Fordham’s Bill Harris on New York City Water Polo: “We Just Had Fun!”

BRONX, NY. There’s no more debonair devotee to New York City water polo than Bill Harris, current assistant at Fordham University who for 16 season [2004 - 2019] served as Rams’ head men’s coach.

To sit with Harris—which I did a few weeks ago following the Rams dismantling of Navy at the Francis B. Messmore Aquatic Center—is to hear the rich history of New York City’s schoolboy polo programs, and how Harris, now in his 70’s and looking trim and fit, always seems to be around many of the city’s frustrating few great moments for the sport.

One topic was the ascent of Fordham polo to the top spot in the East; a 12-9 win last month over Princeton—previously the coast’s dominant program—pushed the Rams (15-0; 7-0 MAWPC) up the ranks of the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s men’s varsity polls. In the ensuing weeks they’ve continued to climb, reaching fifth in this week’s poll, the highest ever for a Fordham team as well as one of the best rankings ever for an Eastern program.

But to talk with Harris is to take in the full breadth of NYC polo history, not just the Rams’ recent rise as the Beasts of the East.

Harris was a schoolboy phenom at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn—back in the 1960s when the celebrated Catholic institution had a water polo team. His tales of those times as a Lion polo athlete, his reminiscences of playing with his brother Charlie—like Harris, a USAWP Hall of Famer—on the New York Athletic Club teams of the 1960’s, ‘70’s and 80’s, and the absolute joy water polo has brought to his life are worth recording. And reading.

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- When was the last time Fordham beat Princeton? [CONTEXT: Princeton had a 19-1 record versus Fordham until the Rams victory on September 27, the first Fordham win over the Tigers since an 11-10 win on October 19, 2019 when Harris was the head coach].

I was coaching. It was the same referee that we had today (Jamie Wolf). We beat them in a barn-burner; one of these things with two seconds left Dusty [Litvak, Princeton coach] flipped out. And we did beat them but it was a long time ago.

- It’s a changing of the guard; Fordham has now unseated Princeton as the East’s best team.

These two guys [Fordham coaches Brian Bacharach and Ilija Duretic] are terrific. Louie Nicolao [Navy coach] told me: “You guys have a shot at getting into the Final Four this year.” That’s a stretch.

- This change is due to Brian and great recruiting…

Brian is a great coach. Recruiting is what he does.

- But the shift is real!

The shift is one game. We haven’t established what [Mike] Schofield or Princeton did. Navy, my God. It’s amazing what Schofield did.

[Achy Knees and All, Mike Schofield is Still A Fixture at the Navy Open]

- I recently spoke with Coach Schofield. But it’s a different sport now because of all the foreign-born athletes who are playing NCAA men’s and women’s polo.

We have five guys who speak Hungarian. Some of the guys are American Hungarians [Csongor Bartuszek], but we also have guys like our goalie [Kristof Magony], who’s really talented in my opinion, speaks English, Italian, Hungarian—four or five languages. 

- Fordham has become a destination for international water polo players, which is a change. The class of 1981 was being celebrated this weekend, a bunch of local guys who loved polo.

We had Ned Kelly here last night. He’s one of my best friends in water polo. He’s a wonderful guy [and] a great player, I mean ridiculous records here, scoring 13 goals [vs. Villanova, October, 1972].

- What happens to the American kid who goes to Greenwich and wants to play in college and is not good enough for DI competition? You have Mark Katsev from Brooklyn who’s now a captain for Fordham…

[Katsev] used to drive to Greenwich, for the NYAC to Travers Island and just adores water polo. He’s graduating; he found a niche. He doesn’t play a lot; he’s not like some of our other kids who go 40:6 for the 100M freestyle and they’re 6-3. You have “Big Jim” I call him [James Oriskovich]. He’s 6-9 and 280 lbs. He’s a monster. And he’s American, a transfer from Santa Barbara.

And that’s a presence right there; he’s not Terry Schroeder but you don’t push a guy that size around.

- This year is Fordham’s opportunity to go deep in the NCAA playoffs and perhaps make a Final Four for the first time ever.

We’re for real. First, our target is one practice at a time. We don’t overlook… even this game with Navy the handicappers [would say]: you’re gonna beat these guys. I’ve been around enough to know, we had a hard game last night, we put a lot of energy into it. At one point we were tied…

- Navy scored four straight to make it 8-7, Fordham leading.

I’ve been in those games many years ago, playing for the New York AC, there’s a team [you’re playing] and you say: “Oh God, I’m gonna have to go up and down the pool. We’re gonna win.” Our coach Ed Jaworski was so exasperated. It was torture for him. He was a 1952 Olympian. He played at Columbia. World War II broke out and he went and fought in the war. He came back and played for the New York AC—he was in the ’52 Olympics and the ’59 Pan American Games. 

