Link to 2011 Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame Service & Contribution Award Page
Nothing was going to keep
H. George Frederickson from attending the 2010 NCAA Division I National Championship football game to see the realization of his vision. And he even made the celebration to boot.
The former Eastern Washington University president, who was instrumental in Eastern gaining NCAA Division I and Big Sky Conference status in the 1980's, passed away on July 24. He was 86.
Frederickson served as the 21st president at Eastern from 1977-87, and he spearheaded Eastern's drive to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I status after being a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) for most of the school's history. He led the tireless efforts in the 1970's and the 1980's in helping Eastern achieve and maintain NCAA Division I status and become a member of the Big Sky Conference.
Even though it came more than 20 years after his 10-year tenure at EWU, he was in Frisco, Texas, on Jan. 7, 2011, when Eastern beat Delaware 20-19 for the national crown. Frederickson even donned an old Eastern letterwinners jacket for a few photos at the pep rally the night before. He then traveled to the Inland Northwest a few days later when Eastern had a celebratory parade and rally in Spokane.
In 2011, Frederickson and five other administrators were presented the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame Service and Contribution Award for their relentless efforts and perseverance in helping EWU attain the highest level of collegiate competition. They faced a lot of tumult along the way, but their efforts paid off when the school mesmerized the region with its 2010 title.
Helping Frederickson and Eastern along that path and also honored in 2011 were Ken Dolan (former assistant to the president), Russ Hartman (former vice president for business and finance), Jim Kirschbaum (former board of trustees chair) and Bill Shaw (former chief financial officer). Also honored posthumously in 2011 was former athletic director Ron Raver, who was inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.
After leaving Eastern, Frederickson went on to a long tenure in at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., as a faculty member in in the School of Public Affairs and Administration. His is survived by his wife of 62 years, Mary.
The family suggests memorials go to the EWU Foundation which he helped establish, and the H. George and Mary Frederickson Fellowship at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas.
Family Obituary . . .
CLICK HERE for online version
Frederickson, George
On Friday July 24, surrounded by his family, George Frederickson of Lawrence, Kansas peacefully returned to his heavenly home.
George was born July 17, 1934 in Twin Falls Idaho, the son of Jack and Zelpha Richins Frederickson. George and his many siblings worked with their parents to support the family drive-in and candy store. The hard work was balanced by lots of fun, and George loved hunting and fishing with his dad and brothers. But initially George did not show too much promise as a scholar. Teachers sent the unruly boy to the library for talking out of turn, where George began reading books to pass the time. Exposure to the world of ideas contained in books sparked a love of learning that changed the course of his life.
After two years at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, George served a mission in South Africa for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Witnessing apartheid influenced George's worldview and informed his subsequent research on social justice and equity.
After returning to BYU George fell in love with Mary Williams. Mary waited for him to complete his Army training before they were married in the St. George Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in March 1958. George earned an MPA (UCLA) and PhD (USC). By the time George accepted his first teaching job at the University of Maryland Mary and George had started their family. They headed out to the east coast with their young sons Thomas and Christian, and Lynne was born soon after they arrived in Maryland.
George's career took the family to New York, where David was born, and then to North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, and Washington state. During these years George took the family on many camping trips, zigzagging the country from Mt. Katahdin in Maine to the Olympic Peninsula, from the beaches of South Carolina to the mountains of New Mexico.
After the children had grown, George and Mary moved to Lawrence Kansas. George loved gathering his family together for holidays and reunions. Family vacations always included model rockets and homemade potato guns.
George and Mary loved theater and travel. They enjoyed trips to New York to see shows and treasured their annual visit to the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Visiting professorships allowed George and Mary to live abroad for a time in Oxford, England and in Shanghai, China.
