New UW athletic director Pat Chun

By Jason Cruz
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Patrick Chun

The University of Washington (UW) is reportedly hiring athletic director Pat Chun away from Apple Cup rival Washington State University (WSU).

In a surprising move last week, the UW Athletic Director Troy Dannen, resigned taking the same job at the University of Nebraska. The void left by the departure brought to mind the possibility of having Washington State University Athletic Director Pat Chun come across the state to become the new Huskies athletic director.

Chun’s name appeared on a short list of potential candidates that UW may consider to fill the role.

Dannen took the job at the UW this past fall after and oversaw the hiring of a new football coach after Kalen DeBoer bolted to take the head coach position at the University of Alabama. The UW football team had just come off playing in the NCAA National Football Championship but DeBoer left shortly after the championship game in January.

Dannen was also in charge of firing men’s basketball coach Mike Hopkins after seven years of mediocrity and taking the program to just one NCAA Tournament. The hiring of a basketball coach was left to an interim athletic director after Dannen’s sudden departure.

With the program in flux with so many departures, Chun — a Korean American — could provide the stability needed for the University of Washington. Chun spent 15 years as assistant athletic director at his undergraduate school, Ohio State University, before moving on to become the athletic director at Florida Atlantic University. After five and a half years at Florida Atlantic, he took the job at Washington State becoming the first Asian American to lead a Power Five Conference School.

When Chun received the job at WSU, he received many congratulations from well-wishers he had never met and those within college athletic administration that understood and recognized the accomplishment. Asian Americans are rare in collegiate athletic administration and Chun attaining the top spot in one of the schools in the top division in the National Collegiate Athletic Association means something.

“The significance is not lost on me,” Chun told the Northwest Asian Weekly in May 2018 when he was first introduced at WSU. “I know as an Asian American, I’m sitting in this unique chair.”

In 2019, Chun was named Under Armor Athletic Director of the Year which made him the first WSU athletics leader to receive the honor.

Chun has developed a reputation as a skilled fundraiser wherever he has gone which is key for his job. He was able to secure a $16 million gift from a donor to design and construct a new athletics facility and Ohio State which was the biggest single gift in school history. He also oversaw a new $800,000 FAU Tennis Complex. At his current job, WSU fundraising is at all-time highs in annual giving and total donations since his arrival.

Under Chun, WSU athletics have thrived. Notably, WSU women’s basketball won the first Pac-12 Conference Championship for any women’s program in WSU history, the women’s volleyball team made it to eight-straight NCAA tournament appearance and most recently the WSU men’s basketball team was a surprise entrant into the NCAA tournament this year, won its opening round game versus Drake before losing to second-seeded Iowa State.

Chun also has dealt with difficult issues during his tenure including navigating athletics through the uncertainty of the pandemic, the termination of ex-Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich and his subsequent lawsuit against the school and dealing with the dissolution of the Pac-12 Conference last year.

Jason can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.