Princeton University Athletics
Walters Removes Name From Consideration For Vacant UCLA AD Position
April 16, 2002 | General
April 16, 2002
Gary Walters, Princeton's Director of Athletics since June 1994, has withdrawn from consideration for the vacant AD position at UCLA.
"I am announcing my withdrawal from the selection process," Walters said. "I have great respect for UCLA as an athletic and academic institution. I hope the process has been as edifying for them as it was for me. I wish them well in appointing a new leader who will have the opportunity to add luster to the school's already impressive record."
Walters has overseen an athletic program that has won 90 Ivy League championships and 17 national championships in his tenure as Director of Athletics. He has hired 16 head coaches who have combined to win 21 league championships and four national championships. Under his leadership Princeton added five varsity sports, bringing the total number to 38, second-highest in Division I.
"I feel extraordinarily fortunate to be the Director of Athletics at Princeton University," Walters said. "It is a University with a magical name that has a unique place in the past and present of intercollegiate athletics. I'm looking forward to further strengthening Princeton's commitment to the ideal of the scholar-athlete."
Princeton has received national and regional recognition for excellence under Walters. Princeton has finished in the Top 25 in the Sears' Cup standings in 1996, 1998 and 2001, making Princeton the only non-scholarship school to do so, and the program is ranked 18th nationally after the fall and winter seasons. Princeton also has twice won the ECAC's award as the top overall athletic department in the East. Princeton has been named one of the top athletic programs in the country by Sports Illustrated and US New s and World Report, and Princeton's women's programs have been ranked in the Top 10 nationally by Sports Illustrated for Women.
Princeton has also undergone a dramatic upgrade in facilities in Walters' tenure. Among his projects have been the demolition of ancient Palmer Stadium and the construction of Princeton Stadium and Weaver Track and Field Stadium in its place, the renovation of the boathouse into the Shea Rowing Center, the expansion of Caldwell Field House and the building of Class of 1952 Stadium.
In addition to the success on the field and in construction that Princeton had had in the last eight years, Walters has also continued to integrate the athletic department into the larger framework of the University. Toward that end, he has created the Princeton Academic Athletic Fellows program and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, both designed to create dialog and establish support between Princeton's athletes and the rest of the University community. Walters has also created the Princeton Varsity Club.
Walters is a 1967 Princeton graduate. He was a three-year starting guard for the Tiger basketball team, and he helped the Tigers to the 1965 and 1967 Ivy League championships and the 1965 NCAA Final Four. Walters graduated with a degree in psychology.
After graduation he became the youngest head coach in NCAA history when he took over at Middlebury College in 1970. He would go from there to the head coaching positions at Union, Dartmouth and finally Providence during the formation of the Big East.
Walters worked in the financial world from 1981 until he returned to Princeton in 1994 as the fourth Director of Athletics in school history.
Walters was recently named to the NCAA Division I men's basketball committee, a position he will begin next season.
Walters' son Nick is a freshman at Princeton. His daughter Liza is a junior at Brown, and his younger son Matt is a freshman at Princeton High School. Walters and his wife Sue live in Princeton.