ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Central Washington University Athletics has announced its 2025 Hall of Fame Class to be inducted on May 3 inside Nicholson Arena. To purchase tickets, click HERE
 
Among those being inducted is legendary CWU Coach and former student-athlete John Picha.
 
Picha, a 1993 CWU graduate, played two seasons on the Wildcats' offensive line after transferring from Wenatchee Valley College. He earned Honorable Mention All-Columbia Football Association honors as a center, helping CWU set a conference record with 34 rushing touchdowns in his senior season. He was also awarded the team's Best Blocker Award.
 
Picha began coaching at CWU as a graduate assistant in 1988, working with tight ends. From 1990 to 1993, he served as a part-time assistant coaching defensive linemen before becoming a full-time assistant. He later coached linebackers before assuming the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach roles in 1996.
 
Picha also served as CWU's head track and field coach from 1995 to 1999, earning PNWAC Men's Coach of the Year honors in 1995 after leading the Wildcats to a conference title and a 17th-place finish at the NAIA National Championships.
 
During Picha's football coaching tenure, CWU compiled a 263-117-2 record, with a 166-50-1 conference mark and a 14-13-1 postseason record. The Wildcats won the 1995 NAIA National Championship and made multiple playoff appearances. Picha was named the 2002 AFCA NCAA Division II Offensive Coordinator of the Year after leading CWU to an 11-1 record and its first NCAA postseason appearance.
 
In 2013, Picha served as interim head coach, guiding CWU to a 7-4 record. He worked under seven head coaches, including CWU Hall of Famer Mike Dunbar, and recently served as assistant head coach under Chris Fisk.
 
Below is a Q&A with John about their time, thoughts, and memories with CWU and the Ellensburg community.
 
Q: You spent 36 years at CWU as a coach, staying through seven different head coaches, what made you stay in Ellensburg even after playing for the Wildcats for two seasons?
 
John:  So, when I first started, it wasn't a full-time gig or anything like that and I didn't really have anywhere to go to. I started coaching when I was finishing up school and I really enjoyed it and my brother was coaching at the high school level, so he was able to talk to me a little bit about it. Coach Dunbar was the coach at the time at CWU and he helped me have a very good experience to start out. By the time that I was you could say, putting together a resume that you could move on with, I was married and already had kids, and, in a nutshell, I just didn't want to move them around the country. I know a lot of coaches that did that, and in my thinking at the time it was "well if I could stay there, that would be great." So, I guess it worked out.
 
Ellensburg and Picha just go hand-in-hand, what can you say?
 
John: (Through a little chuckle) Which is funny because in the late 70's I remember my sister came here for a year and it was a different place back then, it was the end of the Vietnam War and there were a lot of guys coming back from the war to go to school. Anyways, we came over to get my sister when the year was over, and I was a young kid because she's 10 years older than me, so she was 19 and I was nine. I remember coming over here and the wind was blowing, and it was dusty because I remember they still had the railroad tracks going through campus, and I just remember it being windy and blowy and thinking "man, I'll never ever come here again." Well, look at me now.
 
Q: You served as the CWU Head Track & Field Coach from 95-99, can you speak on that experience and earning PNWAC Men's T&F Coach of the Year?
 
John: When I was going to school here, coaches were also professors, so they were teaching PE classes and anatomy, and kinesiology, and so many more. Well, I was hired as the Head Track and Field Coach as well as an Assistant Football Coach, and I believe that I was the last guy hired for two jobs like that. I think it was pretty much the reason I was hired was because I had college experience in both track and football, I coached under Charles Chandler when I was the throws coach, and I was already coaching in football. So, it was kind of an easy matchup for me and being okay at it, it's just a whether or not they want me. Anyways, I was able to do the track and field which was a learning experience, before I just had my head in the throws. In track and field sometimes, you get into these little worlds where "that's who I hung out with." I hung out with the throwers; we were over in the pits all the time throwing. Jumpers are kind of the same way, your sprinters are the same way, and your distance people are kind of the same way all in these little groups, so I didn't know a lot about the track part of the track and field. I had a guy by the name of Charlie Smith who I think was a great coach and together we put things together and make them perfect. Back then I was the men's and the women's, and we didn't have any full-time assistants, they were all Graduate Assistant-type of coaches where they were only getting a little bit. It was a great experience for me. We were NAIA back then so we didn't have spring ball for football, so I could get our football players to participate in track and field, so I'd get some guys out there, Jay Spears is a notable one that was a stud in both football and track. We were just able to put together a pretty darn good team that ended up winning the conference championship and if you win that then you win Coach of the Year, so there you have it.
 
