Columnist Dean Juipe: Ault quietly slips into Hall of Fame

Dean Juipe

Monday, Aug. 12, 2002 | 9:12 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

With 19 former players and six former coaches on the dais, it was easy to overlook Chris Ault.

And so the wire services did.

In their accounts of Saturday's College Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony in South Bend, Ind., Ault failed to rate a mention. Former BYU quarterback Steve Young drew the bulk of the acclaim, with other written tributes parceled out to the likes of former Michigan receiver Anthony Carter, former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer and former Baylor coach Grant Teaff.

Ault merely said a few words, picked up his plaque and dropped from attention.

Typically, it seems, his contribution was underplayed.

But anyone familiar with high school and college football in Nevada is aware of Ault's credentials. The fact of the matter is that no one from this state can match his achievements and record, let alone duplicate the positive impact he has had on so many lives.

Ault is 55 now and in his 16th year as athletic director at Nevada-Reno. And while he has successfully overseen that school's athletic programs from his office in Legacy Hall, it was his ability on the sidelines that really distinguishes his career.

Oh, and he could play, too, as he proved not only as a prep quarterback in California but in three seasons running the Wolf Pack. At one time, he held five UNR passing records.

He still holds UNR coaching records that may never been matched. In 19 seasons -- 1976-92 and 1994-95 -- his teams went 163-63-1, winning seven conference titles.

His final five teams each won championships, going 13-2, 12-1, 7-5, 9-2 and 9-3. Reno has had only two winning seasons since, one immediately after he stepped down as coach and, most recently, in 1998.

The Wolf Pack is no longer a football powerhouse, but it was when Ault ran the show.

He was an offensive specialist, devising and scheming plays that relied heavily on aerial fluency and misdirection. His teams put points on the board and did it in a way that was compelling and fun.

He was Steve Spurrier when Steve Spurrier was still a kid and not the hotshot offensive genius he's recognized as today, coaching the Washington Redskins.

But Ault, unlike the upwardly mobile Spurrier, never seemed to aspire beyond the state lines of Nevada. Any overture he received from out of state was merely a happy tune he quickly dismissed.

There was also a time (or two) when he could have been the head coach at UNLV.

He was an assistant here under Ron Meyer for three seasons in the early '70s, coming to Las Vegas after coaching four high school seasons (at Bishop Manogue and Reno) and going 26-2-1 with two state titles. Meyer used him first as a receivers coach, then with defensive backs.

He bolted back to UNR when the head coaching job opened up in '76 and he resisted the urge to return to UNLV even after his name was prominently mentioned as a possible replacement for Harvey Hyde in 1986, for Wayne Nunnely in 1990 and for Jim Strong in 1994.

But Ault is a Northern Nevada guy and he resisted those relocation inquiries in his typically polite, magnanimous way. If we were going to admire him, it would have to be from afar.