ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Central Washington University athletics has announced its 2024 Hall of Fame class to be inducted on May 4 inside Nicholson Arena. To purchase tickets, click HERE
 
Among those being inducted are former CWU President and First Lady Dr. Jim and Katie Gaudino.
 
James (Jim) and Katie Gaudino served as the 14^th President and First Lady of Central Washington University from 2009-2021. The Gaudino's quickly became a staple of Wildcat nation as their love for the community overflowed to everyone they met. Over the 12 years that Dr. Gaudino was president, his wife Katie was right there by his side including attending every single Wildcat home event as the pair became two of the biggest supporters of Wildcat nation.
 
During his tenure as President, Dr. Gaudino oversaw the growth of Central Washington University. The university has modernized its enrollment management, budget management, and data management systems. CWU saw record enrollment numbers, the construction of new residence halls, and the construction and remodeling of numerous academic buildings under Dr. Gaudino's direction. Dr. Gaudino played a significant role in phase one of the Wildcat Commons Project which included the renovation of Tomlinson Stadium and the construction of the Recreation Sports Complex and Track and Field Facility. He was also crucial in securing $55.5 million in funding for the freshly done renovation of Nicholson Arena.
 
Below is a Q&A with the Gaudino's about their time, thoughts, and memories with CWU and the Ellensburg community.
 
Q: What was your reaction to receiving the call from Dr. Dennis Francois on being inducted into the CWU Athletics Hall of Fame?
 
Katie Gaudino: I can say that being a member of an athletic hall of fame was not on my bingo card.
 
Jim Gaudino: No, definitely not on mine either.
 
Katie: Shocked is definitely the answer.
 
Jim: We were having lunch together, and at the end of the lunch he said, "I have some news for you, the two of you are being inducted into the hall of fame." Quite honestly, I was shocked. It was really, just why? Why did you do this Dennis? Of course, it wasn't Dennis' doing, it was the committee, but then it was just this very humbling feeling. We are very appreciative, it made us very happy, but also very humbled to be a part of the group that has done so much for Central.
 
Katie: So, joining so many of our favorite people is very special.
 
You've had a handful come through during your tenure here at CWU, so it'll be very special to be able to hopefully see a lot of them as you get inducted.
 
Jim: Well, we got to see both Shaina (Afoa) and Johnny (Spevak) play, so that's pretty cool. Shaina was a junior and Johnny was a senior, so I only got to see him for one year, but it will still be pretty cool to be on the stage with them.
 
Katie: All of the others are very deserving, (Jim: they're actually deserving) we're just happy to be there.
 
It was brought up that the two of you should get inducted as a pair, and it was pretty unanimous once that was out in the open that this has to happen.
 
Jim: I did walk the sidelines of football more than she did (points at Katie) so, I should go first, I shouldn't go second. No, I'm just kidding (chuckles).
 
Q: How important is it to have a spouse who is as supportive as Katie was during your tenure as president?
 
Jim: Oh, it's essential. Without her, I couldn't have done it, honestly. When we took the job, and I really do say when *we* took the job, because we talked about it because it's a change in life for Katie. Particularly in a small town like Ellensburg where there are not ample employment opportunities for what are sometimes called trailing spouses, we were pretty sure Katie was not going to be able to work. So, it was going to be a twosome, as we went through job opportunities. I was given advice once, that being a university president is really two jobs, there's the 8-5 job where you're doing university administration work, but then there's the 5-10 at night job and Saturday's and Sunday's where you're going to events like the sporting events, music performances, theater performances, etc. which is when they all take place. So, we decided that Central and being President and First Lady was going to be our lives. That was a mutual decision. Once I started doing it, I realized that without that kind of partnership, it would've been impossible to do. The job that we wanted to do at Central.
 
It's very understandable how a schedule like that could put a strain on a relationship, but you both seemed to make it work.
 
Katie: When we first met, we really liked each other, and fortunately we still do. Our lifelong dream was to be able to find a place where we could spend almost all our time together. Central didn't give that to us completely because 8-5, 8-6, mornings, and evenings sometimes could be kind of stressful. For the most part, when he wasn't in the office, we could do everything together, and for us it was fantastic. In many ways, it was like having how many thousand grandchildren around us it was absolutely wonderful, and that was before we had grandchildren.
 
Jim: In many ways, we spent more time together while being President of Central than we did in any of the other jobs that we've had because we were getting up in the morning and going in different directions and then coming back. This gave us the chance to be together a lot which we liked.
 
Katie: We still love you guys (Central), and we still love Ellensburg.
 
