University of Nevada Athletics

Football, Basketball, Track & Field (1936-40)
Famous as a high school and college athlete, Walt Powers later became a successful high school coach. At Sparks High School, Powers was all-state in football and basketball and state champion track sprinter. He continued this prowess at Nevada. He as a basketball forward, football halfback and conference sprint champion. After teaching in Ely, he was an assistant coach at Sparks. He then coached for many years at Douglas High School. After World War II service as an Army officer in the Pacific, he returned to developed amazing teams at the Gardnerville school. His Douglas basketball teams turned in a 202-168 record. His ’52 grid team went unbeaten until losing the state playoff to Reno. Several of his basketball teams won conference crowns. He is credited with bringing Friday Night Football to Northern Nevada in 1946 when he organized community members to go out to Hope Valley and cut down trees to serve as light poles. The first Friday night football game in Northern Nevada was played Sept. 27, 1946, in Gardnerville against Lovelock. Powers’ son, Gary, would play baseball at Nevada in 1970-71 and spend 31 years as Nevada’s head coach from 1982-2013, becoming the winningest baseball coach in school history. Gary Powers was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018, making them the third father-son duo to be inducted in the history of the Nevada Athletics Hall of Fame.