Highlighted by the installation of the first-ever red synthetic surface in America, the six-year tenure of Eastern Washington University athletic director Bill Chaves has been punctuated by progress and innovation – but with a definite eye toward the future.

He has played an integral role in advancing the vision of the Gateway Project, a proposed multi-use building and seating expansion project on the East side of Roos Field on the EWU campus in Cheney, Wash. Chaves and other administrators completed a schematic design and feasibility study in 2012, and the group is currently identifying funding sources in preparation for actual architectural design and construction of the proposed $60-70 million project.

In winter 2013, Chaves was appointed to serve from 2013-17 on the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct. The 11-person committee is comprised of other administrators, as well as a student-athlete, from NCAA Division I, II and III institutions. The committee recommends policies, practices and initiatives for sportsmanship and ethical conduct in intercollegiate athletics consistent with the educational mission and goals of NCAA members. It meets twice a year at the NCAA offices in Indianapolis, Ind.

Chaves, 46, came to Eastern after three years as an associate athletic director for external affairs at Baylor University. He has vast experience in marketing and development at several schools, including two years at Northern Colorado (1999-2001), which became a member of the Big Sky Conference in the 2006-07 school year.

The high point of Eastern’s existence in NCAA Division I and the Big Sky Conference has come under the direction of Chaves. Eastern’s football program won its final 11 games of the 2010 season and captured the NCAA Division I Championship. It was Eastern’s fourth national team title, but its first as a member of NCAA Division I. The football program, with six playoff berths in a nine-year span (2004-12), also advanced to the semifinals in 2012.

He provided the initial idea and was a driving force in having Eastern’s football field at Roos Field (formerly Woodward Field) re-surfaced in red. The project was completed in September 2010 and the Eagles were 8-0 on the red Sprinturf surface at “The Inferno” en route to the national title.

Besides the turf project, his tenure in Cheney, Wash., has included several key fund-raising initiatives to help the athletic department grow and keep pace with other NCAA Division I programs. Most recently, as part of a $1.1 million project, EWU installed a new videoboard/scoreboard at Roos Field and a new videoboard at Reese Court. In addition, a seating project at Reese Court has provided new seating options and upgrades for fans for the 2012-13 school year and beyond.

Eastern also recently completed a $1.5 million locker-room project that enhanced all of Eastern’s 14 athletic programs. His guidance also helped provide a new throws area for the track and field program, as well as improvements to the strength and conditioning center and a dedicated student-athlete academic facility.

In addition, membership in the Eagle Athletic Association reached a record milestone with more than 1,000 members. He has also negotiated new media agreements for Eastern radio and television broadcasts, as well as a new third-party sponsorship sales agreement.

Also lucrative for Eastern has been his negotiating and scheduling of football games against several NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision schools, including Washington, Washington State, Oregon State and Oregon. Games versus UW and WSU mark the first time in more than 100 years that Eastern has played either of its in-state rivals on the gridiron. In addition, Chaves has helped re-establish games with NCAA basketball powerhouse Gonzaga on a nearly annual basis.

In the community, Chaves has made regular speaking engagements, including Kiwanis and Rotary, and is a member of the Spokane Athletic Club. He has worked on numerous proposals in association with the Spokane Regional Sports Commission, and helped EWU formalize a relationship with Special Olympics-Washington.

Eastern’s success on the field and in the classroom has also been impressive. In the 2009-10 school year, Eastern won the Sterling Savings Big Sky Presidents’ Cup Award. The winner of this award is determined by overall athletic success combined with team grade point averages, graduation rates, and all-conference performers with grade point averages of at least 3.0. The Eagles jumped to the top of the Presidents’ Cup standings with a first-place finish in academics, compiling the highest overall grade point average in the league at 3.244.

For the first time in school history, all of Eastern’s teams had a team grade point average above 3.00 in fall quarter 2012. He continues to pass along three key philosophies to Eastern student-athletes: 1) Earn your Eastern degree; 2) Be a leader; and 3) Perform athletically to your highest level.

Eastern has earned multiple Big Sky Player of the Year honors during his EWU tenure, and the football team has garnered a Walter Payton Award (Bo Levi Mitchell) and two Buck Buchanan Awards (J.C. Sherritt and Greg Peach). Under his direction, Eastern started a year-end awards show and celebration for student-athletes called the “EeeWoos.”

In addition, four EWU coaches have won Coach of the Year honors in the Big Sky Conference – Miles Kydd (volleyball), Wendy Schuller (women’s basketball), Darren Haworth (tennis) and Beau Baldwin (football). Baldwin also earned national coach of the year accolades after his team’s 2010 national title.

On the field in 2009-10, Eastern won its first-ever Big Sky Conference women’s basketball title and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament. The football, soccer and volleyball teams all finished as the league runner-up, with football advancing to the FCS Playoffs for the fourth time in the last six seasons.

His first year at the helm at EWU began with the football team finishing 9-4 and advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs. Also in 2007-08, Eastern won the Big Sky Conference title in men’s tennis – Eastern’s first-ever championship in that sport and first BSC title overall in any sport since 1995.

In his second year at the helm, Eastern’s volleyball program won the Big Sky regular season title and host status for the 2009 league tournament.

