Director of Athletics Walters '67 finalist for UCLA position

On Apr. 11, the Los Angeles Times reported that Gary Walters '67 — Princeton University's Director of Athletics — is a finalist for the position of the next Director of Athletics at UCLA. If chosen and if he accepts the position, Walters would replace the retiring 19-year veteran, Pete Dalis.

Walters was named as one of four finalists for the position and the only one from the East. The other three candidates are Gene Bleymeier, a UCLA alumnus and the athletic director at Boise State; Betsy Stephenson, the UCLA associate athletic director of six years; and Dan Guerrero, the UC-Irvine athletic director who, like Bleymeier, also attended UCLA. According to the L.A. Times, Guerrero is the only one in the group who has expressed public interest in the opening.

Working against Walters in the pursuit of the UCLA position may be that he has no experience outside the Northeast. Possibly working in his favor is his friendship with UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale.

Though the Princeton faithful would miss the man who has been at the helm of the athletic department for the last seven years, the move would represent a step up to a scholarship program that currently has nine spring sports ranked in the top 16 in the country and two sports — women's gymnastics and women's water polo — that are ranked No. 1. The Bruins also finished second in last year's Sears Director's Cup Standings, an overall ranking of the nation's strongest Div. I athletic programs.

In the seven years Walters has been at the University, Princeton athletic teams have won 17 national championships and an unheard-of 83 league titles. Teams from 30 of 33 Ivy sports have won Ivy titles. Moreover, the University was the only non-scholarship school in the country to finish in the Top 25 of the Sears' Directors Cup Standings in 1996, 1998, 2001, and possibly again this year.

Walters has also presided over a major expansion in the athletic facilities at the University.

A world-class boathouse was completed last year, a new football stadium was erected over the old one, Palmer Stadium, and the Class of 1952 Stadium for lacrosse and field hockey was built.

Walters graduated from Princeton in 1967. He played point guard for the basketball team and, soon after graduation, became the coach at Middlebury. At 24, he was the youngest head coach ever. He also became the head coach at Union, Dartmouth and Providence before taking time off to work in the private sector for 15 years. Afterwards, he returned to the University, and was appointed Director of Athletics in 1995.