EI Club News is the official Athletic Department publication for former Eastern Illinois University Athletes and staff

Volume 1, Issue 3

DeWitt Spearheads First Ever Outdoor NBA Game

Lights, Camera, Action Saturday, April 266:30 pmMartin Luther King Jr.University UnionPAnther CLUbSPring FLingtickets: (217) 581-2310

WINTER 2008

Castrejon Earns Crawford Memorial Scholarship

Craig DeWitt (middle) is flanked by former Phoenix Suns Mark West and Alvin Adams.

Former Panther basketball All-American Craig DeWitt, ’81, was bugged that the sec-ond largest tennis stadium in the world sat empty 95% of the time.

So while driving by the Indian Wells Tennis Garden one day, the light bulb in DeWitt’s brain lit up resulting in an historical first ever National Basketball Association outdoor game.

In his third year as the Superintendent of Operations and Game Services for the Coachella Valley Recreation and Park Dis-trict, DeWitt’s daily routines include man-aging recreation staff and facilities for 14 communities in the sun drenched California Palm Desert area.

Hence, his daily drive by the 16,000 seat tennis stadium which annually hosts the two week Pacific Life Open, rated the 5th largest tennis tournament in the world. But, accord-ing to DeWitt, other than some concerts the tennis stadium “sits empty 95% of the time.

“So it got me to wondering what would be some other uses that could be a big enough draw to fill the stadium. When I worked back in Illinois, I ran a Gus Macker tournament for 13 years in Sterling. Or course, those are all outdoors so my first thought was a 3-on-3 basketball tournament here but then I started thinking about an NBA game…why not think big.”

Consequently the Phoenix Suns will play a preseason game at Indian Wells under the lights on October 11.

DeWitt’s idea-becomes-reality spun out of a contact with Richard Heckmann, a co-owner of the Suns and a desert valley resi-dent. “I wrote him a letter and he responded within a week telling me to expect a call from the Suns President. They were very excited about the possibility to conduct an outdoor game and help us raise money for our foundation that supports recreation in the valley.”

An official press conference on February

19 will discuss game details and announce the opposing team. Team officials are also working with Fox Sports and the NBA to tele-cast the game nationally.

DeWitt is also confident he will have little weather problems. “We get about five days of rain annually out here and it’s only rained six days in October in the past ten years so we’ll just postpone it a day if we have to…but the chance of rain is about zero.”

While he’s spending considerable time with the organization of the NBA contest, DeWitt has plenty of other events that occupy his time.

“bill gates has a home in our area so we go from serving the richest to the poorest. We have a few cities that are third world type poor…a lot of immigrants that work on farms or in the service industries in hotels and re-sorts.

“The best part of the job can also be the most challenging. The positive is I get to work with people from every economic sta-tus and ethnic background. But with a va-riety of population it’s a challenge to create programming and opportunities for life ex-periences that can connect with all different types of people.

“We also host concerts like the Turtles and Foghats…groups from my college days. And we just started First Tee which is a youth golf development program spon-sored by all the major golf associations.

“This is a beautiful area…two hours from LA and San Diego and right next to Joshua Tree National Park with 130 golf courses throughout the valley.”

And now add an NBA outdoor experience to the list of activities that DeWitt continues to bring to southern California.

From the Sidelines... with Assistant Athletic Director Dave Kidwell

“The EI Club is approaching a record 400 members. Not many you say consid-ering the thousands who have competed here. Well, you’re right! It’s progress but we need your help to find your for-mer teammates who are not on our radar screen. We know more and more will join the EI Club by just being asked. So those of you who are members please pass along a name, an email or phone number or snail mail address so we can get them involved in this organization. Or simply direct them to the website at www.eiupan-thers.com where there is an online form for former athletes to notify us of where they are and what they are doing. The EI Club only succeeds because of you!

And speaking of the website, it’s the best method to follow the Pan-thers. The new design has added much, much, much more info and new links to ‘fun’ stuff. You can hear Panther play-by-play via a link to the WEIU radio website and follow all the action described by Mike Bradd, the voice of the Panthers. You can also stay informed through ‘live stats’ of select Panther events. You can see video clips of Panther highlights from recent games, order tickets on-line, watch a reply of the weekly coach’s show and buy Panther merchandise.

The athletic administration and EI Club wants you former athletes back on campus and, consequently, we’ve focused on championship team reunions to achieve that goal.

Last fall we hosted team reunions for the ’82 football Panthers that reached the NCAA I-AA quarterfinals and also the ’77 men’s cross coun-try NCAA II National Championship team.

