UW Huskies hire Pat Chun as next athletic director from rival WSU
Mar 26, 2024, 11:45 AM | Updated: 3:01 pm
The Apple Cup rivalry has added another layer as the UW Huskies have hired WSU athletic director Pat Chun to be their new AD.
Huard’s Reaction: WSU’s Pat Chun was hire UW ‘needed to make’
Chun comes to Washington after spending roughly six years running the athletic department at UW’s in-state rival WSU.
Chun was hired at WSU in 2018 and was the first Asian-American athletic director at a power-five school.
The University of Washington has appointed Pat Chun to serve as its 17th Director of Athletics, @UW President @amcauce announced today.#GoHuskies
— Washington Athletics (@UWAthletics) March 26, 2024
UW needed a new athletic director after Troy Dannen left the school last week for Nebraska. Dannen had only been on the job for about six months after being hired in October to replace Jen Cohen, who left Washington to be USC’s AD last August.
This will be Chun’s third athletic director gig. Prior to his time at WSU, he was the AD at Florida Atlantic.
Last week: Huard’s three things UW must prioritize with next AD hire
WSU president Kirk Schultz shared a statement Tuesday afternoon after the official announcement by Washington.
— WSU Office of the President (@WSU_Cougar_Pres) March 26, 2024
There has been a ton of turnover at UW over the last year.
It started with Cohen leaving in August and then, despite a College Football Playoff run, head coach Kalen DeBoer left Washington for Alabama just four days after losing the title game to Michigan. UW then hired Jedd Fisch from Arizona days later as the program’s next head coach.
It didn’t stop there for UW, though, as the school fired men’s basketball coach Mike Hopkins this month after seven seasons. Washington hired Utah State coach Danny Sprinkle, who was born in Pullman (where WSU’s campus is), as the next basketball coach on Monday.
Chun leaving WSU comes at a crazy time for college athletics in the Pacific Northwest.
Washington is one of 10 schools leaving the Pac-12, with the Huskies officially joining the Big Ten this summer. Chun has plenty of Big Ten experience as he was a top official in Ohio State’s athletic department for 15 years. Chun also went to Ohio State for college, earning his bachelor’s degree there.
WSU, along with Oregon State, was left out of conference realignment, and the two schools are trying to keep the Pac-12 intact. This upcoming football season, the Cougs and Beavers will play a majority of their games against Mountain West teams. In other sports, including men’s and women’s basketball, WSU and OSU will play in the West Coast Conference.
UW and WSU will continue to play the Apple Cup rivalry game in football every year, which Chun helped negotiate. This year’s game will be at Lumen Field in Seattle, home of the Seahawks, before returning to the schools’ home fields moving forward starting in 2025.
Watch Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy, including former WSU Cougars football player Michael Bumpus, react to the Chun news in the video at this link or in the player at the top of this post.
Insider View: Who is new UW Huskies coach Danny Sprinkle?