I like it, using your resources.
 
John: Oh yeah, everybody does. I think those are the smart people if you're smart enough to get help by using the guidance of the people around you you're going to do well. If you think you can do it all on your own, then you're going to have some problems.
 
Q: You were on the staff in '95 when CWU won the NAIA National Championship, can you describe what that was like for you getting to be a part of a championship staff like that?
 
John: Well, it was a fun time of the year. It was a fun time of my life also because we were all pretty young, a pretty young staff and we just had a ton of fun. We weren't tremendously great going in, I don't remember our records going into '95 but I don't think they were stellar, like a 6-4 team type of situation, maybe 6-3 because I think we only played nine or 10 games that year. We were good, but I wouldn't say we were great in '95. We ended up just getting into the playoffs. In the final week we beat Eastern Oregon, and the three teams in front of us to get into the playoffs all lost so I think we went from being ranked 18, and they only took the top 16 teams, and we got bumped to 16. Western Washington was number one in the nation at that time, and this is just me speculating, but I think what happened was the NAIA looked at them and said "hey, we can put 16 with one" which is probably how you should do your playoffs anyway, "and they're in the same state so lets bump Central to 16," whether that's true or not I don't know, but we took a short bus ride instead of flying somewhere. So, we took the bus ride up to Western, and we beat them. That was a pretty big win, and the other thing that we did was, well Western was pretty confident they were going to at least play for the national championship, so back then just because you were ranked higher didn't necessarily mean that you were going to play a home game. Back then it was all based off of how much you would bid on the game, so say Central said "okay we're going to bid $10,000 to have the game here at Central" even if we were ranked number one, but whoever university could say "hey we're going to bid $12,000 to have it in Ohio" and the way the NAIA would do it is they would get a guaranteed $12,000. So anyways, Western thought that they were going to at least play for the national championship, so they reserved the Tacoma Dome to play the championship in. Well, we took their reservation. They were going to cancel their reservation at the Tacoma Dome, and we said "no, no, no, we'll take it." So, we kind of fumbled and bumbled our way through the playoffs and got to the national championship and played it in the Tacoma Dome. They send a football coach to all the playoff games to help facilitate, well the Western coach was the representative for the championship and all he could say was "man, we should be here," and we just responded by telling him that they should've just won the game then. Anyways, went in there, played the game. It didn't end great since it was a tie. I couldn't believe it; nobody could believe it. We played the game, we missed some opportunities to win it, and I'm sure Findlay would say the same thing. When we got to the end of the game, we were all ready for overtime and the refs came up and just shrugged and said, "there is no overtime," and we were all confused and surprised. So, the refs ran off the field, and Findlay was on one side of the 50 and they had the trophy and we were on the other with the banner and the kids were all yelling at each other because we still wanted to play and keep fighting and going at it. Anyways, that was the game. It takes a couple of minutes to wear off and realize "hey, we're still champions." The guys played hard and we're actually in the record book, and I believe we're on Trivial Pursuit as the last football championship ending in a tie. I'm not sure that I want that dubious honor, but it is what it is. The kids played hard that year, it was a great team, a hall of fame team that's been inducted. It also game a surge in people coming to Central in applications, I think anytime a team does well and draws getting to play over in Seattle and Tacoma and Spokane and all of those cities, it just helps bring people to the school and the interest in at least recognizing and checking out Central. It was a great team to be a part of, the process of going through it was awesome, and we'll always be national champions.
 
Q: You were name the Interim Head Coach for the 2013 season, what was that experience like having the head coaching duties?
 
