Forty years of employment at one company is an amazing accomplishment. Achieving that in college athletics is nearly impossible as coaches either get fired hastily or leave quickly to move on to a bigger and better school.

Eastern swimming and diving head coach Ray Padovan has done the improbable and completed his 40th year as men’s coach. If it weren’t for the right opportunities at the right times, it all could have happened elsewhere.

Padovan began his career as an excellent high school swimmer in North Miami. He never really thought about what he would do after he graduated.

“I really had no idea what I was going to do,” Padovan said. “I never thought about college until my coach told me about Southern.”

Not until May of his senior season did a last minute opportunity present itself. Southern Illinois University approached Padovan with a partial scholarship and he jumped at the chance to continue his swimming career.

His success at SIU started immediately as a freshman when he set NCAA records in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle in 1961. His focus on swimming was so intense that the fact he was in college did not hit him until his junior year.

“After two years of taking classes and doing well,” Padovan said. “I looked around and said to myself ‘hey, I can graduate from this place.'”

Padovan graduated in 1964 with a physical education degree but would stick around at SIU for two more years as a graduate assistant and eventually earn a master’s degree in health.

Armed with two degrees and multiple NCAA records Padovan began his search for his first head-coaching job.

“I took a one year fill-in job at Eastern New Mexico University,” Padovan explained. “Their head coach went on leave for a year and I stepped in for him.”

In 1966 he led the Greyhounds to a second place finish at the NAIA National Tournament.

After his one-year stint was up he was offered, and verbally agreed to take, the head-coaching job at Patterson State College in New Jersey.

He would never make the trip to New Jersey. While back at SIU for the summer he was approached for the newly opened job at Eastern Illinois.

They had a brand new pool in the recently constructed Lantz and Padovan’s wife, who he met at SIU, was from the area and had a teaching interview lined up in Mattoon in the next couple of days. Six days after he was offered the job, Padovan signed on the dotted line and would become one of the longest tenured head coaches in all of collegiate sports.

“I never really wanted to go out to somewhere new,” Padovan said. “My wife was from this area and I had a lot of contacts in here, it was a natural fit for me.”

Being the new swimming coach was not the only thing that Padovan signed on for. When he was hired, it was still Eastern policy that all coaches had to teach.

Up until he retired from the classroom in 2001, Padovan was a physical education teacher and also taught some swimming classes at the pool that used to be where Buzzard Hall is now.

Despite the huge time commitments required of teaching, Padovan began to form a quality program.

Former Eastern swimmer and current Lockport high school swimming coach Grant Ferkulak is in awe of what Padovan has done for the Panthers.

“He has established something there that is really incredible,” he said.

Padovan has crafted a successful program without the scholarships and monetary funding other programs have.

Senior Paul Anderson thinks Padovan contributed to his success in small ways.

“The daily interaction with coach is what really stands out,” he said. “There is nothing major with my stroke that he had to change but the little things were really important.

“He was always there working with me and pushing me. When I look back on it, all those little things really added up like pieces of a puzzle.”

While many times swimmers come out of high school with the stroke and mechanics pretty much set, Padovan makes major changes in other ways.

“I came here as a butterfly swimmer,” said senior Claire Garvey. “He talked me into switching into distance freestyle and I have been really successful with it.”

Padovan’s solid coaching combined with the outstanding teacher certification programs at Eastern have allowed for many swimmers to stay with their sport after graduation.

“I must have 20 or 30 former swimmers now coaching at the high school level,” Padovan said. “Sometimes (former swimmers) end up coaching club teams. One in particular coaches a club team in Texas that is one of the best in the nation.”

Coach Ferkulak sees the high school coaching presence of the Panthers everyday.

“Of the eight schools in (Lockport’s) conference,” he said. “Four teams are coached by Eastern graduates. There are so many Eastern graduates coaching in Illinois it is incredible.”

Not only does the huge amount of high school coaches speak wonders about Padovan as a coach and his ability to graduate his athletes, but it also helps build his teams of the future.

“A lot of those people coaching are sending their swimmers to Eastern because of the experience they had in the program and with Ray,” Ferkulak said.

Ferkulak helped in getting freshman Kevin Boyle to sign with the Panthers. Boyle has been a fantastic addition for the Panthers and looks to be a top swimmer for the next three years.

Using former swimmers to get new recruits is not the only way Padovan has brought in athletes.

In fact, junior Bill Senese’s grandfather swam with Padovan at SIU.

Padovan talked with some potential recruits Monday.

“One girl I talked to, her mother had me for a swimming class when she was an Eastern student,” Padovan said.

When asked if coaching children of his former swimmers makes him feel old, Padovan replied, “No, not at all. I just try to not look in the mirror.”