SMU Hall Of Fame: Rich Saeger And The Choice That Shaped His Life
Sep 23 | Men's Swimming & Diving, Hall of Fame
Swimming is in Rich Saeger's blood.
But while his family helped lead him into the pool, it was SMU that helped shape who he became in and out of the water.
Saeger was already a world-class swimmer when he arrived at SMU. He had won a gold medal at the 1982 World Championships, another at the 1983 Pan American Games and would eventually become part of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, winning gold in Los Angeles.
At SMU, he added 16 All-American honors, three Southwest Conference individual championships and an NCAA runner-up finish.
SMU placed in the Top 7 at NCAAs each of Saeger's four seasons on the Hilltop.
Even with all of that success, the call from SMU athletic director Damon Evans still caught Saeger by surprise.
"It was honestly surprising," Saeger said. "I just wasn't really thinking about it, wasn't on my radar. It's just going to be a nice thing to be able to do and a very good reason to get a bunch of ex-swimmers, and I have some other friends that are still living in Dallas, to kind of get together and recollect a little bit."
His dad swam at Cornell and his older brother was at the University of Florida when it was Rich's turn.
"It was just one of those things. It was kind of a family affair all the way through," Saeger said. "From age, probably, 12 on, I didn't really do any other sports. I just always had an eye for trying to go to a college to swim and try to make national teams, so I was lucky."
When it came to making the decision on college, Saeger's three finalists were Stanford, UCLA and SMU.
On his visit to Stanford, things just didn't feel right. It wasn't a good fit. But UCLA, the top-ranked team in the country coming off a national championship, seemed to check all of the boxes and Saeger seemed set to be a Bruin. Until a conversation with his mom made him think about his visit to SMU again.
That's when it clicked.
"Everything on my recruiting trip to SMU was much better," Saeger said. "I liked the coaching staff better. I liked the kids on the team better. I liked the city of Dallas better. I liked the business school opportunity better. It just all kind of fit."
Part of that was the quality of swimmers Saeger would be competing with every day in practice and with every meet. It was also a group of swimmers with similar experiences.
That was clear from the start. Saeger's roommate freshman year was Ricardo Prado (SMU HOF '17), who broke a world record and won a gold medal at the same World Championships.
"We were both right off of that meet going into SMU," Saeger said. "He was a freshman at that time, so it was a very fun and exciting time. Then there was one other guy named Mark Rhodenbaugh that was there. We were, I don't know, probably three of the top 15 recruits at the time. We all ended up going to SMU, so it was a fun time to be there."
There were also veterans like Steve Lundquist (SMU HOF '09), who won a pair of gold medals at those World Championships and would go on to win a pair of gold medals at the 1984 Olympics. They were there to push each other.
And that's what made them all better.
"My dad always used to say we just want to be around other people that are competitive and go to better meets," Saeger said. "And it was the same thing when we got there that fall, the practices were just crazy, people going after each other, trying to beat each other. I even remember doing sets of 200 repeats with Lundquist the first week I was there."
That's what Saeger wanted, and that's what he got.
"It was everything that I thought it was going to be," Saeger said. "But I was very, very lucky to be around that, and we had a very good team at that time too."
Saeger got a quick introduction to college competitions while competing for SMU in the Southwest Conference.
The meets were intense, especially on the road, whether it was experiencing Lubbock, fans in Razorback hats yelling "Woo Pig Sooie," or his first trip to College Station.
"We had a dual meet with Texas every year, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, all of them," Saeger said. "We went down to Texas A&M for the first dual meet against them, and it was down there, so on the road. They're yelling at us and all this stuff. They were so excited, they thought they were gonna beat us. And then it comes down to this last relay, and thank goodness we won the relay. But I'll never forget, I got on the bus, and I'm like, 'Man, I never knew how much an Aggie hated the Mustangs.'"
The competition didn't stop when Saeger left the Hilltop for the international stage — and it didn't get easier when he returned from the Olympics.
"You're just going from one meet to the next, and, obviously, there's no drop-off relative to the practices or what I did at SMU," Saeger said. "If it was some other school where they just didn't have the quality of the people and a Top 7 NCAA-talent team, yeah, then you could say, 'Oh gosh, I came back from the Olympics and I felt like I had lesser quality practice.' But it really was never like that. The training, the coaches, all could have coached anybody up to going to the Olympics."
While Saeger had plenty of success in his individual events, there was always something about the relays. They usually capped off the meet and could be the difference between winning and losing.
"It almost always comes down to relays, and I always tell people that," Saeger said. "I mean, you can think about what you did individually, but it's the relays that you remember, standing behind the blocks and kind of being nervous, and seeing where it goes."
The relays would also bring out the best in the swimmers. Something about swimming for the other people on the relay gave them a little bit extra.
"There's just an added adrenaline effect of being on a relay that just makes it that much more exciting," Saeger said. "Again, the individual stuff is fine, but the relays just take it to a different level. And it always seemed like you could always swim a little bit faster, have a little bit more energy, give a little bit more if you're on a relay with other guys."
Even though there was plenty of swimming success during his time at SMU, ultimately Saeger's time was about the people — whether that was the people he swam with or the friends he made outside the pool.
"You kind of remember the people more than you do the races and individual stuff," Saeger said. "I remember practices as much as I remember going to the meets and the really highs of all that stuff a little bit. It was kind of being around a lot of quality people. I felt very at home in terms of the people, the network, and all that stuff at SMU more than I did other places."
Or the people he met at SMU outside of the pool.
"It's funny, by the end of it, I probably had the same amount of outside swimmer friends as I did swimmer friends," Saeger said. "That part of it is something that I always appreciated too. It wasn't just the swim team; it was being part of the rest of the community within Dallas and doing stuff with the people a little bit."
And ultimately, that's what gave Saeger a career after swimming, as he ended up in California a handful of years after he picked SMU over two West Coast schools.
"I was fortunate too, a guy that I worked for my senior year when I was there helped me get an interview out here in California, in Newport Beach," Saeger said. "That really helped get my first job. So that's even another part of SMU, with the network and community, enabled me to get a job. That's one of the big benefits, right? The community and the SMU alumni network is so strong."
He then got to witness his daughter, Kendall, enjoy some of the same experiences as a member of the women's cross country and track and field teams. She was a three-year captain for both squads.
"It was great. It was a lot of fun for her to be there and be part of it and be a Division I athlete at SMU," Saeger said. "She was very happy and had a good time. She still has friends back there, so that's a lot of fun for her too. We've been very fortunate."
He was back in Dallas a couple of years ago for the Hall of Fame induction of John Ross (SMU HOF '24), who was a three-time SWC champion and All-American tennis player at the same time that Saeger swam.
Now it will be Saeger who is honored in his return to Dallas.
"I've always said I made the right choice then, and I could say the right choice for years," Saeger said. "Every time I come back to Dallas, I'm like, 'I know why I made that decision, and it was the right one.'"
The inductees will be recognized at the annual Hall of Fame Banquet and Induction Ceremony presented by Westdale Asset Management on Friday, October 16 in Armstrong Fieldhouse on the SMU Campus. For additional information or for tickets to the SMU Athletics Hall of Fame Banquet, click here.
