PRINCETON ATHLETIC DIRECTOR (Odds)

Gary D. Walters, a 1967 graduate of Princeton, was named director of athletics in June 1994. Walters has since led an Athletic Department that has won the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports standings every year and been honored nationally with recognition by the ECAC, Sports Illustrated and the Sears Directors' Cup.

Princeton teams have won 83 Ivy League and 17 national championships in his first seven years as director of athletics. During that time Princeton has fielded 33 teams in Ivy League sports, and 30 of those have won at least one championship. In addition, 35 of the 38 Princeton varsity teams have played in postseason championship competition. Princeton has also finished in the Top 25 in the Sears Directors' Cup in 1996, 1998 and 2001, making Princeton the only non-scholarship school ever to do so.

In addition to this on-field success, Walters has overseen a dramatic renovation of athletic facilities, most notably the demolition of Palmer Stadium and the building of Princeton Stadium and Weaver Track and Field Stadium in its place. Other projects have included the construction of the Class of 1952 Stadium, the new squash courts in Jadwin Gym, the addition of 16 locker rooms to the Caldwell Field House and the renovation and expansion of the boathouse to the Shea Rowing Center.

Walters has also adopted a management philosophy based on the ideals of values-based coaching and the true student-athlete on campus. Toward that end, he created the Princeton Academic-Athletic Fellows program, which links academic, athletic and social pursuits by identifying faculty members and administrators to serve in support roles for each team.

Walters has also created the Princeton Varsity Club, a unique support group geared toward providing broad-based assistance for the Tigers' 38 intercollegiate teams. Walters has spearheaded and implemented a gender-neutral compensation structure for coaches and undertaken management responsibilities for the University's Office of Athletic Communications and Athletic Development Office. Among his other projects have been the planning and organization of the 1996-97 Faculty Symposiums on Athletics and the development of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee to better integrate athletics into the University community.

Graduated from Princeton. Has no ties to KU. Can he be expected to leave the Ivy League and his alma mater for the Jayhawks?

A three-time letterwinner as a point guard on Princeton's basketball team, Walters became the youngest head basketball coach in NCAA history in 1970, when he took over the duties at Middlebury College. He then spent three years as head coach at Union College (where he coached former Tiger head basketball coach Bill Carmody) before returning to Princeton as an assistant coach in 1973.

Walters also served as head coach at both Dartmouth College and Providence College before joining Kidder, Peabody & Co. in 1981 as an investment representative. He left as a senior vice president in 1990 to become senior partner of Woolf Associates Sports Management in Boston, and he then became managing director of Seaward Management, an investment advisory firm, in 1992. He was a three-year participant in the executive education program sponsored by the Securities Industry Association conducted at the Wharton School of Business. While at Kidder he served for three years, one as chair, on the New England NASD district business conduct committee, the regulatory body responsible for enforcing security regulations in over-the-counter markets.

Walters, who played high school basketball at Reading (Pa.) High under longtime Princeton coach Pete Carril, helped Princeton to two Ivy League titles and the 1965 NCAA Final Four. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in February 1967, and he received the team's B.F. Bunn Trophy.

Walters and his wife, Susan, have three children: Liza (20), Nick (18) and Matt (12). Liza is a junior at Brown, while Nick is a freshman at Princeton.

Walters was recently named to the NCAA Division I men's basketball committee and will begin his term next season. Among the committee's responsibilities are selection of the field for the NCAA tournament and oversight of the tournament itself.

—Courtesy of goprincetontigers.com.