Titans to Name Athletic Director : Administration: Fresno State’s John Easterbrook is expected to replace Bill Shumard.

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

University President Milton Gordon has called an 11 a.m. news conference to introduce the successor to Bill Shumard, who resigned in May and later became an assistant athletic director at 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 submitted to Gordon without ranking by a 12-member search group appointed by Gordon. 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 they had not been offered the position. Easterbrook, contacted by telephone in Fresno on Wednesday night, said any announcement would have to come from the university.

Cunningham declined to discuss Easterbrook until after today’s announcement “to be fair to everyone involved.”

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

He 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., and attended high school there. In high school, he lettered two years in football, three years in basketball and three years in golf and earned the school’s outstanding athlete award his senior year.

Easterbrook stayed in Champaign to play football at Illinois, where he was the starting quarterback for three years. The Illini coach at that time, the late Ray Eliot, frequently would mention Easterbrook in his later years as an athlete who played to the maximum of his ability. In college, he was 5 feet 9 and 150 pounds.

He was chosen most valuable player of the Copper Bowl all-star game in Phoenix following his senior season.

Easterbrook also was a member of the Illini basketball team his first two years in college before deciding to concentrate on football.

In 1960, he was chosen for an NCAA postgraduate scholar-athlete award. He received his bachelor’s degree from Illinois in commerce and law and attended law school from 1960-62 before deciding to enter coaching.

At Fresno State, Easterbrook’s primary responsibilities were supervising the Bulldog baseball, cross-country, tennis and track programs as well as assist with men’s basketball and football. He also oversaw facilities and was involved in event management.

Easterbrook and his wife, Cynthia, have three adult children.