Over his decades as head swimming and diving coach at Oakland University, Pete Hovland always told his young and ambitious assistants: Move as fast as you can, as often as you can, to get to where you want to be.
Hovland, though, never followed his own advice.
He arrived at a small Division II campus in Rochester in August 1979 as an assistant coach, was named head coach two years later, and never left what, now, is a much-larger Division I campus. Hovland on Thursday announced his intention to retire at the end of this season, after more than four decades spent compiling arguably the greatest coaching resume in Michigan sports history.
Hovland, 68, will retire in May, capping a wildly decorated coaching career that includes 44 consecutive league championships on the men’s side, and 28 consecutive league championships on the women’s side. He’s been head men’s coach for 42 seasons, and head women’s coach for 24 seasons, including the last 22 consecutively. He won four national championships at the Division II level, following eight consecutive runners-up in Division II.
Hovland was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
“I think, in the history of coaching, I don’t think there’s anybody who has been more successful than he has been,” said Oakland’s head men’s basketball coach Greg Kampe, who’s only been on the job for 39 seasons. “Someone would have to show it to me.”
Hovland was a 23-time All-American and five-time individual national champion at Chico State, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1976. He later earned a master’s from Northern Iowa before following his college coach, legendary Ernie Maglischo, to Oakland. Maglischo was named Oakland head men’s coach in 1979, and hired Hovland as an assistant coach, as well as the head coach for the women’s team.
When Maglischo left two years later, then-athletic director Corey Van Fleet, himself with a lengthy swimming and diving background, named Hovland head men’s coach at just 27. Hovland relinquished his job as head women’s coach, but took over the women’s program again in 2001.
He led the men’s team to eight straight national runners-up before winning four consecutive Division II national championships from 1994-97. In 1997, Oakland moved up to Division I, built a $37 million athletics complex that included a basketball arena (O’Rena) and pool (Aquatics Center) and continued its winning ways in the pool. In the 14 years Oakland was a member of the Summit League, no team but Oakland won a swimming and diving championship, men’s or women’s.
The ride has continued in the Horizon League.
“In sports, you chase championships,” Hovland said in an interview Friday. “That’s what we do. To think we’ve consistently won like we have over all these years is not anything anybody could’ve rightfully fathomed.
“It’s a monster that just keeps growing.
“I still have bigger dreams for the program.”
Like with Kampe — the two good friends have spent a combined 83 years coaching at Oakland — Hovland didn’t anticipate spending a lifetime at the university, let alone even more than a few years.
Instead, he’s built a life here, even meeting wife, Laurie, threw his friendship with the Kampes. Kampe’s then-wife, Sue, introduced Pete and Laurie. She worked in the auto industry, and retired a year ago. Ever since, she’s been making the push for Pete to join her.
He finally decided it was the right time. He’s had two of his good friends for college die in the last five years, and Laurie lost her best friend to cancer this week. The Hovlands are in good health, and want to enjoy whatever adventures life has left for him.
There will be a trip to Hawaii — Pete has been promising Laurie a trip for quite some time — and more traveling and camping, plus more time for Hovland to spend fly-fishing. He’s still close with many college friends who live in California, and he expects there will be many get-togethers.
“You know, when it’s been your entire life, it was tough,” Hovland said of the decision to finally retire. “My wife retired last year, Jan. 1, and she’s loving life and she’s been kind of pushing me in this direction.
“We’ve talked about doing a lot of different things. It looks like this is a good opportunity to join her.”
And, so, all these years later, he’s finally getting out of the pool — but not before one last run in the Horizon League (championships are Feb. 15-18 at IUPUI), the National Invitational Championship and, perhaps, some NCAA feats, as well. There are four more home meets remaining, and he also wants to remain an adviser to the program, likely on the developmental and fundraising side of things.
Hovland’s list of accomplishments is long. He’s a member of multiple Halls of Fame, including Chico State, City of Chico and the Summit League, as well as the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, alongside such luminaries as Chris Osgood, Brendan Shanahan and Ben Wallace.
In 2021, the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America named him one of the top 100 swimming and diving coaches in the past 100 years.
In 2012, Hovland also was inducted into the Oakland University Hall of Honor, alongside his longtime friend, Kampe.
“Remarkably, he has led the University’s swimming and diving program for over half the university’s existence and has achieved incomparable success that is nearly impossible to believe,” athletic director Steve Waterfield said.
Added university president Ora Hirsch Pescovitz: “The decades of accomplishments, championships and longevity elevate Pete’s legacy to the highest coaching peak where he takes his place among renowned NCAA coaches.
Said Tracy Huth, once an assistant under Hovland and a former women’s head coach and former Oakland athletic director: “Now, let’s go win one more championship!”
In Hovland’s 18 years at the Division II level, Oakland finished in the top-three nationally 15 times. He’s been named a conference coach of the year 29 times, and a national coach of the year multiple times. He’s sent more than a dozen swimmers and divers to the Division I NCAA Championships.
Through the years, his teams also have consistently been one of the top academic teams, too.
Hard to imagine, way back in 1979, after brief stints coaching at Chico State and Northern Iowa, that a phone call from his old college coach to bring him to some school called Oakland would lead to a lifetime of memories and championships. When he arrived on campus, there might’ve been 7,500 students, and each coach, Hovland and Kampe included, were expected to do additional tasks, because the athletic department was so small. Now, enrollment is nearly double, and the swimming and diving trophy haul so large, there’s no place to display them all.
“We grew up together in the business, we leaned on each other. Pete knows more about me and I know more about him than probably anyone in the world,” said Kampe, whose current contract takes him through 2026-27, which would give him 43 years at the university, one shy of Hovland. “Time just goes by so fast, you don’t know what happened to it. We really enjoyed each other. It was kind of a brotherhood, a bond.
“And the next thing you know, you’ve got gray hair.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tonypaul1984
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