John: It was unexpected. I didn't anticipate it, but Dr. Francois called me in and said "hey, you want to do this for a season?" I said "sure, I'll do anything for the experiences because I think that's important." The only thing is that when they fired the head coach, he was also the offensive coordinator and the quarterback's coach. The offense was fairly easy to take care of, we changed a lot of it, because what we were running was not a great offense so there was a lot of things we improved upon. The hardest thing to try and find was someone to come in and be the quarterbacks coach which we found Erik Meyer, an All-American at Eastern, a Hall of Famer in the Big Sky, and just a great guy. He was a star of the arena football league, so he was doing really well. He was probably on the edge to be in the NFL. Anyways, I called Beau Baldwin, and we talked, and Beau was at Eastern at the time, and I asked him if he knew of any guys at the time that could coach at this late of a date and he told me about Erike Meyer. I talked to Erik, but he had a playoff game, and I don't think I've ever rooted so much for a team to lose in my life. They lost the playoff game, so that means he got here a week earlier. He went back and checked out of his team, and then he came. The day that he came we were up until about three o'clock in the morning getting stuff ironed out. That was the beginning of it. I had a ton of fun. I put a lot of hours in but had a ton of fun doing it. I think it's amazing the resilience of players because to those guys it was nothing more than an itty-bitty speed bump. It might have been a surprise at first, and then once we started putting on the pads and getting out to practice and then games started rolling around, I don't think the players felt reserved or hindered. A lot of them came up especially towards the end of the season when things started to pop a little better. The last game we went down and played Dixie and beat them 44 zip. We turned a lot of things around after stuttering in the first part of the season and I think the kids enjoyed that and kind of enjoyed the way we ran things. I think the players had a good time and we had a good time as coaches, the defense was outstanding that year so that always helps. That wasn't for me though, that's not what I want to do. There was a lot of things in the head job that made me realize that I just wanted to work on football, and not the discipline part of it all the time or all the little decisions head coaches make, and the big ones too. To me that wasn't as enjoyable as it was to be able to go and play football, coach football, and have fun.
 
It probably helps that all of the guys knew who you were already to be able to buy in and transition into a role like this easier.
 
John: Probably. I mean the whole staff stayed there except for the head coach. Kind of like I said, I think it was a shock at first, but then the guys were like "alright, you mean we're practicing the way we always do, alright let's go."
 
It was one of the more successful seasons which had to feel good on your part.
 
John: Well, we went 7-4, we should've bene 9-2. We dropped a couple of games that we shouldn't have dropped. I don't want to look back on that stuff because it was still a ton of fun.
 
What's your favorite thing about Ellensburg and CWU?
 
John: Well, my wife Brenda, she teaches second grade. She taught most of her years at Lincoln Elementary and now she's over at Ida Elementary and I think one of the things that we found together living here is that the town of Ellensburg is a great place to raise kids, we raised our two kids (Katie and Dave) here. They played sports, they had a great time in school, there's fishing and hunting a little bit, the hard thing was some of those things I enjoy doing I couldn't do because of football, especially hunting. The town itself I've always thought has been really welcoming, there's always been great people here. I haven't ever had any horrible experiences. I also enjoy the fact that we are only an hour and a half away from Seattle, so if we want to go see a Mariner's game we can zip over there and do that without much of a problem with traffic and get back home then wake up with sunny skies. Also, being able to do a lot of the outdoor stuff that I enjoy, but I would say the people are Ellensburg are what I really enjoy. It's a great location. I think the university has done a good job of trying to reach out between the two. There's always that feeling that University Way is a divider between the university and the town, but I think Central, and the community of Ellensburg have tried to work well together. I know throughout the years I've been here, you'll have a glitch here and there, but I think Central's done a very good job of also knowing that everyone lives in this community. Whether you're a biologist teaching at the university or a coach coaching one of the sports or an accountant taking everyone's taxes you have to work together to make it work. Central is obviously so big, I mean you're talking just the students, it went from right around 4,000 students when I was here, to at one point up to 11 thousand. When you start doing that you think that not only all the people that teach, but the spouses, the kids, girlfriends, boyfriends, whatever, there's a lot of people that are interwoven into the town and the university. I've at least always thought they've done a great job at trying to marry the two together. It's also nice to be in a small town where you have that small town feeling, but then there's the university. Even though we are in a small town we get to enjoy a lot of perks of a big town like if a speaker comes to Central and you're living in a small town somewhere else a ways away, you probably don't get those opportunities, like I got to see Cesar Chavez here, and you get to see different performances that come here and every once in a while they bring in a big performer, for a special event, and you get the chance to see it or go watch robot wars in the pavilion. Where else would you get to see that stuff and still be in a town this size?
 
Q: Do you have any stories that you're willing to share during your time at CWU with Wildcat Nation?
 
