{"id":305206,"date":"2018-04-11T09:16:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T16:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=305206"},"modified":"2018-04-11T09:16:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T16:16:55","slug":"ball-state-mens-swimming-head-coach-bob-thomas-announces-retirement-after-39-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ball-state-mens-swimming-head-coach-bob-thomas-announces-retirement-after-39-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Ball State Men’s Swimming Head Coach Bob Thomas Announces Retirement After 39 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 39 seasons serving as the Ball State men’s swimming and diving head coach, Bob Thomas<\/strong> has announced his retirement effective in July 2018.<\/p>\n

“It’s been an honor and a privilege to work with the hundreds of swimmers and divers over the last 39 years,” Thomas said. “Now that I’m retiring, I am looking forward to my next adventure.”<\/p>\n

Thomas began coaching at Ball State in June of 1979 and also spent five seasons co-coaching the women’s swimming and diving team (2004-05 to 2008-09). Prior to Ball State, Thomas coached at Lincoln College (1976-79) and Evergreen Park High School in Illinois (1975-76).<\/p>\n

“Coach Thomas has had a wonderful career and positively influenced the lives of many young men,” Director of Athletics Mark Sandy<\/strong> said. “His contributions to the Ball State Athletic Department and the University are many, and we wish him well as he moves to the next phase of his life.”<\/p>\n

Thomas is the winningest coach in program history with 217 total wins, including an undefeated season in 1991-1992. A four-time Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year (1992-93, 1994-95, 1999-00, 2002-03), Thomas guided the Ball State men’s squad to a pair of runner-up finishes at the MAC Championships (1992-93, 2002-03) along with top three finishes eight times.<\/p>\n

Over his career, Thomas coached his student-athletes to 45 MAC individual championships, while helping guide his relay teams to seven league titles. His student-athletes earned All-MAC First Team honors eight times, while collecting All-MAC Second Team accolades on 17 occasions. He also coached his athletes to four All-America honors, nine MAC Diver of the Year awards, four MAC Outstanding Senior awards and one MAC Swimmer of the Year title.<\/p>\n

Outside of the pool, 65 athletes were named to the Academic All-MAC team while five swimmers have Distinguished Scholar Athletes awards under Thomas’ guidance. His squads have been chosen as a College Swimming Coaches of America Academic All-America Team in all but one semester he has coached. Two athletes during his time at Ball State were named to the CSCA Academic All-America First Team and one was named to the CoSIDA Academic At-Large All-District V Team.<\/p>\n

Two of Thomas’ swimmers earned the Bob James<\/strong> Award. In 1989, Rick Winegardner<\/strong> earned the first ever Bob James Award. Last year, Tanner Barton<\/strong> was the second Ball State men’s swimmer to receive that honor. The Bob James Scholarship Award recognizes one female and one male student who have achieved a minimum grade point average of 3.50 and have displayed good character, leadership and citizenship.<\/p>\n

Thomas is a member of the Eastern Illinois University Athletics Hall of Fame where he won 14 national championships as a collegiate swimmer\u2014seven NAIA national titles in 1971 and 1972 and seven NCAA Division II titles in 1973 and 1974.<\/p>\n

The above press release courtesy of Ball State Swimming and Diving<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 39 seasons serving as the Ball State men’s swimming and diving head coach, Bob Thomas has announced his retirement effective in July 2018. “It’s been an honor and a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":305209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[67175,67176,67174,11754,67173,24032,63778,48669],"class_list":["post-305206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college","tag-ball-state-athletic-department","tag-ball-state-mens-swimming-and-diving","tag-bob-james","tag-bob-thomas","tag-director-of-athletics-mark-sandy","tag-mac-swimmer","tag-mid-american-conference-swimming","tag-tanner-barton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nBall State Men's Swimming Head Coach Bob Thomas Announces Retirement After 39 Years - 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