On Oct. 3, ASU's dual swim meet garnered a crowd of 2,867 students at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center— the largest recorded crowd for a college swimming and diving event, according to an Instagram post by Heat One Swim Club.
The crowd included a large population of first-year students from the Computer Information Systems 105 course taught by Teaching Professor Matthew McCarthy.
For the last 23 years, McCarthy has taught what he said is the "largest face-to-face class at the largest public university in the country."
McCarthy began teaching at the University after having a "midlife crisis" working as a computer consultant. He said he felt lonely as an independent employee without the support or environment of a company.
McCarthy decided to take a chance and make a phone call that changed the next two decades of his career. He began working for ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business, teaching CIS courses.
"It was a very lucky thing for me," McCarthy said.
Throughout McCarthy's time at ASU, he has received multiple awards and honors. Most recently, he was named the Department of Information Systems Instructor of the year in 2017.
But for McCarthy, his largest source of pride is not his achievements; instead, it's helping the thousands of freshmen entering ASU’s business school.
"If you're here long enough, you're eventually going to win those awards," McCarthy said. "But for me, it's just watching students succeed."
During his first semester teaching, he was approached by three volleyball players who needed a guest captain. This opened McCarthy's eyes to the number of student-athletes in his classes.
After being impressed by the level of skill he witnessed at the volleyball match, McCarthy noticed the games had minimal student attendance, and he saw an opportunity to increase the turnout of students.
McCarthy recalls speaking with an assistant athletic director and blurting out, "I'll bet I can bring 1,000 people to your next game."
At the very next match, McCarthy rallied about 1,500 people, a sizeable difference from the usual attendees, who are mostly made up of the athletes' families.
Since then, this has become a tradition for McCarthy, inviting the CIS 105 students every semester to a different sports event, ranging from basketball to tennis — and even to water polo.
While McCarthy does not solely focus on amplifying women's sports, he believes it is important to try and have students attend as many women's sports games as possible.
"Women in sports have been getting screwed for so long, and people are not following Title IX like they should," McCarthy said.
To ensure students attend these games, he offers extra credit if they take a photo with the scoreboard at zero and then a second photo with the final score.
McCarthy's students have an opportunity to earn even more credit if they show school spirit by making signs or painting themselves the University's colors.
The responsibility of keeping track of this extra credit falls to teaching assistant Ashley Pantier. Pantier, a junior studying management, became McCarthy's teaching assistant after taking his class.
Since then, she has assisted McCarthy's class, keeping track of student attendance by reviewing all photos turned in for extra credit.
"If a student gets 50 out of 50 on an exam, and they show up to the game, they get 65 out of 50 on the exam," Pantier said.
In the case of ASU vs. UNLV, Herbie Behm, the Sun Devils'swimming and diving head coach, personally invited McCarthy and his class to come support the team.
"I decided we should make this like a big beach party, McCarthy said. "We should treat this like it's a football game, let's go crazy."
The ultimate goal with this event was to bring as many students as possible to the meet and give the swim team the audience they deserve, Pantier said.
"We have a fantastic swim and dive program here, but the attendance isn't anywhere near what it should be for a sport that does so well, Pantier said. "We have Olympians (who) have been on the team."
Typically, the swim team brings in an audience of about 100 to 200 people, but sometimes, no students attend the meets.
Behm appreciated McCarthy's vision of a large turnout at the swim meet and was actively building up the anticipation through social media, aiming to attract even more students.
READ MORE: ASU's women and men's swim makes waves in dominant performance against UNLV
Behm said the team's usual audience takes up about 50% of the center's capacity. While this particular match reached 100% capacity and even had students watching from the connected parking structures, according to Heat One Swim Club.
Going forward, Behm wants to focus on continuing this level of support and growing engagement for future meets.
"Now, it's figuring out ways to do that and finding other teachers who want to bring their classes," Behm said. "Hopefully, every event can be like that moving forward."
The dual swimming meet's incomparable attendance fueled McCarthy's future goals for ASU, wanting students to take pride in attending the University and all it offers.
"I'm hoping to stay at ASU for a lot longer, and I will continue to do this for the rest of my career," McCarthy said.
Edited by Natalia Rodriguez, Henry Smardo and Ellis Preston.
Reach the reporter at dbtorre4@asu.edu.
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Daniela Torres Martinez is a part-time community reporter for the State Press. She has previously worked with the Chic Magazine at the Walter Cronkite School. She is in her first semester with The State Press.