Jim: We're in Florida right now and we've been watching the men's and women's basketball and men's and women's rugby, and rugby oftentimes thankfully is played during the day on weekends, but the men's and women's basketball games start at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time unless they're in Alaska, then it's even later. So, we've been staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning watching the basketball teams.
 
Katie: I just want to say congratulations.
 
Jim: Yes, congratulations to both teams, for the seasons that they had.
 
I don't think anyone can have too much to complain about from both teams this season, I'm sure that the women's basketball team would've loved to have made the NCAA Tournament, but they're a young team with a lot to look forward to.
 
Jim & Katie: They did great!
 
Jim: And the rugby teams are out there beating those D1 schools getting it done.
 
Katie: Great student-athletes, great coaches, and great fans, we can't go wrong.
 
Q: You both made it to almost every home game while at Central, what are some of your favorite memories from any athletic events here?
 
Jim: Well, I'll always remember the games that we won, regardless of the sport. I'm not sure that one (specific memory) stands out any higher than the others.
 
Katie: I remember being in Los Angeles for maybe an NCAA conference or something, and this was before men's rugby was an authorized sport for the Wildcats. We heard that the travel team was down there at UCLA, so we wandered around the campus of UCLA and found the game. I still remember watching as it was my first rugby game ever, and I remember a guy got hurt, and he was bleeding profusely from his head. He went over, and the coach sat him down and pulled out some duct tape and slapped it on his head and sent him back out there. Jim just goes "We gotta fix that."
 
Jim: I asked the coach "Well where's your trainer?" and the coach goes "Well we're not a varsity team, we don't have a trainer." And I just told him we've got to fix that, and so I came back and talked to Dennis and about a year later, they became a varsity sport, and no more duct tape… that I know of, maybe they're still doing that (he laughs), but no more silver duct tape.
 
Katie: The player did fine by the way. The tape didn't seem to do him any harm. We have a boy, we understand.
 
Jim: And we won the game so (shrugs with a smile).
 
Q: So, when you took over versus when you left, the campus looked very different. Tell us a little bit about your vision, and how you were able to in a sense, leave the campus in a better place than when you found it.
 
Jim: It wasn't solely my vision. I inherited a capital master plan from my predecessor that outlined all of the buildings that should be either fixed or replaced, and it became obvious to me that replacing them was better than fixing them because the cost of fixing them would be almost as high as building a new one, and it's harder to get money to fix buildings than to get money to build new ones. We developed what I believe then and still do that students, faculty, staff, and coaches are putting 100 percent of their effort into their studies or athletic endeavors. It's my responsibility as President to give them the best possible environment to be able to do that. So, we made that capital plan our number one priority. We developed a fantastic team, it wasn't just Katie and I,
 
Katie: It wasn't me.
 
Jim: It was the staff that helped support that, the legislative staff, people like Steve DuPont who you'll also see on the sidelines at football games, Linda Schactler, and we reached out to key legislatures, particularly Senators Judy Warnick and Jim Honeyford, and we developed a plan for the buildings we were going to get funding for first, which started momentum, and you just kept the momentum going, and it's still going. There's construction going on campus right now under the guidance of President Wohlpart. It's not just Jim and Katie, it's a series of presidents that get it done, and we were just happy to be there when we got to a lot of building, so that was a lot of fun for us.
 
Well, a lot of people really appreciate it now, especially a lot of the students.
 
Jim: Well, when you build a new building, at least in the state of Washington, you also get new equipment. So, if you're building a new science building, you not only get a really nice building, but you get all of the microscopes and the robotic equipment, etc. that goes along with that new building. So, they really are studying in some of the best learning spaces that the country has to offer. Of course, athletically now, if you walk through the new Nicholson Pavilion and you see the weight room that's there, that's going to rival any weight room. So, it's giving the students the best opportunity to manifest whatever it is that they need to manifest within them. We're quite proud of that.
 
That's something you should be proud of, to be able to give students the resources needed to succeed in life is amazing.
 
Jim: I think that when you give them those resources, we're talking about athletics, and clearly, Central's athletic program is a first-class program at the national level. There's no question about that. If you look at our music program, winning the Monterey Jazz Festival, not long after they got a new building. Our construction management programs taking first place in construction management competitions. Math modeling, theater programs, and business programs winning the Boeing Business Contest year after year. You give them those tools, and the work ethic that our students have and the skill our faculty and staff have… wow, look what happens. They are the best.
 
Q: Guide us through what a day in the life of a university president is like.
 
