This spring, the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin will celebrate its 80th anniversary with a series of feature stories that celebrate the history and legacy of the conference.

For more than 40 years, Jon Lederhouse has been a steady presence in CCIW swimming — first as an athlete, then as a coach. During that time, he’s seen the conference evolve, grow and compete at the highest levels, all while maintaining a balance between academic integrity and athletic excellence.
 
“I see the CCIW as that small college, academic and athletic conference,” Lederhouse said. “It’s not a recreational or an intramural type of conference, nor is it an athletic juggernaut that cares nothing about the actual academic development of the athletes.”
 
As the CCIW celebrates its 80th anniversary, Lederhouse’s story is a reminder of the people and principles that have shaped the league — and why its legacy endures.
 
A Conference Defined by Balance
Lederhouse has long believed that the CCIW’s strength comes from its commitment to both academics and athletics. “Over the years the CCIW did a good job of trying to maintain both an academic and an athletic focus,” he said. That balance has been a hallmark of the league, setting it apart from conferences that lean heavily in one direction.
 
He also credits the stability of leadership within the conference. “One of the factors I think is significant to the CCIW is the athletic director and president leadership that had been in place from the 50s onward that helped maintain that CCIW focus,” Lederhouse said. “I would give a lot of credit to those people, the athletic directors and presidents.”
 
That continuity has helped the conference sustain a high level of competition across sports. “In most all the schools, they have maintained that desire to be competitive, at least in feature sports,” he said. “Nobody is happy if they are not winning.”
 
The People Who Made the Difference
While Lederhouse is quick to praise administrators, he also knows that coaches and student-athletes have shaped the league’s culture. In swimming, he remembers the rise of programs like North Central in the 1960s, Augustana and North Park in the following years, and the resurgence of North Central under coach Dennis Ryan in the 1970s.
 
He also recalls how the conference’s competitive spirit extended beyond the pool. “We had years where our guys would play pickup basketball with the North Central guys,” he said. “There have been some very good relationships over the years.”
 
One of his favorite memories speaks to that camaraderie. At a national meet, one of his swimmers was upset after a race. “The North Central College coach goes over and starts talking to her to calm her down and try to get her to recognize how well she had really done,” Lederhouse said. “That is a very special memory. That’s Dennis Ryan. He was correct in everything he did.”
 
He added, “That aspect of a shared coaching experience with somebody else’s athlete is not out of line in the swimming realm of things.”
 
Facilities, Rivalries and the Pursuit of Excellence
For years, Wheaton’s pool was one of the best in the conference, and Lederhouse remembers the debates over where to host the conference meet. “Wheaton College built a pool, and it was the only pool in the CCIW that had a racing course that was all deep water and a warm-up pool,” he said. “We hosted a conference meet quite a few times.”
 
Presently, he doesn’t mind the current setup at the RecPlex in Wisconsin. “Facility-wise, the RecPlex is a good swimming tank,” he said. “The difference is not a big difference.” And from a coaching standpoint, he appreciates that someone else runs the meet. “It’s nice to have somebody else run the meet because when I hosted meets at Wheaton, I hosted the meet,” he said with a laugh.
 
Memories That Last
Lederhouse’s own journey in the CCIW began when he was a high school swimmer in New York. “I was reading the conference forecast of the CCIW and it talked about North Central’s tradition, but Augustana had won last year,” he said. “And then it concluded with a sentence, and Wheaton will round out the conference.”
 
That line piqued his interest — and set him on a path that would define his career. As a coach, he led Wheaton to 49 CCIW championships (25 women and 24 men), and his teams produced multiple NCAA champions and All-Americans. But what he remembers most are the people and the moments — the athletes, the rivalries, and the relationships built over decades.
 
“I think the conference represents a good balance in Division III of a conference that cares about the students as people, cares about them as students, cares about them as athletes, cares about them as alumni,” Lederhouse said. “I think that balance is significant, and that makes the CCIW very worthwhile.”
 
And even as college athletics continue to change, Lederhouse believes the CCIW’s core values will endure. “They have never been satisfied with a regional or a provincial success,” he said. “They have always wanted to be able to be on the national stage.”