RENO, Nev. - The 56th annual Governor's Dinner will take place Tuesday, July 15, on the grounds of the Governor's Mansion in Carson City.

Legendary Nevada Football head coach and athletic director, and College Football Hall of Famer Chris Ault will headline Northern Nevada's premier summer social event.

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. Every time Nevada called, Chris Ault answered. And it has continued to the present day, as even at the "A Tribute To A Legacy" event held in his honor in 2013 he declared that he was not retiring, merely "stepping down." The 2013 event was attended by over 400 people, including approximately 120 of his former players, showing the immense impact Ault had in his roles with the University.

Ault was at Nevada continuously from 1976-2012 as the department's head football coach and athletics director, serving as athletics director from 1986-2004, and spending three separate stints as head football coach (1976-92, 1994-95, 2004-12).

The winningest coach in school history with a career record of 233-109-1 over 28 seasons, Ault guided Nevada from Division II to I-AA (now FCS) glory in the Big Sky Conference in the 1980s and early 90s, into I-A (now FBS) and the Big West Conference in 1992 and then into the WAC and Mountain West. Along the way, he won 10 conference championships and took the Wolf Pack to postseason play 16 times, including 10 bowl games over 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 remains the only coach in 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 earning his master's in administration in 1973. Ault and his wife, Kathy, have three children, all of whom attended Nevada - Lisa, Chris Jr., and Amy.

Ault was hired by Nevada in 1976 at the age of 29, the youngest college coach in the country at the time. Over his first tenure (1976-92), he guided the program from a non-conference NCAA Division II affiliation into the Big Sky and from I-AA domination in that conference to I-A/FBS distinction in the Big West. He would go on to win Big West titles in each of his first three seasons as head coach at the I-A level (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 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 fully devote 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, spearheaded the fundraising efforts for the construction of Legacy Hall, the start of the student-athlete centered facilities that are now called the E.L. Cord Athletics and Academics Performance Complex, and working with former Reno mayor Robert Cashell to fund renovations of the fieldhouse which became the Nancy and Bob Cashell Football Center.

Ault also laid the foundation for the success of multiple Wolf Pack programs as athletics director, hiring a who's who of Nevada's most successful head coaches—Trent Johnson (Men's Basketball), Jian Li You (Diving), Michelle Gardner (Softball), Devin Scruggs (Women's Volleyball), and Curt Kraft (Track & Field).

Ault returned to the sidelines a final time in 2004 and restored championship-caliber football to the Nevada in nine years. He took Nevada to eight-consecutive bowl games and a pair of WAC 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 number 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 1993, Ault was inducted into the Nevada Athletics Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as head coach; into Pacific High School's in 1997 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.

In spring 2023, Ault's continued impact and influence in the game was recognized as he was appointed to a three-year term on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
The 56th annual Governor's Dinner kicks off with a private VIP reception featuring live music and cocktails at 5 p.m., and the backyard opens to other guests at 6 p.m., with the dinner and program at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $350 per person and tables of 10 for $3,500. VIP tickets, which include the pre-event VIP reception, pictures with Coach Ault and Governor Lombardo, and premier reserved seating for the dinner and program, are $500 a person with tables at $5,000. The registration deadline is July 8 .

Tickets are on sale now through the Wolf Pack Athletic Association online HERE. All tickets include cocktails and a reserved seat for dinner and the program at the event. For more information on the event, please contact Nevada's Associate AD of Special Events Kim Anastassatos at kima@unr.edu.

Dinner is provided by the Eldorado and sponsors of the event are: The ROW, Caesar's Rewards, Carson Valley Inn, Bodine's Casino, Sharkey's Casino, Peppermill Resort Spa Casino, E.L. Cord Foundation, Thelma B. and Thomas P. Hart Foundation, Morrey Distributing, Tamarack Junction, and Pepsi.