Swim With Mike Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary This Saturday
April 11, 2000 | Women's Swimming & Diving
April 11, 2000
by Melissa Payton
Nineteen years ago, it was a modest but heartfelt event to raise money to buy a van for All-American swimmer Mike Nyeholt, a USC alumnus who had broken his neck a few months before in a biking accident.
Nyeholt surprised his friends and supporters by showing up - just hours after being released from the hospital - for the March 7, 1981, swim-athon called Swim for Mike. The event surprised everyone, including its organizer, Nyeholt's friend Ron Orr, by raising $58,000 - far more than was needed.
Nyeholt then had two epiphanies: The excess funds should be given to help similarly challenged former athletes attend USC, and the event should be held once more. And the next time, Nyeholt himself would swim.
"When I said I'd swim next year, I thought [the event] would be just that year," he said.
But this Saturday, April 15, the 20th annual Swim With Mike - the name was changed when Nyeholt made good on his promise in 1982 - will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at USC's McDonald's Swim Stadium. This year, Orr expects to raise at least $350,000, thanks to the efforts of 500 swimmers and 4,000 donors who sponsor them.
Over the years, Swim With Mike has raised almost $2.4 million. Celebrities, from former Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda to ex-President Gerald R. Ford, regularly show up to swim laps. Swim With Mike has awarded 33 USC scholarships to physically challenged athletes, including 12 to current USC students.
And each year, Nyeholt - and a passel of his siblings, nieces and nephews - swims laps and raises funds. His goal this year is 100 laps in the 25-yard pool.
"I give a ton of credit to Ron for continuing this," Nyeholt said. "He still works so hard. It should be Swim With Ron, but hey, I'm the one who broke his neck, so there."
Nyeholt and Orr have the kind of warm, bantering relationship of longtime friends. They've known each other since seventh grade, swam together for San Gabriel High School and USC, and both achieved All-American status in swimming. Orr is now associate athletic director at USC, Nyeholt, who has recovered enough mobility since his accident to walk with crutches, is a vice president with Capital Guardian Trust Company, where he manages sales to public pension plans.
"Mike was my roommate here at college, and when his accident hit, it hit really hard," Orr said.
After the success of the first event, which purchased a van with hand controls for Nyeholt, Orr and Nyeholt established the Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund at USC. Because of Nyeholt's experience, the scholarships - which can supplement a student's financial-aid package or pay all expenses, depending on need - go to former high school or college athletes who have suffered a debilitating illness or injury and who meet USC's admissions requirements.
"We haven't had to turn anybody down," Orr said. "If they get admitted and fit our requirements, they will get some form of financial aid."
The goal, Orr and Nyeholt said, is to help disabled former athletes rediscover their abilities, prepare for a career and achieve self-sufficiency.
"It's been something special for me," Orr said of his work with Swim With Mike. "In athletics, you're around a lot of able-bodied people and you appreciate all they accomplish. But when you see somebody like Arthur Hemingway walk across the stage to get his diploma after what he's been through, there's nothing like it." (Hemingway, a scholarship recipient, was a USC football player when he was hit by a car his freshman year.)
Orr relates the personal stories of the scholarship recipients with parental pride - each one, he said, is a "great kid."
Nyeholt, whose own successes are impressive, said he is in awe of many of the scholarship recipients as well. "It is amazing, the strength, willpower and drive of these kids."
To list just a few of those who have been helped by Swim With Mike:
* Suzy Kim, who is graduating this spring from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, will soon begin a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Northwestern University. A marathon runner and a soccer and tennis player in high school, Kim was paralyzed in a body surfing accident two years ago.
* Kemal Demirciler, valedictorian of the USC Class of 1996, is finishing his Ph.D. in engineering. Demirciler, from Cyprus, was a top high school basketball player, discus thrower and violinist before a diving accident in the Mediterranean Sea.
* Sarah Reinertsen, who participates in marathons and triathlons, is working toward a master's degree in broadcast journalism. A member of the 1992 U.S. Paralympic team, she set a record in the marathon for female amputees.
Many scholarship recipients stay active in Swim With Mike after graduation, and all 12 current recipients plan to attend the April 15 event.
This year's event will honor volunteer Mara Hunter Redden, who has helped with every Swim With Mike and is fighting her own battle this year, against ovarian cancer.
Hunter Redden will receive the annual People Helping People Award, which was added to Swim With Mike in 1988 to honor President Ford, who swam in the event that year. A 1975 graduate of USC, Hunter is an active volunteer with several organizations. During the fund-raiser, "Mara's Lane" has been reserved for her husband, who has raised $40,000 in pledges already, Orr said.
Swim With Mike participants can actually swim before or after the event, or at another location, he said. But swimmers and sponsors who show up on April 15 at McDonald's Swim Stadium will be treated to what Orr calls "a big pool party," complete with barbecue, refreshment booths, kids' corner, massages and silent auction.
Top swimmers who are participating this year include Olympians Kristine Quance-Julian, John Naber and Lenny Krayzelberg. Former USC coach Peter Daland will conduct a master's workout at 8:30 a.m., other top swimmers will conduct a swim clinic for youngsters at 10 a.m.
Olympic and USC coach Mark Schubert and current USC swim team members will participate, along with USC yell leaders, who are traditionally among the top fund-raisers, Orr said. For comic relief, members of the USC football team will swim a relay in inner tubes.
"One year, they had to pass a T-shirt to the next football player, and to see these huge guys swim," Orr said, smiling at the memory. "While they swam, the Trojan Marching Band was in the stands, playing the theme to 'Jaws.'"
To become a Swim With Mike patron or swimmer, or for more information, call Ron Orr at (213) 740-4155.
