By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Contributor
Editor’s note: Randazzo first met Carl Quigley on the St. Francis pool deck in 2012, which launched his interest in (and reporting on) water polo.
Ending a seminal chapter in American water polo, this past week St. Francis College announced that Cathal “Carl” Quigley, currently the college’s Assistant Athletic Director and Director of Aquatics, will retire after 47 years at the New York City-based institution. When Quigley arrived in Brooklyn Heights in 1971 as a freshman, the St. Francis men’s water polo team had achieved regional success but was not known outside a small community of Eastern schools. Recruited from the men’s swim team, Quigley became a fixture for Terriers polo, first as a player from 1971-74 and then as head coach from 1975 until 2009.
It was in his role as coach of both the college team and as organizer of various age-group clubs that the Far Rockaway resident changed the course of East coast polo. As the Terriers navigated the various fractured alliances and disconnected conference alignments that were the norm for Eastern polo in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, Quigley was tireless in his pursuit of success at an institution whose enrollment to this day distinguishes it as one of the nation’s smallest NCAA varsity polo programs.
Natural rivalries with local power Queens College and Catholic schools Fordham and Iona were expanded over time to include Ivy League institutions Brown, Harvard and Princeton and academic powerhouses Johns Hopkins and MIT.
But it was Mike Schofield’s Navy program that presented Quigley with both his biggest challenge and most enduring success. With access to some of the nation’s top aquatics athletes, Navy dominated the East for two decades, capturing 10 NCAA tournament berths from 1990 to 2009. But, beginning with a new century, St. Francis looked to upset the pecking order, dropping a heartbreaking 13-12 loss to Navy in the 2000 Easterns Championship.
Redemption was five years in the making but it did eventually arrive; a gritty 10-9 win—achieved by erasing a 3-goal deficit in the second half—gave the Terriers their first-ever NCAA berth.
Quigley’s accomplishments extend beyond polo, though the sport was never far from his heart. A member of the St. Francis College Hall of Fame, his men’s team won six Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Northern Division Championships and five Eastern College Athletic Association (ECAC) Championships.
Photo Courtesy: St. Francis Athletics
Quigley coached 17 All Americans and the men’s water polo team led the nation academically, sporting the highest GPA among men’s water polo teams four times from 2000-2007. Of note, two members of his squads—Tamas Bakacs and Gergely Fabian—won prestigious NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarships and two of were selected SFC Graduation day valedictorians; Bakacs in 2000 and Andrija Vrdoljak in 2006.
Swimming World contacted three associates of Quigley’s from his coaching career. Wolf Wigo, who played for Stanford and represented the U.S. in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics, started his illustrious career in water polo at St. Francis Water Polo Club, an age-group program that Quigley oversaw for more than four decades.
Srdjan Mihaljevic played under Quigley from 1997-2001, and served as an assistant coach and head coach for the Terrier men’s team and as an assistant coach for the women’s team.
A contemporary of Quigley’s, for 27 years Edward “Ted” Bresnahan has been head coach of the Johns Hopkins men’s water polo program.
– Wolf Wigo, Head Coach, UC Santa Barbara men’s water polo team; Co-Founder, Kap7
Carl was one of my first coaches started when I was 12-years-old. He was always extremely enthusiastic about coaching; he got in the pool with us and helped us with all our technique. Carl really did it for the love of the game.
He taught a lot of young inner-city kids who were new to water polo all about the fundamentals of the sport. Carl has continued to remain passionate about the sport and was always involved for the right reasons. He has done amazing things with the St. Francis program as well as the youth program that trains there. The success of the St. Francis College program over the years is a direct result of Carl‘s hard work and dedication to the sport of water polo.
– Srdjan Mihaljevic on a lifelong friendship with his former coach and mentor.
What to say about Carl? The funny thing is, when I think about Carl these days, water polo is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind.
That’s not to say that water polo and especially water polo at St Francis are not a huge part of what Carl is and what he represent.
It’s just that he is so much more to me and to many more people, especially SFC students who were privileged enough to get to know Carl and work / collaborate with him over the year.
Carl is a teacher, a mentor, a benefactor, a compassionate soul, always looking to help.
And when it comes to water polo he is a coach, visionary, sport ambassador… but more than that, he is one of those last romantics of the sports, who genuinely enjoys coaching kids, or who admires a beauty of a well-executed cross cage pass or a joy of a back end goal from 2m action play. He truly is one of the last Don Quixote(s) of water polo, that is personas who made us to fall in love with the sport in the first place and who (naively at times) remind us what the game should have all been about in the first place.
On a personal note, he is a friend in a true sense of the word. There are no words to express my gratitude for all the things Carl has done for me personally, and more importantly for so many others over the years. The doors he opened for all of us, allowed us to chase our dreams and pursue opportunities and happiness, which for many may have not been there otherwise. For that and more I’m forever grateful and could not wish him more joy and happiness as he takes the next steps in planning his next career- because retirement is just not happening with that guy.
Carl Quigley with wife Chris. Photo Courtesy: Lisa T Yen
– Ted Bresnahan, on how he and Carl forced Navy, Brown and Princeton to include the Terriers and the Blue Jays into the “big boy” pool of the Eastern Championships.
About 20 to 25 years ago—it might have been earlier, it might have been later; I’m getting old!—St. Francis, Hopkins, George Washington, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, St. Peter’s, Villanova were members of the “B” conference. We would have playoffs, and it would usually end up that Hopkins would play St. Francis in the final. And they were always good matches.
We went to an East Coast coaches’ conference in Valley Forge, outside of Philadelphia. On the agenda—Carl motioned it and I seconded—was a proposal about joining the “A” and “B” conferences together. There was a lot of banter back and forth about why we shouldn’t join the “A” conference because some of the more powerful teams would have to spend money to play lesser teams, that they would easily beat.
We showed then geographically how if we put tournaments together they could still have their good competition and play us. After a half hour of hemming and hawing, with Carl and I saying how many Division I teams we’re defeating, before the vote some of the major DI coaches came to us and said: “If this happens, you have to put up or shut up.”
Three years after we were voted in, Carl and I were at an Easterns Championship up at Brown. The Terriers were warming up, and I brought my team into the pool. I walked over to Carl and said “Hey, how are you doing?” Then I added: “I guess we put up rather than shut up, because we’re both here at the Easterns.”
And we’ve been in it ever since.
Yay :p
He a great guy – good friend
Hi Bob:
Thank you for your comments. Having known Carl for a relatively brief six years (!), I whole-heartedly agree!
Your correspondent
Great job Carl.
Hi Mark:
Yes, I’d agree – and I have a feeling that Carl’s work in water polo is far from done!
Your correspondent
I’ve been privileged to know Carl as a friend, neighbor community volunteer for years. Fascinating guy with a big heart, always ready to help. Congratulations on a great career in and around the pool!