The Candidates

Gary Walters

Princeton

athletic director, seven years

Some at Princeton were unsure what to make of it, but being selected the No. 10 Jock School in the nation by Sports Illustrated five years ago was a feather in the cap of Walters, a former basketball player and coach at the school.

He once said, “Intercollegiate athletics is a complementary element of the educational curriculum at Princeton.... Athletics just happens to be the sweatiest of the liberal arts.”

Princeton has had the Ivy League’s most successful athletic program under Walters, winning 83 league titles and 17 national championships. Of the school’s 33 Ivy League sports, 30 have won league titles.

Princeton finished in the Top 25 in the Sears Directors’ Cup, which rewards broad-based programs, in 1996, 1998 and 2001--the only nonscholarship school to do so.

Walters has overseen a dramatic renovation of facilities, most notably the demolition of Palmer Stadium and the building of Princeton Stadium and a track and field stadium in its place.

A point guard who played in high school under legendary Coach Pete Carril and at Princeton under Butch van Breda Kolff, Walters at 24 became the youngest head basketball coach in NCAA history when he took over at Middlebury College in 1970.

He also was head coach at Union College, Dartmouth and Providence, and worked in private business for 15 years. Walters is a longtime acquaintance of UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale.

Steve Henson