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The Golden Boy

Hope Holmberg, For The Miami Student

(HANNAH MILLER | The Miami Student)

Bill Mulliken did not spend his 21st birthday at a bar on High Street. Instead, he spent it churning away in a swimming pool, preparing for his final race in Rome during the 1960 summer Olympic games. Mulliken did not celebrate his birthday with friends, but he did walk away with a gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke. His time was 2:37:4.

"It was just another day as far as I was concerned," he said. "I worked out."

Mulliken is a Miami alumnus and graduated in 1961. Fifty years later, Mulliken is the only athlete who has won an Olympic gold medal during his or her time as a Miami student, according to Michael Pearson, assistant athletic director of communications and technology at Miami.

With the 50th anniversary of the 1960 summer Olympic games upon him, Mulliken said he can still vividly remember the events that took place that summer.

"I can remember all my Olympic races," Mulliken said. "There was such a long time before the ‘get set' and the gun in every race in Rome."

After departing from Rome, Mulliken returned to Miami, where he spoke to the first-year students at convocation about representing his country.

Continuing to swim for Miami and finishing up his studies in both economics and philosophy, Mulliken completed his senior year like any other Miami student. Being voted homecoming king that year, however, was a perk.

His coach during his time at Miami was Raymond Ray, a member of Miami's Athletic Hall of Fame.

"(Ray) was a real calm guy," Mulliken said. "He was wonderful."

Ray Essick, executive director of USA Swimming from 1976 to 1997, said Raymond was a great coach for Mulliken.

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"He and Bill were made for each other because Ray was a very low pressure guy and Bill was not easy to push," Essick said. "Bill was a special kind of guy because he is so self-driven and individually motivated."

Essick said Mulliken's high school in Champaign, Ill. did not have a swim team, but this did not stop him from training himself. He won the state championship meet and then went on to swim at Miami, Essick said.

"Bill's one of the great stories in American swimming," Essick said. "To become an Olympic champion the way that he did is quite surprising."

Essick said Mulliken is still a great friend of USA Swimming.

"He has been very active and very helpful in reconnecting with international team alumni in USA swimming," said Mike Unger, assistant executive director at USA swimming.

Mulliken also continues to support Miami's swimming program.

"Bill has been a giant supporter of Miami for as long as I can remember," Miami men's swim team Head Coach Pete Lindsay said.

Lindsay said Mulliken's swimming success during his time at Miami helped Miami in terms of a national presence.

"Miami had the right level of dual meet competition for me," Mulliken said. "We swam a dual meet against Ohio State, which was huge."

Since Mulliken, who went on to Harvard Law School, spent a great deal of his time balancing his studies and swimming, penciling in time to sleep was not always easy.

In order to make sleeping between classes more comfortable, Mulliken painted the walls in his bedroom at the Phi Delta Theta house black.

One development he feels has advanced the sport of swimming since his time in the pool at Miami is the invention of goggles.

"My eyes would hurt," he said. "Everyone in the library probably thought I was an alcoholic because I always had red eyes, and I saw rainbows around the lights."

Crediting his Olympic gold medal to, "the light of Zeus," Mulliken is still surprised that he, who was ranked 17 in the world at the Olympic trials, ended up winning the gold medal.

"My goal was to just be on the team," he said. "If I had just made the semi-finals, my coach would have been ecstatic."

Swimming in a lane right next to his biggest competitor, Yoshihiko Osaki from Japan, in both the semi-finals and the finals during the Olympics, Mulliken was committed to winning.

Beating Osaki in both races was a triumph for Mulliken.

"It really rocked his ship," Mulliken said. "He was upset."

Some of his motivation was a result of the fact that his father had fought in World War II.

"I went into the zone for sure during the semi-finals," Mulliken said.

In the midst of the Cold War, Mulliken knew allowing the Russians to beat him was not an option.

"My dad said, ‘Son, you might not do much over there, but beat the Russian,'" Mulliken said.

To his relief, no Russians advanced to the finals.

"They showed my race three times in a row on the Jack Paar Show (an NBC late night talk show)," he said. "It was uplifting because Russia really kicked us in the medal count in Rome."

Mulliken's confidence was heightened while waiting in the "ready room" right before his final race.

Terry Gathercole from Australia, the world record holder in his event at that time, approached Mulliken and successfully scared him.

"He said, ‘You work your ass off for four years and it all comes down to two and a half minutes,'" Mulliken said. "It was a good sign. I thought, ‘Is HE trying to psych ME out?'"

In addition to confidence motivated by fear, Mulliken had strategy for his final race.

"I had a mark at the bottom of the pool where I was going to give it the ‘kick,'" he said. "I missed the mark, realized, then picked it up."

Because it reminds him of standing up on the Olympic medal podium, Mulliken said the Star Spangled Banner still brings tears to his eyes.

As a father of six and grandfather of two, Mulliken now lives in Chicago where he is the president of the Chicago branch of US Masters Swimming. He was the chairman of fundraising for the bicentennial for Miami Libraries and is also a member of the Miami Alumni Board of Directors.

As he celebrates the 50th anniversary of his Olympic victory, Mulliken remains grateful for the experience he had on the US Olympic team.

"(The Olympics) is the greatest movement for peace that mankind has ever known," he said.


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