A good portion of this article is pulled from the 2018 Hall of Fame program, detailing the rise of the John Carroll swimming & diving program. There is also portions pulled from Carroll News issues, helping detail Ron Zwierlein's influence on building a program from the ground up.

Ron Zwierlein was the right person at the right time for the John Carroll University swimming & diving program to be launched.

The founding father of the aquatic program had to be someone that not only possessed energy but also creativity.

Zwierlein had both.

The William H. Johnson Natatorium was still being built when John Carroll University decided to field a varsity swimming & diving team for the first time.
 
The man chosen to build it from scratch was Zwierlein, a Bowling Green grad and former captain of the Falcons swim team.
 
"JCU did, in fact, field a varsity team in 1974-75, but it was an all walk-on team," said Jim Smith, a 1978 graduate who was part of the first team. "They were not even sure the natatorium would be finished, and as a result we were a tiny co-ed cadre.  Ron Zwierlein was busily recruiting for the program even as he supported our motley crew in holding our own against regional powerhouses, especially Allegheny in that decade."
 
Guided by the creative genius of Zwierlein, the team - known as the "Blue Wave" - began to take shape. The Carroll News reported prior to that first season that "Zwierlein says that 28 people have approached him about participating in the sport. He suspects that there are others who have not yet contacted him but might still be interested in swimming this fall He urges any interested students to see him before next weekend. Currently, he is attempting to schedule some additional meets prior to the January 24 opener against Hiram. The pool, officially dedicated last Sunday, is for all intents and purposes, finished."

That first team wound up with 16 members, with a top nucleus of four or five swimmers and divers.

"Coach Zwierlein feels that although the team could be quite competitive, it lacks the depth needed to assure the best team results," the Carroll News reported. "He hopes next year's team will include 20 to 25 members, with a nucleus of about 16 good splashers. Next year should offer a chance to alleviate- problems concerning students not being able to attend group practice because of previously scheduled classes. Zwierlein also mentioned the possibility of intramural water polo and water basketball teams next year. Next spring an all-campus intramural swim meet may be held. This would help to mobilize hidden talent, and offer swimmers who lack the time for practice a taste of competition."

Their first foray into the Presidents' Athletic Conference yielded a sixth-place finish in 1976. Once the first recruiting classes began to filter in, JCU moved up the ladder at the PAC Championships - all the way to second place in 1977, 310 points behind the champion, Allegheny College.
 
The Carroll News mentioned that "30 freshmen are out this year, and their presence give the coach reason for optimism"
 
"Ron Zwierlein started the JCU team several years before I arrived in 1978 by knocking on dorm room doors and begging kids to try out for swimming," said Paul Hulseman, a Hall of Fame swimmer and All-American. "When I was a senior at Loyola Academy, Mary Amato was captain of the men's swim team – there wasn't a women's team and the men and women trained and competed as one team.  When I arrived, it was a mixed bag of experienced club swimmers and college kids just trying out a new sport.  Ron was like the Pied Piper and his impish personality was infectious."

Before there was a women's swimming & diving program, the women competed with the men and scored points. That included diver Rita Braun, the school's first female All-American in any sport.
 
After John Carroll took that massive leap from sixth to second in 1977, the Blue Streaks would finish as the runner-up in the conference in 1978, 1979 and 1980. The Blue Streaks were closing the gap (the 1980 margin of victory by Allegheny over JCU was just 58 points), but John Carroll had not yet toppled the giant.
 
Still, John Carroll had been encouraged by scoring over 400 points at the 1980 PAC Championships, something that had not been done by any team in the league other than Allegheny since the Blue Streaks joined the fray in 1976.
 
"I believe making a powerful run in the 1979-80 year against the perennial conference champions of the PAC established the foundation of 'we believe, that other team can be beat!'" said Zwierlein. "That year, our recruiting efforts for talented swimmers and divers escalated to a point where we had to turn away marginal/borderline athletes ... some of whom could have scored points at other conference schools. But they were not the quality JCU was seeking.  We wanted winners ... kids that could race to win. We knew, if we could get a recruit to visit the campus, and meet with faculty/staff, but most importantly team members, they were hooked and locked-in!"
 
It was definitely a program on the rise. In 1979-80, John Carroll had taken the bronze at the Notre Dame Relays, competing against the likes of the host school and the University of Toledo as well as several other Division I schools.
 
With 20 letterwinners returning, including captains Hal Hawk and Rich Lewandowski, there was plenty of optimism within the program that 1981 could be the year that Allegheny could be bested.
 
