Red walker by his side, Bob Hussey pushed his eighty-five-year old legs back and forth for 20 minutes on one of the Rec Center’s treadmills.

The retired Eastern physical education teacher says he generally works out Monday through Friday and likes to get in early – in this case, 7 a.m.

“I do it for the purpose,” said Hussey in heavy breath while doing cardio. “I think it helps to keep me in good health and I’m fortunate for that.”

It’s almost no surprise that this retired teacher of 34 years doesn’t let a walker or his age keep him from staying active. The long-time Cubs fan – who’s still waiting for “it” to happen – has a love for baseball that precedes his three-and-a-half-year service in World War II.

Following six months training in the service, he came back on leave and was asked to pitch again for the local baseball team back in Wisconsin (before the war he played for the American Legion). He pitched, threw a one-hitter and the team won 1-0.

The staying active trend is something common among Rec Center retirees. Former vice president of Academic Affairs Terry Weidner said that even though he doesn’t play racquetball like he used to, he now comes to the Rec full-time.

Full time for Weidner, 70, is five days a week with a workout that includes getting to the gym about 6 a.m., walking on the treadmill and sweating through about a dozen weight machines.

Hussey came for a purpose. Weidner’s purpose is to be able to enjoy his other physical activities: hiking and geocaching.

According to geocaching.com, Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game where players use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational devices to hide and seek containers of geocahes or caches anywhere in the world.

“I have a daughter that lives next to the Smokey Mountains and for my 69th birthday I climbed Mount LeCont down there,” Hussey said. “It’s not Mount Everest or Mount Kilimanjaro but it’s 6,593 feet, so it’s not bad.”

David Maurer, 72, Charleston, liked the hours he worked and also still enjoys the parking privilege as a retired history professor of Eastern. Treadmill/bike user Maurer also has a message for those not working out: “Get off the couch.”

While Hussey has said he has been able to maintain his health, he suggested that everyone have some type of a physical workout to get the heart pumping.

“We know as we age, we deteriorate,” he said.