Gus Brickner, a Charleroi steelworker, planned to start swimming earlier in the day, but it was just too cold and rainy. Instead, he entered Deep Creek Lake at the Green Glade inlet at 7: 20 a.m. Using the crawl and overhand stroke, he maintained a steady pace as he began swimming.

He passed the Glendale Bridge at 11:45 a.m. and the Deep Creek Bridge shortly after 1 p.m. When he left the water at the Deep Creek Lodge at 3:30 p.m., he had become the first person to swim the length of the lake on August 22, 1958.

“The distance has been variously estimated to be as much as sixteen miles, but this was being discounted this week by people who are acquainted with the technical construction of the lake,” The (Oakland) Republican noted.

None other than Frank Corliss, the chief surveyor of Deep Creek Lake, told the media that the distance Brickner swam was about 9.5 miles.

“He explained that the entire distance from Green Glade to the breast of the dam is eleven miles, and that when Brickner took the McHenry inlet instead of continuing to the breast of the dam he cut at least one and one-half miles from the total distance, since it is that much farther from the big bridge to the dam than it is to the end of the McHenry inlet,” The Republican reported.

It was still a first, though. Other people had tried, but none had succeeded before Brickner.

Brickner, who was 46 years old at the time, made the swim with relative ease. About 500 people lined the shore as he entered the McHenry inlet, and another 500 were waiting for him when he left the water at the Deep Creek Lodge. They peppered him with cheers, questions, and requests for pictures.

The barrel-chested swimmer showed no signs of fatigue and said, “I feel fine. I believe I could make another eight or ten miles.”

Helmuth Heise, president of the Deep Creek Lake-Garrett County Promotion Council, presented Brickner with a check for $150 (about $1,650 today) for his accomplishment.

As Brickner had swum, he was trailer by a boat with his trainers, Roger Gillot and Metro Smereczniak, in it. They had fed Brickner every hour. The specially prepared food was lumps of sugar and cheese doused in honey, coffee, or bananas to allow him to maintain a high level of energy, but also have some protein and fat.

The weather throughout the day was cloudy and drizzly, but the water temperature was a warm 70 degrees. “He said the main thing that bothered him alone the way was the wind which continually blew water into his face. He said the short, choppy waves of the lake were actually worse than the large swells which he encountered in his English Channel swim,” according to The Republican.

Brickner had tried to swim the English Channel the year before, only to have the cold saltwater cause his legs to seize up just four miles from the English coast.

Not wanting to fail again, Brickner had trained all summer for the lake swim, working out in the Allegheny River near Pittsburgh. His 6-hour training day included a half hour of calisthenics and a 2-hour walk in addition to swimming. For his lake swim, he also greased his body with a gallon of lanolin to help retain body heat.

In 1959, Brickner also became the first person to swim the 18-mile length of the Youghiogheny Dam Reservoir.

Brickner learned to swim when he was 7 years old, and he began distance swims at age 15. By 1986, he had swum 38,512 miles, which is a record that landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records. He was also well-known for New Year’s Day swims he made near Pittsburgh that were broadcast on television from 1951 to 1970. Winter swimming feats like these earned him the nickname of “The Human Polar Bear.”

On January 24, 1963, he swam across the Monongahela River with air temperatures that dropped as low as -18ºF. “That feat also was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, but was deleted after several people died trying to beat it,” the Associated Press reported.

Brickner made a second attempt to swim the English Channel in 1960 but had to be pulled from the water just 400 yards from the shore.

Brickner died in 1991 at the age of 79 and is buried in Monongahela Cemetery.