"Ron spent a lot of time recruiting – and he was good at it," said Hulseman. "He couldn't pronounce my last name, but always asked me to say hello to my parents.  Doug Virden and Rita Braun joined the team in 1977 and became national competitors.  I came in 1978 and was JCU's first All American swimmer.  The next year, Bryan Alitto, an Indiana state champ in the 200 free, joined the Blue Streaks.  Steve Brown came the following year and – BAM! – we were national contenders.  Ron also continued to add phenomenal divers to the mix like Greg Patterson and started picking up swimmers who swam things other than freestyle.  We now had solid butterfliers, backstrokers, and breaststrokers.  It was truly amazing to see how quickly Ron assembled a full and deep team."
 
In the Carroll News preview article, Zwierlein downplayed how good he thought the team could be.
 
""It is very early in the season to give a prediction, but looking at how well practicing is going so far, I would have to say that we will be in strong contention for the title," said Zwierlein in the article. "With the returning team members having the experience of winning, they will be able to convey their feelings of how it is to win. There is a lot of pressure on both the new and returning team members.''
 
The Blue Streaks began the 1980-81 campaign by finishing second at the Greater Cleveland Invitational, and then pulled off a stunning victory at the Notre Dame Relays.
 
"Little Division III JCU took it to all those bigger schools from all divisions including the hosts from South Bend," said Hulseman. "On the way back to Cleveland, we stopped in Oberlin, site of that year's NCAA's. We beat Oberlin in a dual meet, but more importantly, we got to swim in the pool that would host the NCAA's in March. It was my third year on the team and, frankly, I didn't know that we weren't supposed to do what we were doing."
 
For the coach, that relay effort at Notre Dame was definitely a sign of things to come.
 
"I never took a team into competition where I believed we couldn't win," said Zwierlein. "Winning The Notre Dame Invitational Relays was perhaps the first indicator that this team was special.  But, I knew they hadn't reached their potential. We did not rest (taper) for the ND event and still won. To date, we are the only Division III school to win that invitational. The next year we were not invited back!"
 
Knowing that chemistry was an important piece to the puzzle, the annual Florida training trip took on an extra emphasis and importance that year. Noting his team seemed more focused right from the start that season, Zwierlein hoped the team would truly come together during their time in the Sunshine State.
 
"The Florida training trip was definitely memorable," said Hawk. "We trained hard, but we also enjoyed the warm weather. Ron and his family always made it enjoyable."
 
"The Christmas break training sessions in Florida always included the entire Zwierlein family," Hulseman concurred. "Cindy Zwierlein was also the team barber.  I do think Ron set the groundwork for us all to be like one big extended family."
 
John Carroll would win seven of its nine dual meets. In addition to beating Oberlin, the Blue Streaks got the best of Carnegie Mellon, Hiram, Washington & Jefferson, Mount Union, Case Reserve and Bethany. Its only two losses were to defending national champion Kenyon and a one-point loss to defending PAC champion Allegheny, both on the road.
 
The stage was then set for John Carroll to make history. In its own six-year-old pool.
 
The Blue Streaks led Allegheny after day one of the PAC Championships, 168-131, thanks in large part to having the top five placing divers in the 1-meter competition, as well as a 1-2 finish in the 50 Free by Todd Grigereit and Paul Hulseman.
 
On day two, a 1-2 finish in the 200 Free by Steve Brown and Bryan Alitto helped the Blue Streaks maintain the lead, as did a win in the 800 Free Relay by Hulseman, Andy Majeske, Alitto and Brown that broke the PAC and pool record.
 
"I don't believe we surprised other schools with a 'knockout' victory in any one particular event," said Zwierlein. "They knew the strength of our lineup and what it might look like at the conference meet. However, we surprised the school from Pennsylvania with a series of 'body punches' by placing a multitude of qualifiers in championship and consolation spots during the prelims, then improving upon our seeded places in the evening events."
 
It was during day two that the possibility of winning the title began to form in the minds of the swimmers and divers.
 
"It was probably not until the second half ... the Friday evening session, that we started to see what was happening," said Hawk. "Coach kept us pretty well informed. He began to tell us, if we do this, and you move up in the finals, we can win this thing."
 
"Before the meet, Ron had pulled us together and told us for the first time that we could win the PAC's and he had a plan to do it.  Pretty funny if you think back a few years that JCU could win this thing.  Here was his plan:  He knew we would be solid across all events – our relays were strong, especially the freestyle relays.  Each team has a limit on the number of competitors.  Divers, since they could only compete in two events, only counted as half a competitor.  Ron told us we were bringing six!  It was unheard of.  Our six divers finished 1-2-3-4-5-6 in one meter and took six of the top eight spots in three meter.  You'd have to do the math, but that's a whole lot of points."
 
On day three, Allegheny limbed to within 15 points of John Carroll's lead after the mile swim, but Zwierlein's plan had worked to perfection. The tide was stemmed when Alitto and Hulseman finished first and second in the 100 Free and the Blue Streaks never looked back. A sweep of the 3-meter podium by Doug Virden, Greg Patterson and Tim Donahoe sealed the win, and providing an exclamation point of sizeable force, Hulseman, Grigereit, Alitto and Brown won the 400 Free Relay and qualified for nationals while breaking league and pool records.
 
