Five years ago, it was not often that an Eastern athletic squad would claim an Ohio Valley Conference championship title. Competing at the national level was even more rare for the Panthers.

But this year alone, Eastern athletics has won five OVC crowns, and the winter sports are just beginning. Look how far Eastern has come since 1997. What happened in 1997, that has taken Eastern on this successful turn?

Director of Athletics Rich McDuffie made a transfer from Southeast Missouri to Eastern Illinois to turn the Panthers around. Although McDuffie isn’t in an Eastern uniform driving the Panthers to the win, he is in his office working on improving Eastern’s athletic program.

McDuffie settled into his office in March of 1997, mainly because of the words of interm president Lou Hencken, who was the university’s vice president of student affairs at the time.

“The one thing that was critically important when I came here, and the reason I accepted the job was the leadership Eastern has at the top,” McDuffie said. “Lou Hencken said to me, ‘I want the athletic program to be better.’ He wanted the quality of athletics consistent with the academics. That expectation from the top is critically important. Lou Hencken provided that for me.”

Immediately upon joining Eastern’s athletic department, four years ago McDuffie implemented a plan to develop a plan to make Eastern competitive. He worked to improve the coaching staffs, the facilities, the budget and the scholarships to bring talented athletes to Eastern.

“That plan is now beginning to show results,” McDuffie said. “We’ve always had a fairly good program, but across the board, we weren’t winning as many championships as we could have.”

Every university seeks a determined athletic director who has faith in the program and a dream to make it the top of its class. McDuffie has done that here at Eastern. And he’s not just at the men’s basketball games and the football games. He’s at the track meets, the volleyball matches, the baseball games – supporting every aspect of Eastern’s athletics.

“It is every athletic director’s dream to have basketball and football successful at the same time. My dream is to have all the sports successful,” McDuffie said. “Our program should be envied. We win, and we do it right, in terms of rules. And our student athletes graduate at a higher rate than the average student body.”

McDuffie’s determination has resonated through the athletic department, and his goals continue to be put into effect with every passing year at Eastern. More scholarships continue to be available for student athletes. Facilities such as the football stadium and the baseball stadium, including the indoor and outdoor tracks have been updated and the coaching staff has continued to get stronger.

“We were behind many years in facilities and we needed to bring in some coaches to full-time in some sports as well as add assistant coaches in some sports,” McDuffie said. “We needed a better means of travel as well. There’s a good baseline now for the programs in all areas, but there’s no fluff in the budget. We’re still a couple million dollars behind schools like Illinois State.”

With all the changes and improvements made in all aspects of the athletic department, many teams have already had the opportunity to compete at the national level after claiming their own OVC crown.

With the success Eastern has had of late, does this mean the program will always continue to be successful, or will athletes graduate, coaches change jobs and Eastern’s athletics return to its dismal state near the bottom of the league?

“There are still conference championships to compete for,” McDuffie said. “Over the long haul, with the right kinds of things, we can dominate the OVC.

“Our best opportunities are not to arrive at the NCAAs, but win the first round. That’s what we want to see over the next two or three years – even now. That’s our next step – not only to get the conference championship, but get to the national level and win.”

Of course Eastern needs the talent of the athletes, the skill of the coaching staff and the updated facilities to win at that level, but they also need McDuffie. After all, without him, we wouldn’t have come this far.