The National Collegiate Athletic Association recently released the official graduation results for freshman who entered school in the 1996-97 academic year and Eastern ranked as the highest Division I public university in the state of Illinois.

According to the NCAA graduation data, 69 percent of Eastern student-athletes who entered the university as freshmen in 1996-97 have graduated in four years. Student-athletes who played a sport for four years graduated 91 percent of the time, again tops in the state. Overall, 66 percent of students who entered in 1996-97 graduated in four years.

This high percentage could be credited to assistant director of athletics for compliance and academic services Betty Ralston. Ralston helps athletes on the road to graduation, but she deflected praise for the accomplishment and instead focused on the athlete.

“It’s up to them, they have to achieve it,” Ralston said. “We just try to get on them and lead them in the right direction. We can talk till we’re blue in the face, but the student has to go out and do it.”

Northern Illinois and Western Illinois were tied for second behind Eastern with 67 percent of their student athletes graduating in four years. University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana and Southern Illinois ranked fourth and fifth with 63 percent and 57 percent respectively. University of Illinois-Chicago and Illinois State closed out the state schools with 51 percent.

Ralston didn’t have a scientific answer as to why Eastern ranked higher than six other state schools, but she assumed the honor was due to the athletes’ hard work.

“It’s got to be the students we recruit and also the emphasis of school by our coaches,” Ralston said. “The students get support from our faculty and coaches who put the meaning through to them to play but also to study.”

Of all the sports at Eastern, women’s basketball ranks highest with 85 percent of their athletes graduating. Women’s cross country/track and field is second at 79 percent and men’s cross country/ track and field rounds out the top three at 78 percent.

Women’s track and field coach Mary Wallace was proud of her athletes because of how well they manage their time.

“I think cross-country does an excellent job in academics,” Wallace said. “They are the most disciplined of the student athletes because they have to deal with morning runs and then also afternoon runs along with school work.”

Wallace also said it is important for a coach to not only recruit potential students for their athletic performance but also to recruit students for their academic ability.

“I think our track and field program does a good job at looking at the individual leaving with a degree,” Wallace said. “Having the athlete leave with a degree should be the number one goal for a coach to look at. Athletics are important, but the degree is the number one reason they are here.”

Besides having the highest graduation rate among the state’s public universities, Eastern nearly led the 11-team Ohio Valley Conference in graduating athletes. The Panthers finished second in the conference behind newcomer Samford University. Samford, a private institution, graduated 73 percent of their student athletes and 67 percent of all students, both tops in the OVC. Jacksonville State University finished third in the OVC with 63 percent of their athletes graduating. Southeast Missouri (59 percent) and Tennessee Tech (55 percent) rounded out the top five.

Although Eastern was ranked second in the OVC, Ralston said there is no shame in trailing a private institution.

“They (Samford) are a private institution so there is a big difference between the schools,” Ralston said. “Their non-scholarship athletes are paying so much more than our non-scholarship athletes. Here you pay $300 per credit hour while at Samford they pay around $1,500 so their students are more tempted to stay in things. You’ll find that at private institutions.

“We’re very proud of our athletes and we want to stay where we are, but we can’t make a huge leap.”