John: The greatest experience I've had in Ellensburg is the birth of my kids. I know that's pretty generic, but it is. My next-door neighbor was Jim Pappas and Jim was a longtime Vice President of Central and was even the President of Central for a period of time. It was awesome, he's a great man. He did a lot to bring in a lot of people that may or may not have even gone to college. He was a big part of the admissions department running it for many years. He would take chances on people, people that may not have had the best chance of getting into Central and making a difference and changing their lives. He was huge on getting those kinds of people into Central. Being able to live next to Jim Pappas and listen to him get to talk about his past Central days. It doesn't sound like a big crazy experience, but it's something that I'll always cherish. I also think the experiences of going out after a win, especially when you're a player, is always fun. It was a different time because all of the video games weren't quite around when I was young, thank God, and neither were telephones with cameras in them. I'm really happy they weren't around. To be able to go out on the town and have a good time. We had a great response from the university, tons of students were coming to the ball games, all of our games were at one o'clock. I'll tell you this one… I was never a part of it, but I was told stories about it. It's not even there anymore, but there was a little shop a pizza place called Pizza Mia on the corner of university way, and I think the one that the castle is down, but it was on the corner there. They did something called "hardcore" for home games at six a.m. in the morning you could go down and get a beer for 25 cents, at six a.m. in the morning. So, these guys would go down there and get tuned up and then come up to the football game, so we got some pretty crazy stands there. Little stuff like that I always enjoyed. Another one, I wish we would bring it back, I'm not sure if they ever will, but we played in the Rodeo Bowl. I didn't play in it, but I coached in it, and what the guys would do, we'd come together and play the game at Central, and for 10 bucks that ticket would get you into the football game and get you into the rodeo. We would play the football game, and the winning coach would come down the hill onto the stage carrying the trophy, and I remember we played North Dakota who's a division one program now, but they were pretty good, and they killed us. The coach comes down and he's got this big trophy and we're all sitting in the stands watching this all grumbling to ourselves. It was a great deal; they'd feed both teams after the game and then they'd get to go to the rodeo. It was a great deal. The rodeo clown guy, he's a famous guy, but he played football at Western Montana, and we played Western Montana a couple of times in the rodeo bowl, but he was sitting there doing his clown stuff fighting bulls and all that stuff, and as he's doing that talking about the game. He went to the game, he knew all of the kids, and so he was coming up with his own stories, he'd call out the guys like "hey I saw number 13 drop the ball," but gosh he was funnier than heck and he made it so fun. That was a continued experience I enjoyed. Obviously, the wins. I have three sisters, they'd try to get over to the games, usually once or twice a year and we'd get home, and they wouldn't even know who won the game because the only reason they came is to watch the band. Centrals had such a great band for so many years, and still does, but they would come to watch that throughout the years in awe. The alumni tent, as a coach you're never around it, I mean you know it's there but this year being retired I went there and you know it was kind of a pretty cool experience and seeing a ton of people, but you don't notice when you're playing or coaching, it's just something that's there. There's a lot, it's hard to condense it into a small snippet of information as far as memories. I still live right next to Bruce Walker, and we've been coaching and friends forever. He went to Toledo after Central and was there for 10 or 15 years and then moved and coached at Missouri and did that for another 15 years and now he's still my buddy and lives right next to me. We share a lot of those experiences when we get together. Charles Chandler was my roommate for a lot of years. We were really close, but he passed away not too long ago, but we were close all those years. I think a lot of those guys come back because Central's one of those places. I'll nutshell this for you, the amount of people that started their careers at Central as coaches and got to experience coaching at this level, realizing how high of a level it is even though it's not division one. They got to cut their teeth on a lot things and being with a lot of great people, and then going on and doing other things, coaching in different places, change courses and go on to become great leaders in different categories whether it be going into the insurance industry or whatever it is, the things they learned by being a player and then ultimately coach at Central, and I'm talking about coaches at Central who I can't think of many if any coaches that didn't go on and have great careers in whatever they chose. I would say that's a pretty big memory, pretty unique. The people would obviously be number one because without them none of this is happening. For me being able to be with people that I enjoyed in the athletic realm, I think that's something that not a lot of people get to do, we're all lucky to be in an athletic department. I think people that come in, and I've noticed it over the years, to work in any part of the athletic department, that have come from other parts of the university and even if they're not coaching or anything like that, they all come back to say it was one of the most fun jobs they've had. To me that's awesome. I couldn't imagine not liking your job, and sometimes you got to do what you got to do, but being fortunate to have a job that lets you have fun and puts a smile on your face is so hard, so I cherish that. I know guys that have left Central, and they think that the grass is always greener being the "D one guy" like okay go try it out, but they find out that it's absolutely miserable. They're coaching the same sport, the kids are pretty much the same, but they get into a situation where the environment and the pressure are different even though you're making tons of money, but at the end of the day you're miserable going into work everyday not having fun especially when you get a taste of fun here at Central. Fun. I guess that's the nutshell I've been looking for is it was so much fun.