A fundraising effort to bring back the Michigan State University swimming and diving program got a huge boost with a $500,000 pledge from Amanda Mercer in memory of her late husband, Todd Mercer, a 1985 Brighton High School grad and swimmer who died of cancer in 2021.
Until just last month, Todd Mercer held Livingston County’s oldest school record with a freestyle time of 1:43.43 that earned him seventh place in the 1985 Class A meet.
The Mercers met when Todd was captain of MSU’s men’s swim team and Amanda was captain of MSU’s women’s swim team.
MSU eliminated the swim and dive programs after the 2020-2021 season for what it said was economic reasons, and an effort to raise funds to resurrect them was started.
MSU Athletic Director Bill Beekman cited the cost of improving swimming facilities, including building a new outdoor pool, and swimming and diving being the least successful sport at MSU in the last 25 years in his eyes as reasons the program was cut. (You can read the State News reporting here.)
Amanda Mercer said that her pledge to Battle for Spartan Swim and Dive is “conditional on bringing the program back (obviously), and the school’s commitment to build an indoor 50M competition pool.”
“The school has indicated these are both very real possibilities,” she said, “and we will have an answer by summer.”
In addition to swimming, Todd Mercer loved mountain biking, and he authored the “Bike and Brew America” series of books. In the midwest edition, he wrote about biking the Potawatomi Trail in the Pinckney Recreation Area and then relaxing at the Ann Arbor Brewing Co. He and the books were profiled in the local paper in 2002.
Amanda Mercer battled back from breast cancer in 2012, finishing up her treatment just days before setting a new world’s record for a group of women swimming the English Channel.
“We finished in 18 hours and 55 minutes — breaking the World Record by four minutes,” she said in an interview. “Setting the World Record was incredible and a bit surreal, but the real triumph for me personally was that I was able to get back in that water.
She also wrote an essay about it.
An attorney, Amanda Mercer is also founder and CEO of Museum Edutainment, and the mobile app BARDEUM, an audiovisual digital museum tour guide.
If you’d like to make a donation to Battle for Spartan Swim and Dive, click here.
PHOTO: Todd Mercer, April 5, 2002, edition of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus
