Edward Shea had such a profound effect on lifeguarding that a first-ever SIUC lifeguard competition was named after him.

And Shea, a professor emeritus in physical education, was there to enjoy the whole thing.

The Ed Shea Lifeguard Competition Saturday featured four teams of four people each. Three of the teams were from SIUC, while the other team was from the University of Northern Iowa.

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The competition was named after Shea because of his accomplishments in swimming. At 83, Shea has been a member of the All-America U.S. Masters Swim Team for 15 consecutive years.

In 1995 and 1996, he owned every national and world record at every distance and in all courses for the backstroke. Shea has beaten 22 world records and 32 national masters swim records.

Shea also helped design plans for the Southern Illinois Park District’s swimming pool and the Recreation Center pool, and he was the first person to swim in the Pulliam Hall pool.

Shea said he was surprised when he found out the competition was named in his honor and that the event coordinators wanted him to help judge it.

I didn’t realize that would happen, Shea said. It took me awhile to recover, but I got into the spirit of it. It reveals the personal relationship with the lifeguards. It makes me feel better because you never know sometimes what people think of you.

The main concern for Shea was making sure the students were recognized for their service to the University as lifeguards.

I prefer that attention be focused upon the SIU students who serve as lifeguards at the swimming facilities of SIU, rather than upon myself, Shea said. Their devotion and dedication to their tasks of safeguarding the lives of students, faculty, staff and children and parents who regularly use the Recreation Center pool, Pulliam pool and the Campus Lake Beach is most notable, yet goes unnoticed and publicly unrewarded.

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Shea said the competition showed how important lifeguarding can be.

What it did was impress those who saw it, what the nature of lifeguarding is, Shea said. A lot of people participate in swimming. I think people who saw this event have a better understanding of the importance of lifeguarding.

At Saturday’s competition, a last-minute effort by one team at SIUC earned the team a second-place finish.

Team member Jackie Ballard did not expect the team to do so well because there was so little preparation.

It is kind of ironic that we got second place, Ballard, a senior in communication disorders and sciences from Bardstown, Ky., said. We went in not so much for the competition, but we were there to have fun. It was so unusual that we got second place.

Ballard’s team was SIUC team No. 2. The three other students on the team were Steve Dalcher, of Hurst; Jason Frieders, a Belvidere native; and Jeff Howard, of Carbondale.

There were six events including the spinal injury management, in which three lifeguards rescue a victim with a spinal injury in shallow water, and the rescue tube relay, in which each team member had to wear rescue tubes, perform a stride-jump entry and swim any stroke 50 meters.

Each event had a point value, and there were 170 points total.

The University of Northern Iowa took first place with 155.25. SIUC Team No. 2 finished second with a score of 140.5, but the team finished first in the rescue tube relay and the victim tow relay. The third- and fourth-place squads scored 140 and 132, respectively.

Ballard said even though the team put everything together at the last minute, it was not difficult for the team to be competitive.

What makes it easier is we always practice on spinals, so it is almost automatic, Ballard said. We have [programs] that help us keep up our skills. That helps a lot with our back boarding.

Two teams from the University of Nebraska at Omaha were scheduled to compete but dropped out. Ballard said she would have liked to have had more teams in the competition, but that for the first effort, the competition was a success.

I think the more people who learn about the competition, the more teams will come, Ballard said. I think they should keep up the program.