The Nevada Sagebrush

Chris Ault served as Nevada's athletic director from 1986-2003. During his tenure, Ault helped add soccer, softball and women's golf teams to the list of Wolf Pack sports. -Photo from University Special Collections.

Chris Ault was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach and he is revered for putting Northern Nevada football on the map. But most of his greatest contributions to the University of Nevada came during a time period when football was his side job.

From 1986-2003, Ault served as the UNR’s director of athletics. During his tenure at the helm of all Wolf Pack sports, he was the driving force which took Nevada from being a small Division I-AA school to an up-and-coming Division I-A team to a nationally-recognized Division I university.

“He’s put the university on a bigger stage, the athletic department on a bigger stage,” said Ken Wilson, Nevada’s associate head football coach. “Nobody ever considered us being in the Sweet 16 (men’s basketball) or a bowl game (football) or an NCAA Tournament game for the softball team, but he always had that vision of pushing and pushing and driving and raising the money and building the facilities.”

The man who originally hired Ault as athletics director, Joe Crowley, said the “Little General’s” (Ault’s nickname) impacts on UNR stretched beyond the football field.

Now in his 25th year as head coach, Ault has a record of 198-93-1. He has led the Wolf Pack to four consecutive bowl games. -File Photo/Nevada Sagebrush

Crowley said one of the requirements for Ault when he was hired was that he enhance women’s opportunities in athletics.

“It was a commitment that he made and that he kept,” said Crowley, president of UNR from 1978-2001.

Ault added soccer, softball and women’s golf to the Wolf Pack’s vast list of sports, making good on his earlier promise to Crowley.

Wilson, who also served as an assistant athletics director at Nevada from 1999-2003, said Ault’s work ethic in getting these new programs was relentless.

“Obviously when you’ve got someone who is as driven as coach, you’ve got to bring it every day,” said Wilson, who has worked with Ault for 20 years. “He never takes a day off. It’s been great for me.” John Nunn, Nevada’s chief financial officer, remembers when he started working in the Wolf Pack front office and Ault was in the midst of his double duties — being football head coach as well as athletics director.

“When I came, Chris wore both titles,” said Nunn, who graduated from UNR in 1972. “He was the AD, plus still the head football coach. He was doing double duty at the time I came. I can kind of always remember when I first came, still trying to learn the job and stuff, I could never get here early enough in the morning nor leave late enough at night. I’d get here at 5:30 in the morning, I’d leave here at 10 at night and he’d still be here. In the morning he’d be in his AD’s office and at night he’d be in the football office.”

Ault’s commitment to the university has led him to raise money to improve Mackay Stadium and Legacy Hall as well as implementing student and band seating at Mackay.

Now, Ault, who was a student at UNR in the 1960s, is amidst his 25th year as head coach and 38th year working at Nevada — a legacy which shows his true commitment to the school.

“He had been a student here,” Crowley said. “As they say about Chris, it’s absolutely true It’s a cliché. They say about people who bleed the school colors — Chris is one. He bleeds silver and blue. There were many opportunities for him to go elsewhere and make more money but he did not choose to take them because of his loyalty to the institution.”

Career highlights/timeline

• 1966: Ault is Nevada’s starting quarterback.
• 1976: Ault is hired as football head coach.
• 1983: Ault leads Nevada to its first Big Sky conference championship.
• 1986: Then University of Nevada, Reno President Joe Crowley hires Ault as Nevada athletics director.
• 1988: Ault records his 100th win as Wolf Pack head coach.
• 2000: Ault plays a large hand in moving Nevada into the Western Athletic Conference.
• 2003: Ault steps down from his post as Wolf Pack athletics director.
• 2004: Ault becomes head football coach once again after stepping down in 1992

Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com.

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