On March 1 we have the 30th anniversary of the ’78 men’s basket-ball team that was third in NCAA II followed by the 1974 NCAA College Division men’s track champions who return on April 5. The ’73 and ’78 baseball teams that finished third and fifth, respectively, in the NCAA will celebrate on April 19.

Fall events are still in the planning stages for the 20th anniversary of the ’88 NCAA women’s basketball tournament team and the ’48 and ’78 football teams that competed in the Corn Bowl and won the NCAA II championship, respectively.

Stay tuned as your team gets an invitation back to Eastern to cel-ebrate its championship season. And don’t let it slip past us. We want you back on campus!

So even without teaching any classes, the 6 a.m. practices twice a week, three days of weight lifting along with recruiting and of course the NCAA paperwork has taken its toll.

“This is not a knee-jerk decision,” Padovan said of retiring. “Probably at the middle of last year I just felt it was time. There are some other things I want to do and my wife wants to do. For six months this is it. There’s no free time. The other months it’s just about normal with recruiting. When school starts until the end of February, this is all you do.

“But I’ve never found it hard to show up here. It’s never been a dread to be here.”

Still, the 66-year-old Padovan has some easier times com-ing to him.

“I’ll be going places off an on,” he said. “When I’m around I’ll still be around Eastern, playing racquetball. I’m sure I’ll look in on the swimmers. The new coach won’t need my input but if he needs me to help with timing meets or anything I’ll be here. Scott ebinger, one of my former swimmers, has timed my meets for years. I’ll still be part of the Eastern community even in retirement.”

Padovan, continued from page 3

Former assistant track coach Johnie Meisner congratulates Eastern ju-nior track distance runner Mario Castrejon (Highland Park), who is the recipient of the Walt Crawford Memorial Scholarship.

Crawford was a member of the track and cross country teams in the early 1970s, and following graduation returned to the Chicago inner city to teach disadvantaged children. During the 1980s he was one of the best African-American runners in the nation by placing 6th in the Chicago Mara-thon and winning 50 mile races in less than six hours. He died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2006.

Initiated by the efforts of former cross country coach tom Woodall, for-mer Panther athletes and friends of Crawford have established a scholar-ship in his honor awarded annually to an EIU track distance runner. Cas-trejon’s stipend was $500.

Johnie Meisner congratulates Mario Castrejon

“... I loved the camaraderie at Eastern … the

staff outings, relationships,

support for each other in the

department.”Janet Marquis

“ Whatever Happened To ...” Softball Coach Janet Marquis

Coach Ray Padovan Retires After 42 Years

Janet Marquis, whose EIU coaching skills produced three conference softball championships in the 1980s, has continued to use those leadership abilities throughout a successful career in private and public ‘camping’ business.

Soon to earn a PhD in business organi-zational management through Minneapolis based Capella University, an online pro-gram, Marquis, who resides in Lebanon, PA, now has options on her next career path.

Her coaching career jump started by ty-ing or winning the Gateway Conference softball championship three straight years (1986-88) at EIU, the only conference titles in the 25 years that softball has been affili-ated with league play.

With women’s athletics still in its infancy at Eastern, league titles were highly valued since it was not an easy path to first place finishes. Her four year record was 97-74-2, third most wins in school history.

“One of the reasons I left was because it was difficult to coach during that period. You want to win so badly and to do that you have to recruit. I was also teaching so I couldn’t take a couple days off to go watch games, and I didn’t see the situation improving. When it was time to recruit more athletes, I wasn’t able to do it,” Marquis said.

“But I loved the camara-derie at East-ern…the staff outings, rela-tionships, sup-port for each other in the depa r tmen t . Dan Callahan (former base-ball coach) and I still stay in contact. We both were new to coaching at Eastern and both wanted to be successful so we hung out together. I shared an office with John Craft (former women’s track coach) and bob Spoo (foot-ball coach) was fantastic…they were great to share indoor facilities. I don’t recall any

staff problems. “Besides winning the conference, the

thing I’m most proud of was how well we did outside of the conference. The Gateway did not have an automatic bid to the NCAA tour-nament so we had to have a power schedule if we were going to get into the tournament.

“We played such teams as Northwestern and Florida State and South Carolina, and won some of those games. In the PhD pro-gram we talk about transformational leader-ship and taking people to the next level of success, and I believe that’s what happened at Eastern. We had a couple great players but most were average and we were able to convince them they were really good and they played to that standard. My current course work reinforces what I experienced first hand at Eastern.”