We had Hungarians who came to New York City out of the revolution, when I was 15 – 16 and my brother Charlie was 20 I was playing with the real deal guys. 

- Talking about the past of New York City water polo puts into perspective how much has recently changed. St. Francis College’s team is gone.

My God that was a tragedy!

- Your team and your school…

And they sold the building with the pool in it! And then I get phone calls [asking] if I’d like to donate.

Have you ever heard of a school called Bishop Loughlin? 

- I have! You went to Bishop Loughlin and played water polo.

There’s a lot of hidden names here. There’s a guy named Dennis Christy who also went to St. Francis. There’s Charlie Gulotta who played for Fordham. There’s myself who played for St. Francis. A guy named Tommy Walsh, a goalie, who also played for St. Francis. All those guys I mentioned were playing for the New York AC. They were good, solid players

- Were you playing for NYAC in high school?

No, our coach, God bless him, was Harry Benvenuto. Opposite the Barclays Center, which didn't exist in those days, there was a YMCA. Benvenuto coached a team called Brooklyn Poly. They got taken apart by NYU [2014] . Benvenuto was the swim coach at Loughlin. We had the same seven guys playing at Bishop Loughlin and Harry said: You guys can play. There was a pool downstairs and one upstairs, and we started playing water polo. But there were no high school water polo teams in Brooklyn. None! Except maybe St. Francis Prep, and when we played them we would kill them.

We started to play teams like Brooklyn Poly, which wasn’t a very good team. My junior year we then went and played Yale, and we defeated them when we were juniors in high school. They had world-class swimmers! A guy named Steve Clark [Olympic gold medalist in 1964]. If I wanted to play against Clark, I had to [give him two body-lengths] because he was so Goddamn fast. Then we had a thing called the AAU Nationals. That was 1964, and we’re having a 60th anniversary at Bishop Loughlin [October 19, 2024]  because we went to University of Pennsylvania and played in the AAU Junior Nationals in water polo.

We defeated teams from West Point—these were big studs!—I was 162 pounds, Walsh the goalie was whatever, Christy was not a heavyweight. But we had been playing against men. We went to Canada and had our backsides kicked in an international tournament.

We had seven guys—and one sub. We were seniors. Some of us played [together] in high school and played four more years together at St. Francis. And when the season was out we played for the New York AC. Some of us played with each other from 1960 until 1980, 1982. 

- So you played together over a two-decade span. 

Oh, at least! I loved my teammates. The New York AC, God love them, they paid for all our expenses. We would get pretty beat up in California… I’m playing water polo with a guy who was a law professor at Columbia University. This sport to me was a whole other world, up and up.

It was a different game [back then] but it was water polo and it was with the guys from the 1948 Olympics, the ‘52 Olympics. Then we’d go to California. We’d get our butts kicked but it was real water polo. Montreal had a good team, Toronto, Hamilton, Ontario. We’d go up there for international tournaments with teams from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, France. 

- Some of the local kids who are successful, part of what’s driving them is their parents’ ambitions—not the camaraderie you get from playing with your friends.

My bond was unbelievable. We went to Canada, we’d go to Philadelphia, where there were teams - Rensselaer had a team. Queens College had a team. Harvard we would play—the first time I ever went on a plane was to go to Harvard. The bonding too was that we were skipping around [to so many places]. And we didn’t have to pay to play water polo. Harry was the coach and he would come down and let us throw the ball around and shoot. It was terrific. We’d go upstairs and maybe scrimmage Brooklyn Poly. They were not very skilled but they were really good engineers.

- That core group played together in high school then went to college at St. Francis.

St. Francis was in a sweet spot [in the 60s]; they weren’t good and all of the sudden they were. When there was no NCAA compliance I’d go to practice and get in the water [after Harris had graduated]. So did my friends. 

My brother went to St. Francis Prep. They had a great swim team, they would always win the Catholic championships. He was a big, strapping guy, and he went to St. Francis College. My parents didn’t have a lot of money; [they said]: This is where you’re gonna go. 

My brother goes to St. Francis and [he tells me]: They don’t have a swim team but they have a water polo team. He had never played a minute of water polo—and he got into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame. 

- He must have been a quick learner!

He was one of the guys playing for the New York AC along with me. He was my older brother and it was a lot of pleasure to play with him. I’d come home from a tournament and my wife would ask: How did you do? I’d say my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing so much. We just had fun.