The year was 1971. The Baltimore Colts were champions of Super Bowl V. Joe Frazier was heavyweight champion after winning the first of three epic fights against Muhammad Ali. The Penn men's basketball team was 28-1 and ranked in the top 10 nationally.
And it was the last time a school other than Princeton or Harvard won an outright men's Ivy League swimming dual-meet championship - the 1971 Quakers accomplished it.
This year, though, might see the end of the two powerhouses' reign at the top of the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League standings - which includes Navy as well as the Ivy League. Cornell, which has already defeated both Princeton and Harvard this season, appears poised to become the first to wrest the title away since Penn 35 years ago.
Cornell (6-0, 5-0 EISL), before this year, had never defeated Princeton and Harvard in the same season, and the impact of this accomplishment is not lost on its swimmers.
"It's pretty special," Cornell senior co-captain Mike Smit said. "It's just a really cool way to finish up your career."
Smit, along with his senior teammates, have come a long way since their fifth-place finish three years ago.
"Based on our freshman year, I did not think we would have a chance to beat Harvard and Princeton," Smit said. "We've been working hard for four years and it kind of just came together."
Cornell coach Joe Lucia mostly attributes his team's success to the current senior class. Besides Smit - who won three individual events at last year's EISL championships - this group includes Dave McKechnie, the reigning EISL champion in the 100-yard breaststroke, and co-captain Brad Newman, who placed in all three of his individual events at the meet.
"It was mostly the luck of recruiting," Lucia said. "We just happened to get some very good guys to come here and it worked out."
Penn coach Mike Schnur has a different take: he attributes this luck to Lucia's recent emphasis on recruiting Canadian swimmers. Many of the Big Red's top swimmers hail from north of the border, including McKechnie, Newman and Newman's younger brother, sophomore standout Wes Newman.
"They have a small group of stud swimmers - five or six guys who are absolutely awesome," Schnur said.
Cornell's luck in recruiting is what the other Ivy League programs have been lacking in trying to keep up with Harvard and Princeton, but Lucia says history is the biggest hurdle to challenging the two perennial juggernauts.
Nevertheless, Schnur said that other Ivy League teams can repeat Cornell's success - including the Quakers, who haven't finished better than sixth in the standings in ten years.
Though the Big Red may go on to win the dual-meet title this season, both Lucia and Schnur say they are far from being crowned Ivy League champions, which will be determined at the EISL championship meet in February.
"We're a great dual-meet team, but I wouldn't go as far to say that we're the best overall swimming team," Lucia said.
Because of the meet's championship-style format - in which the top 24 places in each race earn points - the much-deeper Harvard and Princeton teams are still heavy favorites to take the title.
However, Cornell can still make history in dual-meet competition. Potentially standing in their way are Columbia and Yale, who both have the potential to ruin the Big Red's perfect EISL season.
"Yale is going to be very difficult for us in the dual meet because they match up well with us," Lucia said.
Another obstacle facing the team is the long layoff over winter break - its next meet is January 12-13. But both Lucia and Smit are confident that the break won't derail their dream season.
"We'll be ready," Smit said.
