By Percy AllenSeattle Times staff reporter
Anybody but Washington.
That’s the popular sentiment among Washington State fans regarding Pat Chun, the former Cougars athletic director who left for the same position with cross-state rival Washington.
In front of a crowded room at the Don James Center overlooking Husky Stadium, Chun and UW president Ana Mari Cauce spent a significant portion of Thursday’s introductory news conference addressing inflammatory comments from WSU president Kirk Schulz.
During an interview with Cougfan.com that posted Wednesday, Schulz expressed shock and disappointment when Chun told him the news.
“I was just, you’re kidding me,” Schulz said. “If Pat had said it was the University of Iowa, it was Ohio State or Minnesota or pick whatever I would have said, ‘Hey, we want you here but I understand.’
“Given all the stuff that’s happened with the University of Washington over the last year I was like, there’s no way a person is going to move as a senior athletics administrator from WSU to the University of Washington. … Still a little shocked by it to be honest. … I’m upset about the timing of Pat leaving.”
Schulz — and at one time Chun — believed Cauce delivered the final punch that ultimately doomed the Pac-12 when she declined a media-rights deal from Apple that might have kept 10 of the conference schools together last August.
Instead, Washington quickly pivoted and partnered with Oregon to move to the Big Ten, which set off a chain reaction of defections that left WSU and Oregon State alone in the Pac-12 and suing the bolting members for control of the conference’s finances.
Schulz said he’s “pissed off and pretty upset” at Chun because he thought he had a partner to help WSU navigate through uncertain times.
“His timing was crappy,” Schulz said. “There’s never a great time, but there are times that are worse than others. … I felt we were side by side, hand in hand going through some really challenging times. … You feel you’ve got that person there. We’ve got a good solid year worth of tough work ahead of us and now you don’t. It’s profound, the disappointment.”
All of this is news to Chun who said: “I’ve gotten us off social media. So purposely, I’m oblivious to a lot of the things.”
Still, sitting in front of a purple-clad audience of family members, UW faculty, coaches, donors, the marching band and cheerleaders, Chun addressed his mostly successful six-year stint at WSU and any feelings of betrayal among the Cougars over his leaving at least four times during a 22-minute news conference.
“It was an extraordinary experience for six years,” Chun said about his WSU tenure. “President Schulz has been fantastic. He’s a friend. He’s a mentor. You could not ask during that period for a better boss, partner or friend.
