Chun hires new director for the Cougar Athletic Fund

Washington State Cougars athletics director Pat Chun has made his first major administrative hire since taking over, announcing the hiring of Mitch Straub away from Ohio State during an interview with The Morning News in Pullman on Wednesday. Straub was given the title of Senior Assistant Athletic Director for the Cougar Athletic Fund, and he will essentially be the chief fund-raiser for the athletic department and will hopefully be revamping the CAF as it has had some organizational issues that have been well-documented.

Straub has a nice resume coming from the powerhouse Buckeyes. He served as associate director of development for the athletic department and was responsible for major gifts for athletics including endowments and capital projects. His experience with fund-raising should be a boon for the Cougars as they try move their donor base out of the bottom of the Pac-12. Here is the rest of his resume per the Ohio State official website.

Mitch joined the Athletics Development staff as the Assistant Director of the Buckeye Club in July of 2010. His responsibilities included managing the Buckeye Club website and growing the annual fund for the Department of Athletics which provides support for the more than 1,000 student-athletes competing in 36 varsity sports.

Mitch previously worked for the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) in Cleveland and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. A former student-athlete at New Mexico, Mitch and his wife Sami reside in Hilliard.

Straub replaces Uri Farkas who headed south with former assistant AD Mike Marlow when he took the athletics director job at Northern Arizona.

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