University of Connecticut Athletics
Goldberg Achieves Unique Coaching Distinction
3/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
STORRS, CT (March 26) - History is made and records fall every year at the NCAA Championships, but a rather unique historical note emerged from last week’s NCAA Championships in College Station, Texas. University of Connecticut head coach Bob Goldberg became what is believed to be the first coach in recent times in the NCAA to have one of his student-athletes receive All-America recognition as a diver at one school and another student-athlete be named All-America as a swimmer at a different university. The feats occurred 18 years apart no less.
The highly successful head diving coach at Penn State from 1970-85, Goldberg tutored several All-Americans including Mary Ellen Clark, who went on to win bronze medals at both the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games. Clark placed third at the NCAAs her senior year in both the one and three meter events. Clark was the last of several Lady Lion All-American divers during Goldberg’s tenure.
Meanwhile, since leaving Happy Valley, Goldberg has coached both the men’s and women’s swimming teams at UConn, maintaining an upward spiral for the majority of his tenure which has included several BIG EAST Conference champions and league Coach of the Year honors in 1994 and 1995. The women’s program had seen some highlights in the AIAW era before the NCAA began its oversight of women’s sports during the 1982-83 academic year, but with cuts for the national showcase growing increasingly more stringent, outstanding Husky competitors like five-time BIG EAST champion Hillary Krug have not qualified for the national meet.
But the 2003-04 campaign saw UConn make a leap forward following 16 years of building under Goldberg. The men’s squad turned in a tremendous performance at the U.S. Open Championships in December where the Huskies finished as the fourth best collegiate team in Seattle. The Huskies rolled through the BIG EAST Championships in Long Island, winning three events and establishing eight school records, including a new UConn high-water mark every single women’s relay event. The crescendo came a couple of weeks later in College Station, Texas when Jacquelyn Craft, who qualified for the NCAA Championships in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke, placed 12th in the 200 earning her All-America honors. Her metric short course mark of 2:28.54 also rated her as the second best freshman nationally in the discipline and established Craft as one to watch for the next three years.
