A collegiate career that saw him become one of the first in a long line of standout swimmers at North Central College was all about individual relationships for Dr. Jim Kalas ’55. He used his undergraduate experience as a springboard to a long and distinguished professional career primarily centered in higher education.
Kalas was a captive audience in his recruitment to North Central by the Cardinals’ coach, the late Hal Henning ’41, who urged Kalas to consider joining the team from the chair in Henning’s dental practice in Naperville.
“I lived in Naperville and had gotten to know Hal, as he was my dentist,” Kalas said. “He was the one who persuaded me to take up swimming. I worked out with the (North Central) team my senior year of high school, since there was no high school team in Naperville at that point. I just sort of naturally moved on to North Central, and it was the only place I applied.”
After his arrival on campus in 1951, Kalas quickly became a pillar of a program, which won the College Conference of Illinois (CCI) championship each of his four years on the squad. He won individual CCI titles in the 100-yard and 220-yard freestyle events in 1952, 1953 and 1954, while also adding a 120-yard individual medley title in 1952 and a 100-yard freestyle crown in 1953. His eight individual conference championships rank as the second-most in the program’s history to this day.
In the days before collegiate competition was broken into divisions, the Cardinals took on all comers, traveling by car to compete against teams of all sizes throughout the Midwest.
“It was pretty informal,” Kalas said. “There weren’t that many colleges with teams at that time. We competed in the CCI, and we’d compete with other teams in the Chicago area and some Big Ten teams. We went out to Iowa City and swam against the University of Iowa one time.”
Just as Henning was the singular figure providing guidance toward athletic success, Kalas had a similar mentor in his academic pursuits. He chose to major in sociology under the tutelage of the late Lowell Maechtle ’36.
“In those days, you majored not in a department, but an individual faculty member, and there were some great ones at that time,” Kalas said. “(Maechtle) was absolutely a super teacher, so I majored in sociology because I majored in him.”
After graduation, Kalas went on to earn a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the University of Chicago in 1958 and a doctorate degree in philosophy from Columbia University in 1962 before beginning his career as an assistant professor of philosophy and religion at Lake Forest College. He received North Central’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 2000, retiring the same year after 21 years with the State University of New York (SUNY) system as an associate provost, overseeing areas such as research, economic development and international programs. Kalas later joined the University of Albany as a part-time professor in educational administration and policy studies.
