Titans Tap Fresno State for New Athletic Director

John Easterbrook, associate athletic director at Fresno State, is expected to be named Cal State Fullerton’s athletic director today.

An 11 a.m. news conference has been called by university President Milton A. Gordon to introduce the successor to Bill Shumard, who resigned in May and later became an assistant athletic director at his alma mater, Long Beach State.

Easterbrook, 55, has been at Fresno State for nine years and was hired by Gary Cunningham, the former UCLA basketball coach, shortly after Cunningham became athletic director there.

Easterbrook was one of three finalists whose names were submitted to Gordon without ranking by a 12-member search group. The other two finalists were Judith Davidson, athletic director at Central Connecticut State, and Jack Mehl, business manager of the Rose Bowl, according to sources close to the committee.

Davidson and Mehl said Wednesday night that they had not been offered the position. Easterbrook, contacted by telephone in Fresno Wednesday night, said any announcement would have to come from the university. He declined further comment.

Easterbrook is a past member of the Big West Conference basketball tournament committee and has been chiefly responsible for NCAA compliance for Fresno State.

Easterbrook was president and chief executive officer for American National Bank in Laramie, Wyo., before he took the administrative position at Fresno State.

Before going into private business, he was an assistant football coach for 13 years with stops at Idaho, Oregon State, Illinois and Wyoming.

Easterbrook is a native of Champaign, Ill.

Easterbrook and his wife Cynthia have three adult children.