[3] At the Connecticut State Swimming Championship in New Haven in March 1950, he swam third for the Middletown High Tigers in the winning 200-yard freestyle relay, recording a combined team time of 1:43.4.
[5] At the Connecticut Central Interscholastic Swimming Championships in February 1950, his 200-yard freestyle relay team from Middlebrook High won the event and set a new record of 1:47.2, exciting the crowd in a very close race with rival Manchester High, who were overall winners in the meet.
[2][3][7][8] After graduating Middletown High,[9] he attended Springfield College, under Head Coach Charles E. Silvia.
[12] He remained at Springfield to earn a master's degree in Physical Education and coached their Freshman Swimming Team from 1957 to 1966, which aligned with his own professional goals.
Familiar with Bob Muir and the Williams College swimming program, Samuelson agreed to become a candidate for the coaching job.
In 1970 Williams became a coed University, and Samuelson, as a Swim coach and the Director of Physical Education helped the school transition to a fully coeducational institution.
[14] During Samuelson's tenure as head coach, the Williams Men's team were New England Champions 14 times with 8 consecutive championships, and he mentored 285 All-Americans.
[2] One of his outstanding women swimmers in the mid-1980's was Joan Horgan, who in her career held five NCAA Championship titles, and served as a Williams team captain in the 1986-87 swim year.
[8] Continuing to improve in competition, in 1982 the Women's team won their first NCAA Division III championships and gained national rather than exclusively regional recognition.
The team won the NCAA Division III again in 1983, showing dominance in the sport with back-to-back national championships.
Nonetheless, Samuelson's approach was to always keep the fun in swimming, and to let the team members feel like a family rather than a pressured squad of military recruits.
[1] When Carl Samuelson as Swim Coach, and Nancy, who served as the Health Center's Medical Secretary, both retired in 1999, alumni established a scholarship fund in their honor.