Rhodes Athletic Hall of Fame
One of the top quarterbacks in Rhodes history, two-time team captain Dan Swanstrom held program records in single-season passing yards and yards of total offense for almost 15 years.
Swanstrom took over the leaderboard during his playing days after breaking four of Hall of Famer Craig Solomon’s records. He held the career passing yards and total offense records from his senior season (2004) until 2017. At the time of his induction, Swanstrom is second all-time at Rhodes in career total offense (8,347 yards) and third all-time in passing touchdowns (55). His sophomore and junior seasons he threw for 2,622 and 2,634 yards respectively, and during his junior campaign he totaled 2,947 yards of total offense, the seventh-highest average in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference history and 12th-highest in NCAA Division III.
He earned second team All-SCAC honors his sophomore and senior seasons. Swanstrom was named the 2003 SCAC Co-Offensive Player of the Year, one of four Rhodes players to ever earn SCAC Player of the Year honors. He held two of the top three single-game total offense marks until 2017, with 488 yards against Sewanee in 2002 and 422 yards against Rose-Hulman in 2004.
His senior year he was a finalist for the prestigious Gagliardi Award for the most outstanding Division III football player, one of only 10 Division III players selected nationally, and one of only two Rhodes football players ever selected as a finalist. In SCAC career history, Swanstrom ranks fifth in total yards of offense (8,347), sixth in total passing yards (7,540), seventh in total yards of offense per game (214), eighth in career passing touchdowns (55), and 12th in total passing yards per game (193.3).
“In 35 years of coaching college football, Dan was the most competitive and coachable player that I have ever been around,” says Joe White, former Lynx head coach. “He loved the game with an unmatched passion, and would do whatever it took to win! His preparation was intense every day of the week, and he willed himself to achieve. Even when we added a play action pass vs. Trinity and Dan struggled with the footwork all week, it was executed flawlessly when called in the game. When I asked him about it afterwards, he said he walked through it 100 times at the hotel the night before. My sons call Dan my favorite son.”
Swanstrom also played in the German Football League with the Darmstadt Diamonds after graduation, and continues his football career as a coach to this day. Following coaching stints at Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Redlands, Swanstrom has been the head coach at Ithaca College since 2017, going 16-3 with two Liberty League regular season championships. His Penn team won two Ivy League Championships, and Redlands was the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion. During his six-year tenure at Johns Hopkins, the Blue Jays won four Centennial Conference championships, going 48-10.
In recognition for his achievements on the gridiron and continued success as a coach, we are honored to induct Daniel Swanstrom into the Rhodes College Athletic Hall of Fame this 15th day of November, 2019.