Chaves served four years as chair of the NCAA Administration Cabinet from 2008-12, including the final year as chair. The cabinet, which consists of 21 members from various Division I institutions and conference offices, is responsible for administrative functions within Division I athletics, including governance issues, review of applications for reclassification to Division I status, and all committee selections.  

Chaves has also served on the Big Sky Conference Championship and Competition Committee since 2008, including as chair from 2010-12. Since 2010 he has also served on the league’s Eligibility Committee. Under Eastern President Dr. Rodolfo Arevalo, he serves on the President’s Executive Council and the President’s Cabinet.

In addition, he helped shepherd EWU through a major infractions case and ultimately a victory in the appeal process. Eastern became the only school since a new format was adopted to win an appeal (11 different cases). The Eagles are no longer on probation (2008-2011).

Besides three years at Baylor, Chaves was also at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst as an assistant athletic director (2002-04) and at Northeastern University as director of external affairs for the athletic department (2001-02). All seven of those years he served under his mentor and Baylor’s current athletic director, Ian McCaw.

Chaves was also sports information director from 1990-95 at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. Chaves received his bachelor’s degree in sports administration from Saint Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Fla., in 1988. He received the first of two master’s degrees from Oklahoma State in 1991 in health, physical education and leisure. He earned a second master’s degree in sport management in 1999 from Massachusetts.

Chaves points with pride to Baylor’s achievements and milestones in his three years there. A private school of about 14,000 students in Waco, Texas, Baylor competes for an audience with the likes of Texas, a public school with 48,000 students located just 100 miles away in Austin. Both are members of the Big 12 Conference.

At Eastern, Chaves faces similar challenges with four NCAA Division I schools in a 100-mile radius of EWU. The other Division I schools in the area include Gonzaga, Washington State and Idaho. The universities of Washington and Montana, as well as four Oregon schools, are also nearby.

Chaves was born June 2, 1966. He and his wife, Liz, have a daughter, Erin (12), and two sons, Derek (9) and Kevin (7).

EWU’s Athletic Director History

The athletics director at Eastern Washington University oversees 14 Division I intercollegiate sports programs, six for men and eight for women. Bill Chaves became Eastern’s 13th athletic director in the last 40 years, including the ninth since Eastern became a member of NCAA Division I in the 1983-84 school year and a member of the Big Sky Conference in 1987-88. William B. “Red” Reese served as athletic director at Eastern for nearly 30 years before Dave Holmes took over in 1963-64. Here is a complete list since 1930-31:

1930-31 - Red Reese
1931-32 - Red Reese
1932-33 - Red Reese
1933-34 - Red Reese
1934-35 - Red Reese
1935-36 - Red Reese
1936-37 - Red Reese
1937-38 - Red Reese
1938-39 - Red Reese
1939-40 - Red Reese
1940-41 - A.C. Woodward
1941-42 - Red Reese
1942-43 - Unknown
1943-44 - Unknown
1944-45 - Unknown
1945-46 - Red Reese
1946-47 - Red Reese
1947-48 - Red Reese
1948-49 - Red Reese
1949-50 - Red Reese
1950-51 - Red Reese
1951-52 - Red Reese
1952-53 - Red Reese
1953-54 - Red Reese
1954-55 - Red Reese
1955-56 - Red Reese
1956-57 - Red Reese
1957-58 - Red Reese
1958-59 - Red Reese
1959-60 - Red Reese
1961-62 - Red Reese
1962-63 - Red Reese
1963-64 - Dave Holmes
1964-65 - Dave Holmes
1965-66 - Dave Holmes
1966-67 - Dave Holmes
1967-68 - Dave Holmes
1968-69 - Brent Wooten
1969-70 - Brent Wooten
1970-71 - Bob Anderson
1971-72 - Bob Anderson
1972-73 - Bob Anderson
1973-74 - Bob Anderson
1974-75 - Bob Anderson
1975-76 - Jerry Martin
1976-77 - Jerry Martin
1977-78 - Jerry Martin
1978-79 - Jerry Martin
1979-80 - Ron Raver
1980-81 - Ron Raver
1981-82 - Ron Raver
1982-83 - Ron Raver
1983-84 - Ron Raver
1984-85 - Ron Raver
1985-86 - Ron Raver
1986-87 - Ron Raver
1987-88 - Ron Raver
1988-89 - Ron Raver
1989-90 - Ron Raver
1990-91 - Darlene Bailey/Dick Zornes
1991-92 - Dick Zornes
1992-93 - Dick Zornes
1993-94 - Dick Zornes/John Johnson
1994-95 - John Johnson
1995-96 - John Johnson
1996-97 - John Johnson/Dick Zornes
1997-98 - Dick Zornes
1998-99 - Dick Zornes
1999-2000 - Scott Barnes
2000-01 - Scott Barnes
2001-02 - Scott Barnes
2002-03 - Scott Barnes
2003-04 - Scott Barnes
2004-05 - Scott Barnes
2005-06 - Pamela Parks
2006-07 - Darren Hamilton/Mike Westfall
2007-08 - Bill Chaves
2008-09 - Bill Chaves
2009-10 - Bill Chaves
2010-11 - Bill Chaves
2011-12 - Bill Chaves
2012-13 – Bill Chaves