Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

Four years an All -American. Two years as an NCAA Division II national champion. Holder of two IUP team records that remained all-time bests for 16 years after they were set.

These are among the achievements  by Dan Deacon that merit the 1980 graduate's induction into his alma mater's Athletic Hall of Fame.

Deacon was a pioneer in at least two regards. Nine times an All-American  all- together, he was the first IUP swimmer to attain that elite at least once in each of the four years he competed. Ability in both the backstroke and freestyle at varying distances, and played lead roles on the relay teams, bolstered his (and his team's) success.

He is the only IUP swimmer to this day to claim a national title. And he was the first swimmer from any Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference campus to bring an individual championship back from the national meet.

His trophies, both in the 200 yard backstroke, came at the conclusion of his junior and senior seasons in 1979 and '80, the latter after suffering a back injury early in the campaign. Deacon's record times in the 200,1:55.77, and 100 backstroke, :53.45, were not broken until 1995-96.

For the criminology major, such achievements were the starting block for a career that has found him working with the Middletown Township police department of Bucks County, in suburban Philadelphia, since 1981.

Today he is a full-time drug and alcohol rehabilitation officer assigned to the Neshaminy School District, from whose high school  he  graduated. Deacon  has earned  four commendations for exemplary police work. Training for his current role came from a New Jersey State Police instructor course and  from the Pennsylvania State Municipal Police Academy. He has also completed a Philadelphia police canine training workshop (a nd served as a K-9 officer for eight years).

Deacon has maintained his swimming prowess, currently at the master 's level with the Fluid Mechanix team in Fairless Hills. He was among the inaugural  class ( 1992) of the Neshaminy High Hall of Fame.

Married  to the former Nancy Grana, also a 1980 IUP graduate, he is the father of eight-year-old  Daniel and Grace, 5.