Following EIU, Marquis worked for the Covered Bridge girl scout summer pro-gram out of Terre Haute, then was director of sports fitness and aquatics at the Terre Haute YWCA from 1994-96.

Due to family considerations she moved back to her home state of Pennsylvania where she spent nine years with South

Mountain YMCA, eventually ending up as acting CEO of the 500 acre, $2 million dol-lar summer camp program for 400 youth.

She later became state youth director for the Pennsylvania National Guard in charge of programs for children of deployed par-ents who were serving overseas. That led to a promotion serving the National Guard on the national level advising 50 states and four territories on camping and child care.

But after 24 years in the “camping busi-ness”, as Marquis referred to it, she knew it was time to shift gears.

“I don’t want to camp that much longer and I still have 22 years until I retire so I knew it was time for a change. I’ve done so many wonderful things in my career but I haven’t decided on my next direction after I earn the degree. It may be an executive job with a YMCA or a private leadership consulting position or maybe another civil-ian job with the military.”

Regardless of what position she accepts, the successful coaching habits that Janet Marquis utilized almost twenty years ago as a Panther will certainly apply in her fu-ture endeavors.

Janet Marquis chats with Major General Robert French of the Pennsylvania National Guard and two young campers involved with the Make-a-Wish project.

(Reprinted with permission of the Charleston Times-Courier)

Forty-two years ago when ray Pa-dovan interviewed for Eastern Illinois’ swimming coach position, water was not yet in the pool in the brand new building named after legendary coach Charles Lantz.

Now, you could not count the laps Padovan has supervised in practices at the Lantz Building, but Interim Ath-letics Director Ken baker can tell you this: “He has the longest tenure of any coach at Eastern,” baker said. “He edged out coach Lantz. They are just months apart.”

Maybe someday soon, swimmers will be swimming at what could be named Padovan Pool.

“We have this big reunion in August,” graduate assistant coach Kim Fischer said. “He said it’s not a retirement party. It’s a reunion.”

Yes, Padovan is being a real pain about anyone trying to have him go out with fanfare for this little stint of 42 years of coaching.

“I’ve never met anyone that doesn’t like him,” said Fischer, who is in her second season as a graduate assistant after four year’s on Eastern’s swim-ming team. “He’s extremely fair and understanding. That’s as a person not just as a coach. I can’t put into words how great of a man he is.”

Another former swimmer Josh Kercheval said: “I think a lot of swim-mers get the same experience from him. He’s kind of a father type. I’ve still got a dad so he’s not replacing that but he makes you real comfortable.

“He comes across as being very, oh what’s the word, serious, which is good. But he’s also very inviting. His exterior is kind of intimidating at first but you get to know him, he’s pretty friendly. A funny guy, too.”

That intimidating/inviting combina-tion that has led to seven conference championships, a 257-191-1 record for men’s duals and 166-136 in the 29 years of the women’s program for

which Padovan has been the only head coach.

Then again, no numbers can tell the whole story of the man who as an NCAA record-setting swimmer for Southern Il-linois competed in meets at Eastern’s old pool at the Buzzard Building before becoming a fixture at Lantz.

The legacy might include Padovan’s stubbornness, not just trying to avoid his own fanfare for his final meet but his unwillingness to give up when the men’s program was temporarily dropped as part of a gender equity measure in the mid-1990s but reinstated without miss-ing a meet.

“When I was there we were 100 per-cent walk-ons,” former swimmer Jim Berryman said. “It was a unique team. What ray did was take the best he had and worked with it. I applaud him for that. I know he fought tooth and nail to try and get money back.

“Some of the swimmers were very talented and some were Joe Averages, which I was one of them, and he turned

me into the best distance swimmer I could be. I was impressed with my time. It blew away anything I did in high school.”

Yes, somehow Eastern swimming has survived. More than just survived.

“It’s thrived on the will of ray Pado-van and certainly not on a surplus of financial funding,” baker said. “They have thrived on ray’s personality and professionalism.”

The last six years it has been under the coaching of a retired teacher who continued to coach.

“It’s changed a lot,” Padovan said from his early coaching days. “Back then all the coaches taught. Football coaches, basketball coaches. Not full time but they taught classes. Good, bad or indifferent, that’s the way it was.