Jim: Oh goodness, there probably aren't two days that are the same because you're driven by external events. The thing about the daily life of a president, and I think this would also go for the president's partner, is that you never take your mind off of the university. Particularly when you're living in the university house across the street from the university, students are going up and down the road, and people are driving their cars too fast up and down the road, so it's constantly there. There's no break from it. So, it's always on your mind. So, the typical day is going in, meeting with people, calling people, and talking with people, it's a people-oriented job. There aren't boxes I had to lift, or grass I had to mow, there wasn't really anything physical about the job. It was just working with people to try and create an environment. That went pretty much from 8 o'clock to 6 o'clock, and then there was always an event after that. It might be a sporting event, there might be a music performance, it might be a science lecture, a theater performance, or it might be a dinner with alumni, or travel to meet with alumni, then you come home about 10 or 11 o'clock, and you started again the next day. So, it was pretty much a lifestyle that we did for those 12-plus years, and there was no regret like "Oh I have to do this," everything was joyful.
 
Katie: The one thing that always amazed me is, I mean we did it for 13 years, and when you're going to your 10th or 11th spring banquet for somebody, and there's many of those every year, if you're tired and you know you're 10 to 12 years older, so you're a little tired, you don't want to admit it, but you're tired. Once you walk through the door, and you're with the people that it's important to, it's suddenly important to you that they know it's important to you and that you appreciate what they're accomplishing. The tired goes away, it's momentary, it's fleeting, and you get there and it's a good time. Jim says, you work all day with people, and you go to events, but you're still with people and people who are doing things that are important to them, that's energizing, seeing motivated people do what they want to do.
 
Jim: We've got to see students come to Central and 4 or 5 years later, they graduate from Central, and we had the opportunity to watch them mature, to watch them develop. Central is a small enough university where it'd be false to say we knew every single student, but we knew a whole lot of students particularly those that were involved in performative activities. So, one of the reasons I like walking the sidelines of the football games, for example, I got to talk to a lot of the redshirt football players, and you get to know them as incoming freshmen, and then a couple of years later, they're running off the field when the offense or defense changes, and then a couple of years later, you're seeing them graduate. That was the joy of being at Central for as long as we were.
 
Katie: We've had many students who've stayed in touch with us. We get little messages on our phones or on Facebook during the year, and to see them all grown up and really doing well is wonderful.
 
Like you said it's kind of like having a bunch of kids or grandkids.
 
Katie: It is! We once had to go to the University of Alaska, or he did, I always just bought a ticket and tagged along because why not? We went into Fairbanks, to watch the volleyball team because we planned a trip at a time when volleyball would be playing there, so we could kill two birds with one stone, poor birds. We walked in a little bit late, and we walked to the top of the bleachers and sat down and a couple who had a daughter play on a championship volleyball team many years before saw us, we had our Central wraps on and all that stuff, and they came down and sat behind us and asked us which one is our daughter? We looked at each other and turned around and said at the same time "all of them." That's just kind of how we felt. They were our kids, and it was a really good feeling to see our kids doing well.
 
Jim: Even as far away as Chicago, Katie and I have a son, daughter-in-law, and now a grandchild in Chicago. So, we're out to Chicago and Bill Driver, a Central baseball alum, and his son, Craig, was the bench coach for the Chicago Cubs. So, we meet the Driver's in Chicago at a Cubs game. We were standing out front of the marquee at Wrigley Field kind of marveling at it since it's just so old school, and I think I hear someone yell "Hey Gaudino." I'm thinking, "I'm in Chicago, no one's calling my name in Chicago." Then there was a tap on my shoulder, and I turn around and look and there's three CWU students that were working in Chicago going to the game that recognized Katie and I, and we probably had a nice 10 to 15-minute conversation with them and we found out they graduated about 5 or 6 years previously. So, it really became kind of like a family, in fact, that's something that struck home a few days after Dennis gave us the announcement. A close friend of mine, a CWU Hall of Famer, Dave Heaverlo, texted me very simply, Dave can write some very short texts, but they're meaningful, he writes me and says, "Welcome to the family." That said it all.
 
Q: This next question is for you Katie, talk to me about your work with the United Way of Central Washington and how that helped bring you closer to the community.
 
Katie: Okay, well United Way, Jim came in the middle of the academic year, January 1, 2009, and he came without me, he flew out here, rented a car, drove to Ellensburg, moved into the suite on campus, and went to work. We did not know we were moving until about 3 or 4 weeks before he moved, and his mother was still at our house. I came out for a quick visit a few weeks later, and there was just a lovely, overwhelming welcome down at Gallery 1, for the community to say hello to us. Hundreds of people were there, I was so amazed. One person came up to me, now deceased, but he was very special to me, he came up to me and introduced himself, and he said, "I need you to take over the United Way," (laughs), and I said "Can you give me 6 months? I need to get moved here."
 
