Mike Petersen grew up in Rock Island and attended Grant Elementary School and Franklin Jr. High before moving on to high school.  At age eleven, he joined the YMCA swim team, and that was the start of his swimming career.

After high school, Mike attended the University of Iowa on a swimming scholarship.  In the '60s, the AAU was not yet well organized, and no money was provided to athletes.  They were all on their own.  In the summer of 1963, however, Olympic development events were held across the U.S., including one at Rock Island's Long View Park.  Mike won the 400-meter freestyle event.  Unfortunately, his swimming career was put on hold about six months later when he came down with pleurisy.

After graduating from Iowa in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in foreign languages and literature, he went to Montreal, Canada to work on a graduate degree in French education.  He ended up teaching English as a foreign language in a French-speaking high school.

That same year, Mike became engaged to Beckie Ogden (RIHS '65).  He and Beckie met years earlier at the Long View Park swimming pool, and I think Mike was smiling as he recalled how she was wearing a yellow and black striped swim suit.  He called it her bumble bee suit, says she stung his heart and that he never recovered.  

In March 1968, Mike returned to the Quad Cities from Canada and entered the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant.  In May, when he had a break, he and Beckie were married.  After spending a week at the Wisconsin Dells, Mike flew back to Ft. Benning, Georgia for parachute training.  Beckie remained in the Quad Cities to complete nursing school at Moline Public Hospital.  She graduated a month later and joined Mike at Ft. Benning.

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