University of Nevada Athletics

Football (1967-69), Football Coach (1976-92, 1994-95, 2004-12), Athletics Director (1986-2004)
Chris Ault left a lasting legacy of excellence on Wolf Pack Athletics, turning in a one of a kind career with the University of Nevada as a student-athlete, coach and administrator that spanned six decades.
 
The winningest coach in school history with a career record of 233-109-1 in 28 seasons, Ault guided the University of Nevada from Division II to I-AA glory in the Big Sky Conference in the 1980s and early 90s, into I-A and the Big West Conference in 1992 and then into the Western Athletic Conference and Mountain West Conference. Along the way, he won 10 conference championships and took the Wolf Pack to postseason play 16 times, including 10 bowl games in 12 FBS seasons.
 
Ault left a long list of accolades and contributions to the game, perhaps none of which greater than his creation of the Pistol offense in 2005, a scheme now employed by hundreds of teams at every level of football. Ault is the only coach NCAA recorded history to have his team lead the nation in passing offense (1995) and rushing offense (2009) and introduced the nation to the current overtime format by way of the Big Sky Conference in 1980 as well as the middle screen – also known as a wide receiver screen or jailbreak screen – which was developed at Nevada and debuted in 1981.
 
His experience at Nevada began as a student-athlete when the San Bernardino, Calif., native starred at quarterback for the Wolf Pack from 1965-67 and continued with his unparalleled success as a coach and athletics director. He would go on to earn two degrees from the University, receiving his bachelor’s degree in education in 1969 and earned his master’s in administration in 1973.
 
Ault was hired by his alma mater in 1976 at the age of 29, the youngest college coach in the country at the time. In 17 years in his first tour of duty, he guided the program from a non-conference NCAA?II affiliation into the Big Sky Conference and from I-AA domination to I-A distinction in the Big West Conference. He would go on to win Big West titles in each of his three years as head coach at the I-A level: in 1992, 1994 and 1995. In 1991, he engineered the greatest comeback in NCAA history (35 points vs. Weber State), and in 1992, he became the first coach in the nation to lead a team to a bowl berth in its first year as an NCAA I-A (now FBS) program, guiding the Wolf Pack to the Big West Conference championship and a berth in the inaugural Las Vegas Bowl.
 
Ault’s fierce competitiveness led the university administration to name him athletics director in addition to his head coaching duties in the summer of 1986, a position he would hold until 2004. After a one-year hiatus from football in 1993, he returned to the sidelines for the 1994 and 1995 seasons, promptly winning back-to-back Big West Conference titles and a second appearance in a bowl game with the 1995 Las Vegas Bowl. In 1996, he stepped aside to devote all of his time to his duties as athletics director.
 
Success as an administrator followed Ault’s success on the field and his efforts have left a lasting imprint on Wolf Pack sports. He was the driving force behind the funding of tuition and fee waivers for both state universities to help meet the rising cost of education, fostered the school’s jump from Division I-AA to Division I-A in 1992 and spearheaded the fundraising efforts for the construction of Legacy Hall and the start of the student-athlete centered facilities that are now called the E.L. Cord Athletics and Academics Performance Complex.
 
Ault returned to the sidelines a final time in 2004 and restored championship-caliber football to the University of Nevada in nine years. He took Nevada to eight consecutive bowl game appearances and a pair of Western Athletic Conference championships in 2005 and 2010 before stepping down following the 2012 season.
 
In 2009, Ault also hit a major milestone in his career as career victory No. 200 was achieved with a 37-14 win over Louisiana Tech at Mackay Stadium. He was the 54th coach in NCAA history (all divisions) to win 200 games in a career and just the 30th coach to win 200 games at one school. Ault notched his 200th victory in the 11th-fewest amount of games (294), behind Joe Paterno, Tom Osborne, Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel, Pop Warner, LaVell Edwards, Bobby Bowden, Bear Bryant and Vince Dooley and tied with Amos Alonzo Stagg.
 