George held faculty positions at the University of Maryland and Syracuse University, and was the founding Associate Dean of Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Dean of the University of Missouri's School of Community Affairs. At 42 George was appointed President of Eastern Washington State College in Cheney, a position he would hold for 10 years. Under George's innovative and dynamic leadership, and in the face of considerable resistance, the college transitioned into a thriving regional university, with a name change to Eastern Washington University with campuses in Cheney and Spokane. George's tenure also included the creation of Schools of Health Sciences, Public Affairs, and Mathematical Sciences & Technology, and numerous relevant graduate and undergraduate degrees and programs. The university also improved Eastern Washington as a cultural, arts and science hub, expanding the influence of the school well into Washington's Inland Empire community. With an eye to the future, George shored up the legacy of the school by establishing the EWU Foundation. And always focused on attracting positive attention and increasing the impact of the university, George transitioned athletics from competition exclusively with other small schools to admission into the NCAA and membership in the Big Sky and other major athletic conferences. These changes were not without their detractors at the time, but in the years since George's presidency, the Eastern Eagles' large fan base has enjoyed much success in athletics, with two NCAA Basketball Tournament appearances and 13 NCAA Football Division 1 FCS Tournament appearances. George was especially thrilled to attend the 2010 National Football Championship, and it was a sweet victory for him to watch his beloved Eagles win it all.
George returned to full-time scholarship when he was appointed the Edwin O. Steen Distinguished Professor of Public Administration at the University of Kansas. While at KU George founded the prestigious Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. After retirement George continued to write and visit his office until this year. In 2018 George veered off the academic path to write Hot Tickets, a book about the KU Basketball ticket scandal. Despite increasing health difficulties, he was able to complete and publish the book last year.
Over a long and distinguished career, George published hundreds of scholarly articles and dozens of books, but perhaps the professional accomplishment of which he was proudest are the many dozens of scholars around the world who count George as a mentor.
George was preceded in death by his parents Jack and Zelpha Frederickson, his brothers Bryan, Richard and Robert, sister Alice Brown, brother-in-law Larry Shupe, sisters-in-law Virgean and Bernice, stepmother Bonnie, and stepbrother Garey Stimpson. George is survived by his wife Mary, his children Thomas (Leslie), Christian (Jenny), Lynne, and David (Julie), brothers John (Annette), Kent (Sharon), Grant (Valeta), Dennis (Kathy), sister Jean Ann Shupe, sisters-in-law Barbara and Arletta, brother-in-law Lloyd Brown, stepsister Mary Thrall, 15 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren, and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.
George's family looks forward to celebrating his life next spring at a memorial service open to all family and friends. The family suggests memorials go to the H. George and Mary Frederickson Fellowship at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas, or to the EWU Foundation. All memorials may be sent in care of Warren McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th Street, Lawrence, Kansas 66044. For more information or to post a condolence go to warrenmcelwain.com.
Excerpt Courtesy of Paul Delaney from his Upcoming Book "Taking Flight" on EWU Football . . .
George Frederickson: EWU's 'mover & shaker'
He led the school over the rocky road to university status, Big Sky membership and expanding Spokane footprint
It is, perhaps, noteworthy that during the decade Dr. H. George Frederickson spent at the helm as president of Eastern Washington University came the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Saint Helens.
Consider it a metaphor of sorts for the multiple upheavals Frederickson rode along the way.
Still to this day, some 40 years past the Sunday, May 18, 1980, explosion that vaporized thousands of feet of the top of one of the Washington Cascade's most iconic peaks, we find remnants of the grey smelly ash that blanketed so much of the Inland Northwest.
Frederickson's tenure from January 1977 through August of 1987 was also one of sizeable shifts in the landscape at Eastern. And here, too, the fruits of his often-controversial labor are still visible, however they tend to shine much more brightly in Cheney.
Let's see, for starters there was the minor detail of the shift from Eastern Washington State College to Eastern Washington University. And to go with that came the elevation of athletics from the next door neighbor feel of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) to the shopping mall of the NCAA.
And then there was Eastern's push into the hallowed ground of Spokane, offering pushback to the school down the road in Pullman who thought this was their turf —and theirs alone.