“I really enjoyed teaching also. But now the team is bigger and the NCAA paperwork is unbelievable. What you had to do now compared to then is ten-fold. There’s no question it’s more time consuming.” (continued on back page)

“... I loved the camaraderie at Eastern … the

staff outings, relationships,

support for each other in the

department.”Janet Marquis

“ Whatever Happened To ...” Softball Coach Janet Marquis

Coach Ray Padovan Retires After 42 Years

Janet Marquis, whose EIU coaching skills produced three conference softball championships in the 1980s, has continued to use those leadership abilities throughout a successful career in private and public ‘camping’ business.

Soon to earn a PhD in business organi-zational management through Minneapolis based Capella University, an online pro-gram, Marquis, who resides in Lebanon, PA, now has options on her next career path.

Her coaching career jump started by ty-ing or winning the Gateway Conference softball championship three straight years (1986-88) at EIU, the only conference titles in the 25 years that softball has been affili-ated with league play.

With women’s athletics still in its infancy at Eastern, league titles were highly valued since it was not an easy path to first place finishes. Her four year record was 97-74-2, third most wins in school history.

“One of the reasons I left was because it was difficult to coach during that period. You want to win so badly and to do that you have to recruit. I was also teaching so I couldn’t take a couple days off to go watch games, and I didn’t see the situation improving. When it was time to recruit more athletes, I wasn’t able to do it,” Marquis said.

“But I loved the camara-derie at East-ern…the staff outings, rela-tionships, sup-port for each other in the depa r tmen t . Dan Callahan (former base-ball coach) and I still stay in contact. We both were new to coaching at Eastern and both wanted to be successful so we hung out together. I shared an office with John Craft (former women’s track coach) and bob Spoo (foot-ball coach) was fantastic…they were great to share indoor facilities. I don’t recall any

staff problems. “Besides winning the conference, the

thing I’m most proud of was how well we did outside of the conference. The Gateway did not have an automatic bid to the NCAA tour-nament so we had to have a power schedule if we were going to get into the tournament.

“We played such teams as Northwestern and Florida State and South Carolina, and won some of those games. In the PhD pro-gram we talk about transformational leader-ship and taking people to the next level of success, and I believe that’s what happened at Eastern. We had a couple great players but most were average and we were able to convince them they were really good and they played to that standard. My current course work reinforces what I experienced first hand at Eastern.”

Following EIU, Marquis worked for the Covered Bridge girl scout summer pro-gram out of Terre Haute, then was director of sports fitness and aquatics at the Terre Haute YWCA from 1994-96.

Due to family considerations she moved back to her home state of Pennsylvania where she spent nine years with South

Mountain YMCA, eventually ending up as acting CEO of the 500 acre, $2 million dol-lar summer camp program for 400 youth.

She later became state youth director for the Pennsylvania National Guard in charge of programs for children of deployed par-ents who were serving overseas. That led to a promotion serving the National Guard on the national level advising 50 states and four territories on camping and child care.

But after 24 years in the “camping busi-ness”, as Marquis referred to it, she knew it was time to shift gears.

“I don’t want to camp that much longer and I still have 22 years until I retire so I knew it was time for a change. I’ve done so many wonderful things in my career but I haven’t decided on my next direction after I earn the degree. It may be an executive job with a YMCA or a private leadership consulting position or maybe another civil-ian job with the military.”

Regardless of what position she accepts, the successful coaching habits that Janet Marquis utilized almost twenty years ago as a Panther will certainly apply in her fu-ture endeavors.

Janet Marquis chats with Major General Robert French of the Pennsylvania National Guard and two young campers involved with the Make-a-Wish project.

(Reprinted with permission of the Charleston Times-Courier)

Forty-two years ago when ray Pa-dovan interviewed for Eastern Illinois’ swimming coach position, water was not yet in the pool in the brand new building named after legendary coach Charles Lantz.

Now, you could not count the laps Padovan has supervised in practices at the Lantz Building, but Interim Ath-letics Director Ken baker can tell you this: “He has the longest tenure of any coach at Eastern,” baker said. “He edged out coach Lantz. They are just months apart.”

Maybe someday soon, swimmers will be swimming at what could be named Padovan Pool.

“We have this big reunion in August,” graduate assistant coach Kim Fischer said. “He said it’s not a retirement party. It’s a reunion.”

Yes, Padovan is being a real pain about anyone trying to have him go out with fanfare for this little stint of 42 years of coaching.

“I’ve never met anyone that doesn’t like him,” said Fischer, who is in her second season as a graduate assistant after four year’s on Eastern’s swim-ming team. “He’s extremely fair and understanding. That’s as a person not just as a coach. I can’t put into words how great of a man he is.”

