Carleton Knights

Ted Mullin was a swimmer and team captain at Carleton College, class of 2006. He died of a rare form of cancer called sarcoma on September 3, 2006.

Ted's Carleton swim teammates organized the first Hour of Power in November of 2006, mainly among teams in the MIAC and NESCAC collegiate conferences.

The Hour of Power is a 60-minute practice set of all-out sprint relays in which the lanes attempt to all stay on the same lap. It involves both exceptional individual effort (leave it in the pool), and teamwork. It was Ted's favorite practice set and the Carleton team thought it would be the appropriate way to memorialize him.

Since the first Hour of Power in 2006, the event has grown to include well over 100 teams and thousands of athletes across the country and around the world. A total of 143 teams and an estimated 5,700 athletes participated in the 20th Annual "Hour of Power." Over the years there have been international teams of American swimmers studying abroad, and, since 2012, school and club teams from abroad have participated. 2012 also marked the first year "dry land" teams participated, doing their own Hour of Power in ways suitable to their own sports.

Since 2006, the Hour of Power has raised awareness of sarcoma among tens of thousands of athletes, and they in turn have spread the word among their friends and families. To date the Hour of Power has raised over $1,000,000 for the Ted Mullin Fund to support research in pediatric sarcoma and other rare cancers at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital. As of spring 2026, from all sources, the Ted Mullin Fund has contributed more than $1,800,000; the Hour of Power event accounts for over 60% of that total.

College and university participants in the Hour of Power are eligible to apply for the position of Ted Mullin Scholar at the University of Chicago, doing lab research on cancer- related studies for 10 weeks each summer. 2027 will mark the program's 15th year.