Call it educational "plate tectonics" that took place under Frederickson and did so somewhere in between the geologic glacial pace and real time.
Frederickson was also charged with how to oversee the transformation of a school that throughout history was best known as the machine which extruded educators and make it a place for a larger swath of college-bound students.
For his efforts, Frederickson, along with a number of associates, were inducted into the Eastern Washington University's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011. Joining him were Ken Dolan, former Assistant to the President, Russ Hartman, former Vice President for Business & Finance, Jim Kirschbaum, former Board of Trustees Chair, Ron Raver, Former Athletic Director and Bill Shaw, former Chief Financial Officer.
Hitting the ground running:
Frederickson, a 1961 graduate of Brigham Young University, and who earned his master's in public administration from UCLA and a doctorate down the road at USC, was chosen to replace Emerson Shuck who had served Eastern Washington State College between 1967 to 1976.
"They had had a sweet, organized, decent, honorable guy," Frederickson said of his predecessor. "They were a good college and he was a wonderful man."
But Eastern wanted more — especially more visibility in Spokane.
When Frederickson was hired, he said there was no specific mention of athletics being a priority. "The only thing I remember in the interview process and the discussions with the trustees was that finalists were expected to give a talk to the faculty, administration and students," Frederickson said.
IN the question and answer session and one individual stood out to Frederickson. He asked Frederickson "What about athletics, what do you think about athletics, what has been your record?"
Frederickson said he told the young man the truth, that his academic career had nothing to do with athletics and had to do with public administration. Later he learned the question came from future athletic director, Ron Raver.
But Frederickson, who was at the time the Dean of the College of Public and Community Services at University of Missouri-Columbia, was mindful of the budding athletic facilities on the far western edge of the Cheney campus.
"It looks like you have some nice facilities and they should be taken advantage of," he said about the Phase, which was under construction. The new 6,000-seat basketball Special Events Pavilion — later named Reese Court — had just recently opened.
Frederickson said he had to get to know more about the athletics sanctioning organization at the time, NAIA, before any changes were considered. But there were more important things that came first.
The University process:
"It was high politics," Frederickson said of the effort for Eastern to become a university. So, he spent as much time going around the state getting to know various leaders and Governor Dixie Lee Ray as well. Ray had won the 1976 general election over King County Executive John Spellman, 53%–44%.
As momentum was building to elevate the three state "directional" colleges — Central, Eastern and Western — to university status, Frederickson told of one notable schmoozing effort to earn support from the new governor, whom he knew had to be on board with the idea.
That came when he and Ray took a few whirls on the dance floor at a gala in Spokane to celebrate her victory. Whether or not that factored in, Ray got behind the bill, as did noted Spokane-area senator, Sam Guess.
Frederickson said people forgot that Eastern hung its hat on the idea of being a teacher's college, and maybe had a basic understanding of the difference between a college and university.
"Colleges are thought to be outgrowths of professions, guilds and things like the bar and medicine," Frederickson explained. "There's no university of medicine or law, only a college of law." A university is a collection of such schools.
Before being Eastern Washington State College, it was a "normal" school, meaning the normal course of public education, Frederickson explained. Eastern had departments like journalism or radio/television, music and business for instance.
While there were a number of concerns over university status by the notable bigger state schools, the University of Washington and Washington State, one of the possible worries was a relatively simple fix.
In the final weeks before their bill was to come up in the legislature, Spokane senators Sam Guess and Bob McCaslin had discussions with WSU President Glen Terrell who would feel better if Eastern dropped the word "state" from its name.
"It would be less confusing with Washington State, he thought," Frederickson said.
"What would you think about Eastern Washington University?" Terrell suggested to McCaslin.
The more Frederickson thought about the streamlined name — EWU — the more he liked it. "The other two presidents at Central and Western, were smarter than me," Frederickson said. "They liked it immediately."