When the final points were tabulated, it was a landslide victory for the Blue and Gold. John Carroll had amassed 546 points while Allegheny had tallied 446. Case Reserve was a distant third at 309.
 
"I remember the last relay," said Zwierlein. "We got a blessing from the Jesuit team chaplains (we had more priests and brothers on the deck than swimmers). I looked into the eyes of the relay team members and I knew no one was going to take this away from the Blue Streaks! My instructions were clear ... no one jump ... hold steady wait for the guys hand to hit the wall ... no one jump ... no one enter the water until the event is over... no one jump, no one jump! One of the team members said, 'we got it coach!'"
 
Just six year's removed from Jim Smith's self-proclaimed motley crew, John Carroll had captured its first conference swimming & diving title. There was disbelief amongst the revelry.
 
"Winning the title, from where we came from, and the electricity on deck as we began to understand the magnitude was nuts!" said Hawk.
 
"Diving took the conference by surprise, but we swam well, too," said Hulseman. "The 800 Free Relay set a conference record that was so fast Bill Donaldson, the longtime coach at Hiram College, nominated our relay team to be the PAC MVP.  We won the 4x100 Free Relay – the final event of the meet – to cap a wonderful week!"
 
It takes a full team effort to pull off something such as a conference swim championship. Every point mattered throughout the three days.
 
Unsung heroes like Frank Cicco, who was the first all-time first alternate swimmer for the relays.
 
Unsung heroes like the assistant coaches, for their tireless behind the scenes hard work and being a sounding board for the coach and athletes.
 
Unsung heroes like the guys that pushed the starters in practice every day, knowing in the back of their minds, they may not make the final roster. 
 
Unsung heroes like guys that maybe did not get into championship finals, but scored points that were needed in the consolation finals.
 
"We wanted this for our seniors... for the university, for our loyal fans/supporters, and to establish a championship mindset for the future of the program," said Zwierlein. "It was truly a celebration of a journey, six years in nature, from the start to 1981."
 
For some, the 1981 dream season ended there. But for a select few, the 1981 NCAA Division III Championships awaited. Doug Virden, Greg Patterson, Steve Brown, Paul Hulseman, Bryan Alitto, Andy Majeske, Todd Grigereit and Frank Cicco all competed, and the team points they scored landed John Carroll in seventh place in the final standings. That finish still stands as the high water mark for the program on the national level.
 
"It was a fun atmosphere," said Zwierlein of the NCAA Championships. "We were loose! After all, we had nothing to prove, we were already champions, not only PAC Champs, but victors in our minds. This relaxed confidence was evident in our swims
 
and our diving events at the nationals.  Yielding a seventh place overall finish and a number of All-Americans honors."
 
In all, JCU brought home nine NCAA All-American certificates that year.
 
Zwierlein left John Carroll following that season, accepting the head coaching job at his alma mater, Bowling Green. He coached for five seasons, and compiled a 92-37 record while mentoring 19 All-Americans.
 
After coaching, Zwierlein accepted a position as the Associate Director of Recreational Sports at BGSU. In this role, he was a pivotal piece in the planning and construction of Perry Field House in 1991. Zwierlein was then promoted to Director of Recreational Sports in 1992 and served as the Interim Vice President for Student Affairs during the 1993-94 academic year. Then, in July of 1994, Zwierlein became the Director of Athletics for BGSU.
 
As Athletics Director, Zwierlein saw BGSU win both the Reese and Jacoby Cups in 1994-95 and the Reese Cup again in 1995-96. In both 1994 and 1995, BG won the MAC's award for highest student-athlete GPA in the conference. During his tenure, Zwierlein also began the women's soccer program at BGSU and hired the first African-American Head Coach in department history. His achievements were awarded with the American Football Coaches Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
After serving as Athletics Director, Zwierlein concluded his career at BGSU as the Senior Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, serving in the role from 1999-2004.
 
In 2018, Zwierlein returned to John Carroll to take part in the induction of his 1981 team into the John Carroll Athletic Hall of Fame.
 
The man who started the program by banging on doors looking for swimmers relished the opportunity to see a definitive acknowledgment of those efforts.
 
"To enter a Hall of Fame, no matter the level, is a recognition that you have accomplished something special," said Zwierlein. "For a team to go into a Hall of Fame, it is even more unique. It is not about one individual's accomplishments, but a collective group of special people pulling together as one. To accomplish this mission, it required a delicate balance of trust and support in one another. Being recognized by John Carroll University for induction into Athletic Hall of Fame is indeed an honor. However, this recognition was never about 'Me' in my thoughts, it will always be about 'We'!  No one individual is bigger than the team. This induction is testament to that."