New athletic director Josh Whitman hasn’t even been on the job for three months, and he’s already the longest-tenured member of the Department of Athletics’ administrative team.

With Whitman’s predecessor, 36-year athletic director John Schael, retiring at the end of last year, the Bears had lost the driving force behind their transformation into a national athletic powerhouse. Schael came to a Washington University athletic department that had an empty trophy case and left with it full of trophies from 19 national titles and 169 conference championships. This week, Schael’s longtime wingman, associate athletic director Joe Worlund, left for the head AD position at Graceland University, his alma mater, taking with him 32 years of experience at Wash. U.

courtesy of the sports information department

Worlund’s departure opens a hole in the department bigger than the one behind Francis Field. To fill this personnel hole, Whitman is expanding the administrative structure of the athletic department and adding a deputy director of athletics. The department announced Wednesday that Chris Peacock, a veteran of the University of Illinois athletic department, will fill the deputy slot.

Along with Schael, Worlund had been at Wash. U. for the long-term transformation into a national power and for each of the school’s 19 national championships, which he oversaw from both administrative and coaching roles. In addition to being the associate athletic director, Worlund served as an assistant volleyball coach during the team’s ’90s dominance, a reign that saw Wash. U. win six consecutive national championships and seven in eight years. The Bears’ volleyball titles were the first in school history.

Worlund recalled the non-competitive atmosphere of Wash. U. athletics as one of the areas he sought to change at the beginning of his tenure.

“I remember going to a football game my first year and listening to the cheerleaders’ favorite cheer: ‘That’s all right, that’s okay, you can work for us someday,’” Worlund said. “For a not-very-successful program to turn into a really dominant Division III program across the board was just a huge change.”

But 32 years later, with so much experience and knowledge of the University’s athletic programs, Worlund admitted that imparting it all to Whitman before leaving was a challenge.

“It’s been really difficult to communicate all of that information. Now that I’m leaving, it’s been more pressing to try to communicate. Obviously when you spend your whole career as I have in one place, building this to what we’ve created, you don’t want to mess them up. You want them to continue to excel,” Worlund said.

“It’s clear that this university is bigger than one random person who’s been here for 30 years,” Worlund added. “So they will go on without me, but there will be some days where they are going to look at each other and be like, ‘Joe used to do that.’…It’s just like Josh [Whitman] is drinking from a fire hose.”

Whitman was quick to point out, however, that not every Wash. U. veteran is leaving. Head basketball coaches Fahey and Mark Edwards have been at the University a combined 60-plus years, for instance, and Schael has still played an active role in the athletic department as the director of special development initiatives.

“If I didn’t have a lot of the people that I have here, then I wouldn’t be nearly this calm…there are a number of resources who have that institutional knowledge,” Whitman said.

Logistically, Whitman said, his new support structure will have more clearly divided responsibilities. The new management structure will involve four roles: athletic director, deputy AD, associate AD and senior assistant to the director. Although Worlund’s absence leaves the associate position vacant for the time being, Whitman said that head women’s basketball coach Nancy Fahey will take on the senior assistant role in addition to her coaching duties.

The new deputy will be involved with leading the department’s day-to-day operations when Whitman is traveling and overseeing Wash. U.’s compliance with the NCAA’s eligibility requirements. The associate AD, meanwhile, will be tasked with event planning for each home game and, in an effort to further one of Whitman’s pet projects, promoting a greater involvement in athletics among the student body at large.

New deputy hire Chris Peacock has been at the University of Illinois, a Division I program, for 11 years, the last five as an assistant athletics director for development. He has been involved with compliance at four different Division I schools, including Illinois, and worked with Whitman at Illinois from 2005-08. Nobody else was interviewed for the deputy position, Whitman said.

Whitman stressed that his old co-worker’s background made him a perfect fit for the new job at Wash. U.

“The [deputy’s] primary responsibility will be compliance and eligibility. Chris [Peacock] has done that for 15 years; he’s done it at an incredibly high level. To be the head of compliance for a Big Ten institution is a pretty big deal. There’s a comfort there with him in that kind of role,” Whitman said.

“It was a little bit more urgent…we had someone in mind that we knew would do a good job, and we wanted to get him here as quickly as we could,” Whitman added about the hire.

With the two highest-ranking athletic department administrators both new to the University, Wash. U. athletics leadership has gone through its largest transformation in 32 years, but Whitman highlighted that it gives the department a chance to shape the next three decades.

“It presents us with an opportunity, you know, Wash. U. 2.0—what’s this place going to look like for the next 32 years?” Whitman said.

On the field, at least, Whitman’s teams don’t look much different from previous iterations and have continued right where Schael’s left off: among Wash. U.’s six fall sports, three are ranked in the top seven of their respective national polls. Women’s soccer hasn’t lost a game in over a year, women’s cross country has scored a first-place finish in each of its last two invitationals and volleyball counts six wins against top-15 teams.

Even the football Bears, the lone Wash. U. squad with a record below .500, sent Worlund out with a victory last Saturday, posting their largest victory in eight years to knock off previously undefeated Hendrix University, 59-19. Worlund wasn’t in his customary seat in the press box to witness the win, but he said he will be cheering for Wash. U. from afar in the months ahead.

“It’s nice that I don’t have to go to a school that competes against the Bears so I can actually root for both equally,” Worlund said. “And nobody can blame me for that.”

With additional reporting by Nick Kauzlarich.