Greg Buckingham
Greatest swimmer in Bulldog history; set several national and world records
1968 Olympic silver medalist, 200-meter individual medley
Swimmer Greg Buckingham stands out in College of San Mateo history for his many community college, U.S. and world records, his modest demeanor—as an AAU world record holder, he once turned down a victory trip to Belgium to help the Bulldogs clinch second in their conference—his silver medal in the 1968 Olympics, and his untimely death at 45 of heart disease, a condition that plagued several male members of his family.
Buckingham (1945-1990) is best known in some quarters as the older brother of rock superstar Lindsey Buckingham. Yet during the four years of his elite career, Greg Buckingham was, in Sports Illustrated’s words, “the dominant swimming personality in the United States—quite possibly the world as well.”
Raised in Atherton, the son of a coffee processor, Buckingham set five national interscholastic swim records for Menlo-Atherton High School but took no part in the elite age-group circuit that produces most world and Olympic champions. As a Menlo-Atherton High School junior in 1962, Buckingham was named the Redwood City Tribune’s Sequoia District Athlete of the Year.
His rise in the sport stemmed from a chance meeting with Santa Clara Swim Club Coach George Haines in late 1964. Buckingham’s training habits were erratic, and he had recently dropped out of San Jose State. Yet something prompted him to ask Haines, one of the world’s top coaches, if he would train him.
Don Schollander, younger but already an Olympian, was an eyewitness. Buckingham told Sports Illustrated, “I went to George and said I wanted to swim for him. 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.”
In fact, Haines said yes, but not before lecturing Buckingham on his history of inconsistent behavior. “I told him, ‘If you screw up, you’re out of here,’” Haines told the Sacramento Bee.
The lanky, handsome 6’ 3” swimmer began shaving tenths off his times. As a Bulldog in 1965 under Coach Richard Donner, he broke the U.S. community college mark in the 200 IM with 1:58.1, the 500-yard freestyle with 4:49.2, and in the 1650-yard freestyle, more than 30 seconds off the previous record.
He took 14.5 units of coursework at CSM while swimming five hours a day, first in the afternoon for Donner and then each evening for Haines at Santa Clara.
Donner loved Buckingham’s personality. “He’s a 100 percent gentleman as well as a swimmer,” he told the San Matean, “a credit to any team in or out of the pool.”
Greg Buckingham in July 1968, after setting a world record in the 400 individual medley. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Buckingham, center, is named CSM’s inaugural Athlete of the Year in 1965, the year he set four U.S. community college records. The selection was announced by athletic director Herb Hudson, left, and San Matean editor John Morrill, right. Photo: CSM Historical Photo Collection
Buckingham broke the U.S. record in the 400-meter individual medley at the Amateur Athletic Union nationals with a time of 4:08.9. In total, Buckingham claimed four AAU titles in freestyle and individual medley. After the 400-meter record, the AAU invited him to Belgium but Buckingham turned them down, saying he would prefer to swim in a key Bulldog meet against Merritt College, where CSM hoped to clinch second place in the Golden Gate Conference.
In July 1966, he set a world record for the men’s 200 IM with 2:13.1. He bettered this record that August with 2:12.4 and again in August 1967 with 2:11.3.
Buckingham began competing for Stanford in 1967, carrying the then-Indians to their first NCAA swimming championship in March. His victories in that NCAA meet included U.S. records in the individual 200- and 500-yard freestyles (1:41.3 and 4:37.0 respectively) and the anchorman’s share of Stanford’s record 6:54.5 in the 800-yard freestyle relay. At 21—relatively old in the sport—he became U.S. swimming’s breakout star.
“I think I have an advantage over a lot of the other guys,” he told Sports Illustrated. “Swimmers like Schollander have been competing for years at the top. You can take it physically, but after a while it burns you out mentally.
“I’m even looking forward to the day when I can give it up.”
Nonetheless, he set another world record, this time in the men’s 400 IM with a 4:45.1 swim in Santa Clara in July 1968.
He also distinguished himself in the Olympic Games that October in Mexico City. They were controversial because of the high altitude, which was feared to, and did, adversely affect the times of all but the fastest events. In a year of worldwide demand for social change, the games also became controversial over the Black Power salutes of U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the medal podium.
Entered in the 200- and 400-meter individual medley, Buckingham won the silver medal in the 200 with a time of 2:13.0, contributing to a U.S. sweep of the event. He was judged to have finished fourth in the 400, though his clock time of 4:51.4 was the same as the bronze medalist, Michael Holthaus of West Germany.
Buckingham married his wife, Daryl, and had two kids, son Cooper and daughter Cory. He died of a sudden heart attack while working in his San Carlos back yard in 1990. His father, Morris, had succumbed to the same fate at age 54.
In addition to being named CSM’s first Athlete of the Year, Greg Buckingham is an inaugural member of the CSM Athletics Hall of Fame and the San Mateo County Athletic Hall of Fame.
