ACADEMY HITS MILESTONE.

Byline: Jeff Smith The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - From the outside, it looks like an ordinary warehouse building.

But step inside.

It's rather fitting that behind the industrial-looking walls on the west side of town exists a gymnastics factory that has helped produce 17 Olympians - including Kerri Strug, Julianne McNamera and Tracee Talavera - and more than 50 national champions.

The history of the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, is seen throughout the gym.

There are numerous championship banners hung near the ceiling, and a variety of trophies displayed closer to the ground.

Inside the cozy office of co-founder Linda Mulvihill are several photos of past athletes, including a framed shot of three smiling young girls after a victorious 1988 meet.

"Gosh, they're probably all grown up and graduated from college by now,' Mulvihill said.

It is in these moments of reflection that Mulvihill grasps just how much has happened since she and husband Dick Mulvihill opened the academy together on Feb. 4, 1973, in Eugene.

"It's exciting for me," Linda Mulvihill said of reaching the 30-year mark. "This is what I love to do. I feel lucky to still have a job that's so fulfilling, and one that I don't dread to get to in the morning."

The academy puts on five local events a year, the largest being the Emerald Team Challenge, taking place Saturday and Sunday at Lane Community College. About 730 gymnasts are expected to participate in the meet, including teams from California, Washington and Alaska.

Meet director Gerri West said that there will be an alumni hospitality tent set up that will be filled with memorabilia to help honor the 30th anniversary of the academy.

"There's been so many lives touched by that gym over the years," said West, in her seventh year as meet director. "It's pretty amazing."

West first became involved in gymnastics in 1993 when her daughter, Melody, joined the national academy. She's seen firsthand the effectiveness of Mulvihill's coaching on her child.

"Linda is a real inspiration," West said. "My daughter always wanted to be there."

Mulvihill remains as passionate as ever to spread her knowledge toward youth. The 54-year-old competed as a gymnast in the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games, and coached Olympians in the 1976, 1984 and 1992 Games.

She also served as a gymnastics judge in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.

"She is so important to this gym," said Jamie Lanz, 15, one of two members of the academy who competed in the 2001 Junior Olympic National meet in Eugene. "Everybody looks up to her."

Mulvihill credits much of her success to her husband, an Olympic gymnastic assistant coach in 1968, 1972 and 1976 who was forced to retire after suffering a stroke on April 4, 2001.

The two came to Eugene twice in the early 1970s for gymnastic clinics and fell in love with the fitness-conscious city.

Soon, they were moving from the Midwest to start the academy, and were thrilled with their opening collection of 96 kids. Now, the academy has more than 700 participants.

However, the past 30 years haven't all been smooth sailing for the academy, which has had to persevere through some financial struggles.

While business typically evens out with slow summers and busy winters, the academy reached a low point in 1994 when it changed its location.

For 21 years, the academy had been located at 148 W. 12th Ave. in Eugene but was forced to move, Mulvihill said, when the Eugene Clinic wanted more parking spaces.

The academy took a hit when it shifted to its current home on Shelley Street in Springfield. After the move, the membership numbers dropped to 194 kids - the lowest figure since its inaugural year.

Of course, based on its reputation, people soon found the academy again and business returned to normal.

Around that same time, though, Dick Mulvihill began to experience health problems. He continued coaching despite having heart surgeries in 1994, '95 and '98 but was no longer capable of doing so after his 2001 stroke left him paralyzed on his right side and with a speech impediment.

Linda Mulvihill was forced to take on more responsibility because Dick had always been the one in charge of the business side. With the support of her staff, she's kept the academy afloat as well as taken care of her wheelchair-bound husband at home.

`It's hard on him,' Mulvihill said. `He misses it and always wants to know how we did at meets. We bring him to practice once in a while and the kids all come up and give him hugs.'

She's also received a huge lift from her son David, 21, who gave up playing junior college baseball in California after his dad's stroke and moved back to Oregon.

David is now coaching at the academy, where he and his brother and sister all participated as children.

"It's nice to keep this place in the family," David Mulvihill said. "I definitely want to stay here for a while.'

That would be just fine with Linda Mulvihill, who doesn't plan on slowing down any time soon.

"I know Dick wants the academy to keep being a place where kids can come and compete at the highest level, and that's our goal," she said. "Gymnastics is my life. I'll do this for as long as I can."

EMERALD TEAM CHALLENGE

Where: Lane Community College

When: Saturday and Sunday

What: Gymnastics meet hosted by the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics involving 730 participants from California, Washington and Alaska

CAPTION(S):

12-year-old Stephanie Blewett gets instruction from director Linda Mulvihill, who has taken a larger role at the academy in recent years. Director Linda Mulvihill leads a group of gymnasts in a stretching exercise at the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics, which recently turned 30.