For Immediate Release Contact:
Barbara K. Laskin/ Doug Stone
June 27, 2005 (651) 696-6203

Macalester names new athletic director

Travis Feezell, the athletic director and former baseball coach at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., has been named athletic director at Macalester.

Feezell headed the Whitman Athletic Department for five years, overseeing 18 varsity programs, intramurals and teaching classes on sports culture and great books. He was the baseball coach for six years as well.

A varsity baseball player at the University of Wyoming and a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship in 1989, Feezell said his father, also a collegiate baseball player and college professor, taught him to pursue excellence in both academics and athletics.

"Small college athletics are my passion," Feezell said. "But more importantly they are my pathway to educating college students. The opportunity at Macalester is truly unique. It's an opportunity to shape the course of an athletics program and its place at one of the great liberal arts colleges in the country."

Laurie Hamre, vice president for student affairs, called Feezell an outstanding candidate for athletic director at an important point in Macalester's history. "Athletics and recreation form a central part of the lives of many of our students and they are an important piece of the fabric of the college," she said. "Travis understands this and he understands the balance between academics and athletics. He is a leader, a man with a vision and, most of all, a teacher. He is just the right person to lead our athletics and recreation program as we consider plans to improve our facilities."

Feezell, a high school baseball star in Nebraska, earned his B.A. in English from the University of Wyoming in 1990, his M.A. in Medieval British Studies from the University of Wales, Cardiff, Great Britain in 1992, and his Ed.D. in education from the University of Idaho this year.

Before working at Whitman, he as an academic adviser in the Athletic Department at Northwestern University. He has also been active on NCAA committees including the Division III Management Council and the Division III Financial Aid Awards Committee.

Feezell succeeds Irv Cross, who is stepping down after six years as athletic director to become the defensive coordinator of the football team and a fund-raising consultant to the president as the college plans for construction of a new athletics and recreation center.

Feezell and his wife Carol, the former Whitman cross country coach, have four children ages 10, 7, 2 and seven months. He plans to be at Macalester by mid-August.

Macalester College, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,845 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, diversity, and service to society.

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