The bill passed in the 1977 legislature and, as Frederickson said, "It was time to get on to bigger stuff," like seriously expanding Eastern's footprint to complement its fancy new designation.
They never saw us coming:
For years Eastern had a presence in Spokane as it attempted to better serve what had become a significant population of "commuter students" who found the 20-mile drive to Cheney somewhat abhorrent as they chased higher-education goals. Since the 1950s Eastern has offered, enrolled and taught over 75% of the public upper-graduate and graduate courses in Spokane, and it still does, Frederickson pointed out.
Notable satellite classrooms were housed among the cramped upper-level floors of the old Bon Marche department store. The Bon later became Macy's and now has been converted to small retail and condos.
Eastern also leased space at the Great Western Bank Building on Riverside near Monroe where future journalists caught classes taught by Dick Hoover and Patrick McManus.
But Frederickson had other ideas — to centralize Eastern's real estate in one location in Spokane.
Eastern was figuratively seen as trespassing by Washington State University, however.
"They did have a pattern of throwing around the phrase, "Cougar Country," Frederickson said. But he added that WSU seemed to take Spokane for granted, thinking that there was no competition.
They simply did not see Eastern coming, Frederickson believes. "I think that's a relatively fair description," he said.
"Then we got that new building," Frederickson said, referring to the former Farm Credit Bank Building on First Avenue in Downtown Spokane that was acquired by the EWU Foundation in 1982. The four-story "Spokane Center" opened for use with 33 classrooms and space for 800 students in 1983.
"I would argue that when Eastern purchased the building downtown, it started the open competition often known as 'turf wars.'" Frederickson said.
This "skirmish" on Wazzu's supposed territory— perhaps a border war of sorts that occur across the globe — eventually had a peace agreement. That has led to the miraculous transformation of old Spokane rail yards into the glistening Riverpoint Campus that has participation from not only Eastern and WSU, but Gonzaga and Whitworth, too.
"That all has been really good for Spokane," said Frederickson who can lay claim to getting thing started. "Competition does produce good results," he added.
To stay or not to stay?
The other major battle during Frederickson's tenure at Eastern was just what to do with athletics.
Frederickson said his interest in sports was passing and limited as a youth.
"I played a little football," he said, in high school but he does have a specific fond memory from childhood spent in the Mountain West.
But from an early age he knew of the power sports in a different way.
"I remember lying on the carpet in the living room listening to the radio — radio was a big thing in those PRE-TV days — of the Notre Dame/Army football game," Frederickson said. "I remember thinking Notre Dame must be the most wonderful, most impressive, perfect college to go to."
"Now how would a 15-year-old kid have gotten it into his head that Notre Dame was a wonderful place?" Frederickson asked.
It illustrated to Frederickson early on how influential sports could be in the mission of higher-education. It would be both a blessing and somewhat of a curse in later years. But nothing some stubbornness could not help cure in the case of the latter.
Early in his term, 1978 or 1979, Frederickson said he had been pondering what direction to take with athletics.
One question, he pondered was shall athletics be closed down? "That would be awfully hard to justify at the same time we're building the Phase," which included Reese Court, Frederickson said.
Basketball coach, Jerry Krause, was not a fan of elevating his sport to NCAA. "He was a real rock in the road," according to Frederickson.
The Eastern trustees, Frederickson said, were "kept in the know and apprised that changes may be forthcoming."
He appointed school Vice President Fred Johns to chair a committee composed of faculty, students, trustees and community members to chart the future course of athletics at Eastern.
They were entrusted to determine the future direction of sports on campus. The choices, Frederickson said, were:
• Shall we take a lower profile?
• Stay in the NAIA or move to the NCAA?
• What should future relations with Central and Western be?
Frederickson recalled one specific meeting of the group.
"They began meeting and it was clear fairly early that there was no stomach for going downward," he said.
There was some support for the 'all is well' thesis and just stay the course,'" Frederickson said, that being to remain NAIA. Then there was the faction that wanted major changes.
