Northwestern picked Olympic medal-winning swimmer Matt Grevers as homecoming Grand Marshal “to celebrate his successes and celebrate the Olympic spirit,” a university official said Tuesday.
Grevers, who won an individual silver and two relay golds in Beijing in August, came on the radar of the Northwestern Alumni Association during his historic summer, said Katie Wesner, assistant director for student services at the association, which chooses the Homecoming head each year.
The university’s athletics department helped Wesner track down Grevers after his Beijing trip.
“We didn’t have to do too much convincing,” Wesner said. “He’s very proud of his Northwestern ties.”
A Lake Forest, Ill. native, Grevers was named the Chicago Sun-Times Athlete of the Year as he led Lake Forest High School to its first state title. He became a target of “every top swimming program in the country,” according to a Northwestern statement. But he turned away Texas, Arizona and California for Northwestern, where he would win three individual titles.
Northwestern did have Olympic swimmers in the 1920s and another graduate in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, swimming coach Bob Groseth said. “But in terms of winning medals in swimming, Matt has been the best so far.”
Groseth, who has been the coach for twenty years, credits Grevers for the team’s recent successes.
“Since Matt came here as a freshman, in the last five years we’ve been in the top 12. Even though he wasn’t part of the team last season, his legacy helped us reach that goal last year. Matt really put us over the top.”
As a freshman during the 2003-04 season Grevers broke three school records and and won individual All-American honors for three performances. The next year he became Northwestern’s first national swimming champion since 1958, taking home the NCAA championship in the 100 meter backstroke. He repeated the feat the next year, before becoming the Wildcats’ first three-time individual champion since 1930 as a senior.
Wesner said Grevers’ success has shown that sports have a place at Northwestern.
“We have so many incredible alumni that have come out of this university,” she said, adding, “I think athletics is an important part of that as well.”
Though Grevers will lead the parade on Oct. 17, many Northwestern students interviewed for this story don’t consider him to be the main event.
“I’ll probably go to just the football game,” McCormick junior Greg Hoffman said.
The night before that Saturday’s game against Purdue, the school marching band will hold a pep rally in Cahn Auditorium. The parade, led by Grevers, will start afterwards at 9 p.m.
Swimming coach Groseth wasn’t surprised that Grevers was chosen.
“I mean, how many Olympians do we have? And how many have won three Olympic medals?”