SLIPPERY ROCK — Thirty years ago, Slippery Rock University assistant football coach George Mihalik visited Portage High School on a recruiting trip.

He was after quarterback-punter Bernie Gorba. He didn't get him.

Mihalik got somebody better: Vic Campagna.

"Vic was head coach at Portage at the time and they went undefeated that year," Mihalik said. "I remember watching them celebrate on the field after their last game.

"A perfect season at any level of football is a rarity anymore. And he gave it all up."

The following year, Campagna was on The Rock's coaching staff as a graduate assistant. He's still there.

This year, Campagna, 61, is entering his 30th season as an assistant at SRU. He is the only offensive coordinator Mihalik's ever had in his 23 years as head coach.

"When a door opens, you don't let it close," Campagna said. "I went for it."

He had a wife and young children at the time — and was leaving stable employment.

"That type of move takes guts. You have to admire it," Mihalik said.

Campagna smiles at the recollection.

"My wife (Monica) is from West Sunbury and she was teaching full time," he said. "She stayed with that while I came here for a year."

Campagna wound up with a collegiate coaching career and a 25-year career teaching physical education at the university. He retired from the latter position in 2007.

When The Rock head coaching position opened in 1988, Mihalik and Campagna both applied.

"I had a strong feeling George was getting the job and I wanted to coach with him," Campagna said. "We had become good friends by then."

They're much more than that now.

"We know each other's families. We've watched each other's kids grow up," Mihalik said. "During football season, we see each other more than we see our wives."

Besides running the offense and coaching quarterbacks, Campagna handles the SRU football budget and the team's travel arrangements.

"When you coach in Division II, you wear lots of hats," Mihalik said.

In an era when assistant coaches look to move on to something better or become head coaches themselves, Campagna has never thought about leaving The Rock.

Except once.

"Don Ault was head coach when I came here," Campagna said. "He interviewed for the Marshall job and had he asked me to come with him, I would have.

"But that was dearly in my time here. The roots hadn't grown yet. Now they run very, very deep. When George is done, I'm done. We'll retire from this program together," he added.

Offensive line coach Joe Walton — a Rock assistant for 25 years — also refused to believe the grass was greener elsewhere.

"When you have a good thing, why give it up?" Walton said. "I've never looked at another position at another program and I've never really thought about why.

"Vic is great to work for. He allows your input. When you're on a staff that clicks like this ... you just don't look to leave," he added.

Campagna attributes his longevity at SRU to all of the pieces simply falling into place.

"When the head coach doesn't win these days, he gets fired. That hasn't happened here," he said. "You have to get along with and work well with that head coach. and I do. You have to enjoy your job, the surroundings, the region ... Yes to all of that."

He particularly enjoyed the years 1997 through 2000, when Rock football won four consecutive PSAC West titles and advanced to the Division II playoffs three times.

SRU has neither won the conference nor been to the playoffs since.

"That's why we're here: to get back to those days," Campagna said. "I like the group of kids we have this year. We keep building toward reaching that pinnacle again."