Out of all the discussion came what would be known as The John's Report, which, Frederickson recalled, was "Accepted by the trustees unanimously following a long meeting into the night."
In brief, and among other things, it recommended leave the NAIA and go to NCAA Division II and in doing so seek a new league affiliation, exiting the Evergreen Conference where Eastern had called home for decades.
"The response was very mixed as you might imagine," Frederickson said. They ranged from replies like Eastern is "Way too big for your britches," to "You don't know your place" to "Wouldn't this be great for the students," Frederickson said.
Courting the Big Sky:
And so began the quest for Big Sky Conference membership.
Normally it's the conference that looks for suitable members. "It was not the Big Sky's initiative that Eastern be a part of it, it was Eastern's," Frederickson said. Amidst certain elements of doubt that the school could ever be part of the conference, Frederickson forged ahead.
He went to work scheduling appointments in the offices of every president in the Big Sky to test the waters of who were and were not on board.
But Frederickson had a more pressing need. He had to find a new athletics' point man as Jerry Martin decided to take off the athletic director's hat and return fulltime to his love of track and cross country.
While Frederickson had to find a new AD, he wanted to not have to go outside to fill the job. "I was enough of an outsider, to bring in another one…" he wondered.
One of Frederickson's assistants came up with the idea of Ron Raver, who was an assistant to Krause in basketball. Frederickson remember him, recalling the Q&A session when he was in the interview process to be hired.
"He was optimistic, can do, very enthusiastic, very energetic — and well liked," Frederickson said after the two met.
Raver, with the EWU woman's athletics director, Peggy Gazette, followed Frederickson on another tour of the Big Sky, this one with men's and woman's athletic directors. The two compared notes and files noting the pros and cons and then prepping for, "A major job of politics," Frederickson said.
Eastern's applications failed on two occasions, the second time by just one vote, Frederickson noted. "The two votes we needed were Montana State and Idaho," largely over concerns that Eastern would be competing in the same areas for recruiting.
President Richard Gibb from Idaho said his objection was that Eastern "Was just too close." Montana State said Eastern was too far west logistically, however, Boise State was on board, each being almost identical travel distance.
"Northern Arizona was a strong yes, Montana, strong yes, Weber State, yes Idaho State, yes, yet somewhat weaker," was Frederickson's take.
Two moves were especially bold. First, Frederickson directed Raver and Gazette to schedule every member of the Big Sky Conference home and away games in football and both men's and woman's basketball as far into the future as possible. Eastern was playing most of them in non-conference games anyway and would effectively play itself into the Big Sky.
Second, at this time, the place of women's sports in higher education was highly contentious. According to Frederickson. The Big Sky was for men, the Mountain West for women — the same nine universities except one — Eastern. Gazette was involved with the Mountain West merging with the Big Sky in 1987. The invitation to Eastern to join the Big Sky came at the same meeting at which the merger of the conferences was approved.
President Frederickson seems to have willed it so.
Frederickson likened Eastern's journey to Big Sky membership as to that of the backup quarterback, who slowly works his way into the starting job, one snap — or in this case — one game at a time.
"We played and played until we got on the team," Frederickson said. And that occurred in early 1987, months before Frederickson exited for his new career as the Edwin O. Stene Distinguished Professor of Public Administration at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
It's a position that he still maintains as the emeritus Distinguished Professor. It afforded him an easier opportunity to see the seeds he sowed turn to fruit in Frisco, Texas in 2011 when Eastern won the FCS national championship.
Frederickson did not make the return trip in 2019 to watch the Eagles face North Dakota State. "I don't drive anymore, and my wife doesn't see very well," Frederickson admitted. "Actually, I'm improving, and I think we'll travel a little more," the 85 -year-old added.
"I think that it's been a blessing to me to live long enough to see some of the results of hard work," Frederickson reminisced.
Results that are a much nicer souvenir after 40 years than a jar of volcanic ash, too.