Another former swimmer Josh Kercheval said: “I think a lot of swim-mers get the same experience from him. He’s kind of a father type. I’ve still got a dad so he’s not replacing that but he makes you real comfortable.

“He comes across as being very, oh what’s the word, serious, which is good. But he’s also very inviting. His exterior is kind of intimidating at first but you get to know him, he’s pretty friendly. A funny guy, too.”

That intimidating/inviting combina-tion that has led to seven conference championships, a 257-191-1 record for men’s duals and 166-136 in the 29 years of the women’s program for

which Padovan has been the only head coach.

Then again, no numbers can tell the whole story of the man who as an NCAA record-setting swimmer for Southern Il-linois competed in meets at Eastern’s old pool at the Buzzard Building before becoming a fixture at Lantz.

The legacy might include Padovan’s stubbornness, not just trying to avoid his own fanfare for his final meet but his unwillingness to give up when the men’s program was temporarily dropped as part of a gender equity measure in the mid-1990s but reinstated without miss-ing a meet.

“When I was there we were 100 per-cent walk-ons,” former swimmer Jim Berryman said. “It was a unique team. What ray did was take the best he had and worked with it. I applaud him for that. I know he fought tooth and nail to try and get money back.

“Some of the swimmers were very talented and some were Joe Averages, which I was one of them, and he turned

me into the best distance swimmer I could be. I was impressed with my time. It blew away anything I did in high school.”

Yes, somehow Eastern swimming has survived. More than just survived.

“It’s thrived on the will of ray Pado-van and certainly not on a surplus of financial funding,” baker said. “They have thrived on ray’s personality and professionalism.”

The last six years it has been under the coaching of a retired teacher who continued to coach.

“It’s changed a lot,” Padovan said from his early coaching days. “Back then all the coaches taught. Football coaches, basketball coaches. Not full time but they taught classes. Good, bad or indifferent, that’s the way it was.

“I really enjoyed teaching also. But now the team is bigger and the NCAA paperwork is unbelievable. What you had to do now compared to then is ten-fold. There’s no question it’s more time consuming.” (continued on back page)

EI Club News is the official Athletic Department publication for former Eastern Illinois University Athletes and staff

Volume 1, Issue 3

DeWitt Spearheads First Ever Outdoor NBA Game

Lights, Camera, Action Saturday, April 266:30 pmMartin Luther King Jr.University UnionPAnther CLUbSPring FLingtickets: (217) 581-2310

WINTER 2008

Castrejon Earns Crawford Memorial Scholarship

Craig DeWitt (middle) is flanked by former Phoenix Suns Mark West and Alvin Adams.

Former Panther basketball All-American Craig DeWitt, ’81, was bugged that the sec-ond largest tennis stadium in the world sat empty 95% of the time.

So while driving by the Indian Wells Tennis Garden one day, the light bulb in DeWitt’s brain lit up resulting in an historical first ever National Basketball Association outdoor game.

In his third year as the Superintendent of Operations and Game Services for the Coachella Valley Recreation and Park Dis-trict, DeWitt’s daily routines include man-aging recreation staff and facilities for 14 communities in the sun drenched California Palm Desert area.

Hence, his daily drive by the 16,000 seat tennis stadium which annually hosts the two week Pacific Life Open, rated the 5th largest tennis tournament in the world. But, accord-ing to DeWitt, other than some concerts the tennis stadium “sits empty 95% of the time.

“So it got me to wondering what would be some other uses that could be a big enough draw to fill the stadium. When I worked back in Illinois, I ran a Gus Macker tournament for 13 years in Sterling. Or course, those are all outdoors so my first thought was a 3-on-3 basketball tournament here but then I started thinking about an NBA game…why not think big.”

Consequently the Phoenix Suns will play a preseason game at Indian Wells under the lights on October 11.

DeWitt’s idea-becomes-reality spun out of a contact with Richard Heckmann, a co-owner of the Suns and a desert valley resi-dent. “I wrote him a letter and he responded within a week telling me to expect a call from the Suns President. They were very excited about the possibility to conduct an outdoor game and help us raise money for our foundation that supports recreation in the valley.”

An official press conference on February

19 will discuss game details and announce the opposing team. Team officials are also working with Fox Sports and the NBA to tele-cast the game nationally.

DeWitt is also confident he will have little weather problems. “We get about five days of rain annually out here and it’s only rained six days in October in the past ten years so we’ll just postpone it a day if we have to…but the chance of rain is about zero.”

