the next 50 and burning out the competition. "In earlier races," Buckingham said, "I'd let him set the pace. When he'd make his bid all I could do was say, 'There he goes.' This time I set my own pace, and it worked."

Buckingham's emergence eclipsed several other outstanding individual performances. His Stanford teammate and an Olympic veteran, Dick Roth, won both individual medleys and had a hand in the 800-yard freestyle relay victory. Ken Merten of Southern Methodist took both breaststroke events, wiping out records set by Indiana's Chet Jastremski back in the dark age of swimming, which by today's standards is approximately four years ago. And Charlie Hickcox of Indiana won both backstroke events from Michigan State's formidable Gary Dilley, heretofore undefeated in collegiate meets.

Schollander, although he was fighting two recent flu attacks, was nevertheless disappointed that he failed to win anything. But for real low-down misery one could not surpass North Carolina State's Steve Rerych, the 6'7" freestyle sprinter who had hoped to win two races (SI, March 27). Rerych got a bad start, made a worse turn and finished sixth in the 50. He was eighth in the 100. At the start of his leg in the 400-yard freestyle relay he jumped too soon and got his team disqualified. "It's been a damned lousy week," said Rerych.

And for two of the meet's three days it looked as if Southern Cal might buy its dime-store victory. History was on the Trojans' side. Southern Cal had tied Stanford in their only dual meet of the season, and in the conference meet just three weeks ago the Trojans overwhelmed the Indians by more than 60 points. The Trojans, of course, were the defending national champions, and although the individual stars of the past were absent, Southern Cal could count on tremendous depth in every event. After the first two races, in fact, Coach Jim Gaughran of Stanford must have wondered what the whole thing was about. Buckingham won the 500-yard freestyle and Roth won the 200-yard individual medley but there was Southern Cal ahead by three points. The next night Roth pulled down his second medley win, and sophomore Peter Siebert finished fifth, but SC had five finishers in the top 12 and a five-point edge.

Going into the meet's concluding 800-yard relay, Stanford led by only 243-234 and faced a Southern Cal relay team that had set an American record in qualifying trials that afternoon. If SC won, Stanford needed at least third place to win the NCAA title by a point, and when Buckingham took over for his 200-yard leg, it looked as if that was exactly what would happen. Southern Cal had a one-length lead, and Buckingham had not had much rest after an exhausting 1,650-yard grind earlier in the afternoon. "I was dead tired," he said, "but we had come so far I was determined not to lose." In the last 50 yards Buckingham pulled even with SC's Bill Johnson and actually won going away with a brilliant last leg of 1:40.8. The time was half a second faster than that of his victory over Schollander in the 200 the night before.

Almost immediately after the relay Buckingham was experiencing his first real autograph party, and all 18 Stanford swimmers, plus one very wet Jim Gaughran—who had been tossed into the pool—were sporting T shirts that read: STANFORD U 1967 NCAA SWIMMING CHAMPIONS, the optimistic gift of William Lee of Palo Alto, a swimming outfitter and Stanford baseballer back in 1942.

"We had these made up three weeks ago," Lee said. "It was a calculated risk. Nobody would ever have seen them if we hadn't won."

Greg Buckingham didn't exactly specify the retirement date he was looking forward to. Chances are, though, that the chief instrument of Stanford's dollar diplomacy will be legal tender at least until after the Mexico City Olympics next year.

FOOTNOTE: Buckingham won the Silver Medal in the 200 individual medley, swimming for team USA in the Olympic Games in Mexico City the following year, 1968.
He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1990 at the age of 45.


:wavey: Posted with respect and admiration for Lindsey and his family, and all his devoted fans who took the time to read this. :)

Thanks for posting that.

Lovely article. It dug up the past and gave me a wee glimpse into Greg's personality. I think about Michael Phelps when I read the sentence about how you can take it physically, but it burns you mentally.

Thanks.

Michele

interesting read - thanks for sharing.

:wavey: Thank you. Great article.I can't help but think of Lindsey and his brother while watching the Olympics, so I appreciate your posting this.

^^ (synchronized wavies)

You're welcome, everybody. :wavey:

[I'd like to hear the other coach's side of the conversation with Lindsey, if he even remembers it. The coach that succeeded Gaughran, I suppose. Lindsey recalls him being very frustrated over Lindsey's decision and saying something like Lindsey was a quitter and would always be a quitter]

Catching up with Bob Gaughran, one of M-A’s most legendary coaches

by Linda Hubbard Gulker on August 24, 2012, In Menlo
http://inmenlo.com/2012/08/24/catchi...ndary-coaches/

Not many high school coaches achieve legendary status, but former M-A water polo/swimming coach Bob Gaughran is the exception. During his tenure (1958-65), he coached two Olympians — Dick Roth and Greg Buckingham — and won 18 sports titles while at the school. His one failure: He couldn’t convince Lindsay Buckingham to forget about the guitar and start swimming. (Nor could the coach who succeeded him; Buckingham went on to Fleetwood Mac, not water polo, fame.)

We caught up with Coach Gaughran recently in Pinecrest where his family has owned a vacation home for years. He’s been retired now for 16 years from his post at Santa Ana College, the job he took when he left M-A, though he continues some involvement with the National Coaches Clinic. While he reminded us of his local roots — he graduated from Sequoia before he headed off to the College (now University) of the Pacific where he was a classmate of another legendary M-A coach, Ben Parks — he was much more at ease talking about the guys who played for him than his many records and honors.

(For the record, among his accomplishments: California State Water Polo Player of the Year in high school; holds career scoring record of 340 goals from his time at Pacific; Member of UoP Athletic Hall of Fame, USA Water Polo Hall of Fame, M-A Hall of Fame, alternate to the 1956 and 1960 Olympic team.)

“The M-A years were great,” he said. “Lots of memories. I remember one dual meet against Paly when Tod Spieker was goofing around in the locker room. He fell and caught his eye on the corner of a locker. Dr. MacKensie was there [son Jim played for M-A] and stitched him up, and Tod won both the 200 & 400 freestyle. Next day, his eye was swollen shut. Tod was just one of the great kids who played for me.”

Given the disappointing results of this year’s U.S. Olympic water polo team, our talk turned to that sport.

“Water polo at the college and beyond level is so physical now,” he said. “It’s gone to the international style of play. For that reason, I enjoy watching high school games more.”

He continued: “The Olympic showing had to be a blow to all the U.S. players who’d gone to Europe to play professionally and then came home to represent their country. Those good eastern Europe teams have a great talent pool to draw from. There’s no football or baseball to compete with.”

Returning to his days at M-A “and all those amazing guys,” he told the story of one claim to fame that was more fiction than fact: “Tom Lipton’s father worked for [the news wire service] UPI at the time. When we beat Santa Clara, he wrote in his story that we were ‘national champions.’ Of course, there really wasn’t such a title, but it sounded good!”