As soon as I had been there for a few months, he called me back and gave me a little history, and to make a very long story short, I said that I'd chair this year's campaign, and I think I chaired it the first year and then co-chaired it with other people for a couple of years after that. I ended up serving on the Central Washington United Way board down in Yakima, I did the whole thing for six years, and then they actually throw you off the board which is a healthy thing for everybody (laughs). What it did was give me a reason to meet people in specific areas of the county that I might not have met otherwise. I was meeting with all of the agencies, that provide services to the community which is right up my alley. It was great, we had fun. That first year, I think I worked full-time on that campaign. We raised a lot more money than we had raised in a long time, and we did a stuff the bus campaign for a football game that brought school supplies for children that I think lasted the district for a couple of years and it was so successful that the people flying in from Wisconsin, the team that was going to play us that day heard about it, and they brought school supplies from Wisconsin for our stuff the bus. Every month we had a different thing that we're doing, as I'd say then, we have to raise awareness before worrying too much about raising money. So, we did a little bit of both that year, and it was a lot of fun.
 
The other thing that I did that was really helpful to me to get to know people is that I did a leadership thing with the Chamber of Commerce. I want to say one Friday a month, I'm out learning about different parts of the community, like one month I was out with farmers learning about the agricultural community, or with the county court meeting and learning about the county law enforcement. I just got these little glimpses and introductions into the parts of the community other than the university that allowed me a better understanding and a better opportunity to connect with people and be involved in things in any way I could help.
 
I have always been the mom who did the little newsletter, went to meetings, made brownies, and did all those things, I've always been an involved parent, but it was usually on behalf of my children. This was the first time, not working full time, that I could spend most of my time trying to figure out ways that if not me personally, perhaps the universe could be cajoled into letting me be involved in other things. We had some luck with things, we did a lot of fun things, but other things maybe didn't work out as well, but you know, if you're not failing occasionally, you're not trying hard enough. It was a great experience for me. There are so many people that I admire and respect in that community. We're happy that we only live 30 miles away, out of the daily life of Ellensburg, but we're in town a couple of times a month, having dinner and seeing people. We still feel very connected to the area, we have many dear friends there.
 
Q: Any last stories or memories you're willing to share with Wildcat Nation?
 
Katie: One of the stories that happened so many times, it's cemented into my brain. Jim served on several committees and boards, in Washington DC and in Indianapolis with the NCAA. We were on the road back and forth a fair amount, and when we would travel, he would always, like he is today, wear something identifiable, for CWU. If he was asked once, he was asked over 150 times over 13 years, "Are you the football coach?" (laughs). No one ever thought he looked like a president, they always thought he was the football coach.
 
Jim: When I'd tell them "No I'm the president," they'd go "Oh really, the athletic director?"
 
One time, and like we said this would happen almost every time we flew, someone came up to me and asked if I was the football coach. I was "No I'm not", and she was like "But you're wearing CWU?" and I was like "Yep, I'm with the university, I'm the president, why?" Unannounced to me, the team was in the back of the airplane, we were flying first class that time, and we racked up so many points we thought we would upgrade to first class. She said, "Well your teams behind you back there." I said "Oh I really didn't know that" because we're always just running onto the airplane at the last minute. Immediately in my head "somebody's doing something bad back there." She said "We just want you to know that we fly with sporting teams all the time, and those are the nicest, most polite, well-behaved young men we've ever flown with. We just wanted you to know that. I just thought "Well yeah, that's Central Washington University."
 
It's the people. I don't know if I have one memory that stands out significantly above the rest of them, but I think that all of the good ones involve the quality of the people at Central. Not just the professional abilities, although that is significant, it's the quality of the human beings that we have and it's the decisions that they make. I worked at a lot of universities, and I've got to tell you, that's not always the case. It is always the case at Central Washington, which makes Central Washington such a special place, is the people that work there. The faculty, staff, coaches, you name it, and it's something in the air, I guess.
 
One of the things that I learned while I was at Central, is that good people tend to hire good people. Most of the hiring takes place at the local level, so you know presidents don't hire faculty, faculty don't hire the custodial crew, they're hired in their units by their supervisors. You get good ones, then they hire good people, and it's self-perpetuating and creates a community that we'll never forget. We still feel part of it. As Dave said, "Welcome to the family," that's what Central is, is a family.