North Central College Athletics

The first coach to guide a North Central College athletic team to a national championship, Dr. Eggert Giere '48 and his contributions were hardly confined to the competitive arena. He became an integral part of the campus community in the areas of academics and campus life during a 15-year tenure as a member of the College's faculty.

Giere first came to North Central as a freshman in fall 1942, and shortly thereafter departed for a four-year stint in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He returned to campus in 1946 and graduated in 1948. He received a master's degree from Northwestern University in 1949 and spent two years teaching economics at North Central before departing to the University of Washington to pursue a Ph.D.

In 1954, he returned to the College once again as a professor in the political science department and the dean of men. The following year, he began what would become a five-year stretch as the head coach of the Cardinals' swimming team. He mentored the team to a College Conference of Illinois (CCI) team championship in his first season with the program in 1956. North Central would repeat as CCI champs each subsequent year that Giere coached the team.

In 1958, North Central claimed the NAIA national championship, the first national title in the College's history, winning by a sizable margin at Ball State Teachers College (now Ball State University) in Muncie, IN. North Central won seven individual championships and totaled 88 points, well clear of runner-up Central Michigan University's total of 54 ½.

Giere led the Cardinals to runner-up finishes at the NAIA national meet in 1959 and 1960. He was voted to the position of chairman of the NAIA Swimming Committee in spring 1960 before watching two of his athletes, Dick Blick '62 and Reuben Roca '62, compete in the Summer Olympic Games. Blick won a gold medal for the United States in the 800-meter relay, the first Olympic medal ever won by a North Central athlete, while Roca competed in the 100- and 400-meter freestyle events for his home nation of Cuba.

Both Blick and Roca returned to campus for the 1960-1961 season, headlining a team that Giere anticipated would be one of North Central's very best. He said at the time, "If everyone comes through as expected, barring any unforeseen difficulties, this year should be one of the best in swimming at North Central."

Shortly after the season began, Giere was promoted to the position of dean of students and handed his coaching duties to John Molitor '60. The team lived up to Giere's early prognosis, dominating the NAIA meet from start to finish and winning what would become the first of three straight national titles.

Giere was named chair of the College's division of social and behavioral sciences in 1964. Soon thereafter, he instituted a number of changes and revisions in departmental offerings and course choices, as well as opportunities for selected students to study in Washington, D.C., and at the United Nations in New York. He was elected to the board of Naperville High School in 1965.

After a prolonged illness, Giere passed away on January 9, 1969, at age 44. North Central president Arlo Schilling penned "A Tribute to Eggert Giere," which appeared in a subsequent edition of the North Central Now, in which he noted Giere "will be remembered most as the distinguished professor of political science. He will be remembered, too, as a dynamic, enthusiastic personal friend of all who knew him. But above all he will be remembered for his vision, for his warmth, for his humor, and for his ability to cope with life's anomalies and anachronisms, its paradoxes and perplexities. All of his wisdom and experience he devoted to North Central College. North Central College will never forget."