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Mike Stamm, an Olympic gold medalist swimmer and a member of Crawford High School’s Hall of Fame, died June 24 in Costa Rica following a brief hospitalization. He was 73.
Stamm swam the lead leg — the backstroke — on the United States winning 4×100 medley relay team in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. That team, which included Tom Bruce (breaststroke), Mark Spitz (butterfly) and anchor Jerry Heidenreich (freestyle), won gold in 3 minutes, 48.16 seconds, beating Germany and Canada.
Stamm won silver medals in the 100-meter backstroke and 200-meter backstroke in Munich. His time of 57.70 in the 100 broke the world record, but Germany’s Roland Matthes won the event in 56.58.
Stamm had set the world record in the 200-meter breaststroke in 1970 and the 100-meter breaststroke only to have Matthes reclaim them.
Stamm was born Michael Kostich in San Pedro and started swimming at age 5, honing his skills in his grandparents’ pool. His mother married Roland Stamm, who later adopted Mike and moved the family to San Diego in 1963.
As a youth, he swam for the Coronado-Navy Swim Association, training under two-time Olympic champion Mike Troy.
Stamm graduated from Crawford High School, where he won six San Diego Section CIF individual championships, set every school record and was an All-American.
Crawford, which was coached by Dick Draz, won the San Diego Section boys championships five years in a row from 1968 to 1972.
Stamm went on to earn All-American honors at Indiana University, where he swam for legendary coach James “Doc” Counsilman.
The Hoosiers won four Big Ten Conference championships and three NCAA titles in Stamm’s time at Indiana. He won NCAA championships in the 100 and 200 backstroke in 1973, setting American records.
Stamm was inducted into the Indiana University Hall of Fame in 1993 and the San Diego Hall of Champions in 1978.
He took a break from swimming and earned a degree in biological sciences from Indiana, but returned to swimming in 1976 at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Los Angeles. However, he finished 10th in the 100 backstroke and failed to make the team, ending his swimming career.
Stamm then worked a variety of jobs, including director of the swim club in Hilton Head, S.C. and director of the Mike Stamm Art Gallery in La Jolla’s Village Hotel.
He worked at several restaurants in the San Francisco area and, as a chef, helped launch a culinary program in Oakland.
Stamm also worked as a lifeguard, a cashier and a loan officer.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help defray the costs of cremation and to help pay for his daughter Mikhaila and grandson Rust to travel from Ireland to California.
Celebrations of Life will be held in August or September in San Diego, Oakland and Laytonville, according to the GoFundMe page.
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