While he’s spending considerable time with the organization of the NBA contest, DeWitt has plenty of other events that occupy his time.

“bill gates has a home in our area so we go from serving the richest to the poorest. We have a few cities that are third world type poor…a lot of immigrants that work on farms or in the service industries in hotels and re-sorts.

“The best part of the job can also be the most challenging. The positive is I get to work with people from every economic sta-tus and ethnic background. But with a va-riety of population it’s a challenge to create programming and opportunities for life ex-periences that can connect with all different types of people.

“We also host concerts like the Turtles and Foghats…groups from my college days. And we just started First Tee which is a youth golf development program spon-sored by all the major golf associations.

“This is a beautiful area…two hours from LA and San Diego and right next to Joshua Tree National Park with 130 golf courses throughout the valley.”

And now add an NBA outdoor experience to the list of activities that DeWitt continues to bring to southern California.

From the Sidelines... with Assistant Athletic Director Dave Kidwell

“The EI Club is approaching a record 400 members. Not many you say consid-ering the thousands who have competed here. Well, you’re right! It’s progress but we need your help to find your for-mer teammates who are not on our radar screen. We know more and more will join the EI Club by just being asked. So those of you who are members please pass along a name, an email or phone number or snail mail address so we can get them involved in this organization. Or simply direct them to the website at www.eiupan-thers.com where there is an online form for former athletes to notify us of where they are and what they are doing. The EI Club only succeeds because of you!

And speaking of the website, it’s the best method to follow the Pan-thers. The new design has added much, much, much more info and new links to ‘fun’ stuff. You can hear Panther play-by-play via a link to the WEIU radio website and follow all the action described by Mike Bradd, the voice of the Panthers. You can also stay informed through ‘live stats’ of select Panther events. You can see video clips of Panther highlights from recent games, order tickets on-line, watch a reply of the weekly coach’s show and buy Panther merchandise.

The athletic administration and EI Club wants you former athletes back on campus and, consequently, we’ve focused on championship team reunions to achieve that goal.

Last fall we hosted team reunions for the ’82 football Panthers that reached the NCAA I-AA quarterfinals and also the ’77 men’s cross coun-try NCAA II National Championship team.

On March 1 we have the 30th anniversary of the ’78 men’s basket-ball team that was third in NCAA II followed by the 1974 NCAA College Division men’s track champions who return on April 5. The ’73 and ’78 baseball teams that finished third and fifth, respectively, in the NCAA will celebrate on April 19.

Fall events are still in the planning stages for the 20th anniversary of the ’88 NCAA women’s basketball tournament team and the ’48 and ’78 football teams that competed in the Corn Bowl and won the NCAA II championship, respectively.

Stay tuned as your team gets an invitation back to Eastern to cel-ebrate its championship season. And don’t let it slip past us. We want you back on campus!

So even without teaching any classes, the 6 a.m. practices twice a week, three days of weight lifting along with recruiting and of course the NCAA paperwork has taken its toll.

“This is not a knee-jerk decision,” Padovan said of retiring. “Probably at the middle of last year I just felt it was time. There are some other things I want to do and my wife wants to do. For six months this is it. There’s no free time. The other months it’s just about normal with recruiting. When school starts until the end of February, this is all you do.

“But I’ve never found it hard to show up here. It’s never been a dread to be here.”

Still, the 66-year-old Padovan has some easier times com-ing to him.

“I’ll be going places off an on,” he said. “When I’m around I’ll still be around Eastern, playing racquetball. I’m sure I’ll look in on the swimmers. The new coach won’t need my input but if he needs me to help with timing meets or anything I’ll be here. Scott ebinger, one of my former swimmers, has timed my meets for years. I’ll still be part of the Eastern community even in retirement.”

Padovan, continued from page 3

Former assistant track coach Johnie Meisner congratulates Eastern ju-nior track distance runner Mario Castrejon (Highland Park), who is the recipient of the Walt Crawford Memorial Scholarship.

Crawford was a member of the track and cross country teams in the early 1970s, and following graduation returned to the Chicago inner city to teach disadvantaged children. During the 1980s he was one of the best African-American runners in the nation by placing 6th in the Chicago Mara-thon and winning 50 mile races in less than six hours. He died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2006.

Initiated by the efforts of former cross country coach tom Woodall, for-mer Panther athletes and friends of Crawford have established a scholar-ship in his honor awarded annually to an EIU track distance runner. Cas-trejon’s stipend was $500.

Johnie Meisner congratulates Mario Castrejon