Around this time last year, Western Illinois U decided to drop the swimming and diving program. Less than a month later the program was reinstated. Had the decision to drop the program remained, it would have been the first time that Western Illinois dropped an athletic team since 1985.
From around 1968 to 1985, six different programs suffered a different fate than the swimming and diving team. Because of an economic downturn, smaller graduation classes and Western’s reputation as a party school, athletics was forced to make cuts. The first of those was men’s water polo.
After a nine year calm, men’s gymnastics was dropped. The program under head coach and Western Illinois University Hall of Fame member Robert Clow won seventy percent of dual meets (224-95) and two NAIA small college championships. Western’s first national champion in gymnastics was Glenn Wilson, who emerged victorious in the trampoline event in 1957.
Beginning in 1983, four programs were cut including women’s gymnastics, women’s badminton, women’s field hockey and men’s wrestling.
During its time, the wrestling team produced multiple All-Americans, national championship winners, and other top finishers at the national level. Among those winners are Jim Woods III, Jerry Strauman and Rick Nelson. Also, wrestler Don DaTaeya was named All-IIAC (Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) in both wrestling and football.
Women’s gymnastics was able to produce multiple state, national and international champions under the guidance of head coach Judy Gedney from 1968 to 1980. Gedney coached fellow Western Illinois University Hall of Fame member Cherie Wells. Wells placed highly in the state championships during her three-year career before her coaching career began at Western.
Badminton also had a successful tenure with its shining moments coming in the late ’70s. Robin McGowan was quite possibly the most successful badminton player at Western Illinois leading her ’75 team to a fourth place finish overall, second in singles and third in doubles. Western followed with a third place finish overall in 1977 before finally breaking through and winning the national championship in 1979 led by Monica Malone Pontow. Donna Phillips, whom during her tenure from 1971 to 1983 saw Western place in the top six teams eight times in the national tournament, coached the team.
So while these programs may not be around today, their success is not forgotten, as Western was highly competitive in all the dropped programs. In 1985, when field hockey and wrestling were dropped, it allowed two prominent programs to be added years later. These programs are women’s soccer (added in 1997) and women’s golf (added in 2001).
Western currently has 20 division I athletic programs.