The Hall of Fame coach produced the greatest season in the history of the Wolf Pack program. The 2010 Wolf Pack went 13-1 overall, won the WAC championship, beat Boston College in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl and was ranked No. 11 in the final polls. The season included momentous home victories over No. 25 Cal and No. 4 Boise State, an epic come-from-behind overtime effort. For the seventh time in his career, Ault was tabbed by his peers as the conference’s Coach of the Year.
 
His tremendous success on the field has been widely recognized both in Northern Nevada and nationally. Among his many coaching honors, Ault was included in Sports Illustrated’s list of the 50 greatest sports figures of the 20th century from the state of Nevada in 1999, while he was named Nevada’s Football Coach of the Century as part of the 100 Years of Wolf Pack Football celebration in 1998 and the Northern Nevada Coach of the Century by the Reno Gazette-Journal in 1999. In the spring of 2008, the San Bernardino County Chapter of the National Football Federation named the annual quarterback of the year award as the “Chris Ault Quarterback Player of the Year Award.”
 
In 1991, he was inducted into UNLV’s for his role as an assistant coach on the school’s 1974 undefeated team; in 1993, the University of Nevada’s for his accomplishments as head coach; in 1997, Pacific High School’s for his success as a prep standout in San Bernardino; and in 2002, the creme-de-la-crème came when he was inducted into the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind. At age 55, Ault was one of the youngest coaches to ever be elected to the Hall of Fame and the only Nevada coach so honored.
 

Year	Overall	Conference	Record/Finish	Coach	Postseason
1976	8-3	NA	NA	Chris Ault
1977	8-3	NA	NA	Chris Ault
1978	11-1	NA	NA	Chris Ault	NCAA Division I-AA Semifinals
1979	8-4	Big Sky	5-2/2nd	Chris Ault	NCAA Division I-AA Semifinals
1980	6-4-1	Big Sky	4-3/2nd	Chris Ault
1981	7-4	Big Sky	4-3/3rd	Chris Ault
1982	6-5	Big Sky	3-4/5th	Chris Ault
1983	9-5	Big Sky	6-1/1st	Chris Ault	NCAA Division I-AA Semifinals
1984	7-4	Big Sky	5-2/2nd	Chris Ault
1985	11-2	Big Sky	6-1/2nd	Chris Ault	NCAA Division I-AA Quarterfinals
1986	13-1	Big Sky	7-0/1st	Chris Ault	NCAA I-AA Semifinals
1987	5-6	Big Sky	4-4/5th	Chris Ault
1988	7-4	Big Sky	4-4/4th	Chris Ault
1989	7-4	Big Sky	5-3/3rd	Chris Ault
1990	13-2	Big Sky	7-1/1st	Chris Ault	NCAA Division I-AA National Runner-up
1991	12-1	Big Sky	8-0/1st	Chris Ault	NCAA Division I-AA Quarterfinals
1992*	7-5	Big West	5-1/1st	Chris Ault	Las Vegas Bowl
1994	9-2	Big West	5-1/T1st	Chris Ault
1995	9-3	Big West	6-0/1st	Chris Ault	Las Vegas Bowl
2004	5-7	WAC	3-5/T6th	Chris Ault
2005	9-3	WAC	7-1/T1st	Chris Ault	Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
2006	8-5	WAC	5-3/T3rd	Chris Ault	MPC Computers Bowl
2007	6-7	WAC	4-4/T3rd	Chris Ault	New Mexico Bowl
2008	7-6	WAC	5-3/T2nd	Chris Ault	Humanitarian Bowl
2009	8-5	WAC	7-1/2nd	Chris Ault	Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
2010	13-1	WAC	7-1/T1st	Chris Ault	Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl
2011	7-6	WAC	5-2/T2nd	Chris Ault	Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
2012	6-Jul	MW	4-4/5th	Chris Ault	Gildan New Mexico Bowl
* First Year in NCAA Division I-A/Football Bowl Subdivision