April 27, 2007
Release courtesy of Tim Calderwood, Loras College sports information director

DUBUQUE, IOWA . . . Loras College President Jim Collins announced to the campus community today that Athletic Director and Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Chad Walthall, has accepted a position as an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at the University of Iowa under new Head Coach Todd Lickliter.

Walthall’s seven-year Loras career culminated with being named the 2006-07 Iowa Conference Coach of the Year by his peers, and the men’s basketball team finishing as conference champions and conference tournament champions (a first for the college since 1951 and the school’s first ever tournament title). He leaves Loras as the third winningest coach of all-time with 116 career wins. A complete year-by-year record can be found at the end of this release.

As athletic director, a position Walthall has held since 2004, he has focused on enhancing overall department successes and building a strong coaching staff. Steady, increasing success in most of the 21 men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletic teams at Loras attest to his staff building skills.

In discussing his decision, Walthall said, “It has been a privilege and an honor to work at Loras College. Loras has given my family and me so many wonderful memories over the years. We will forever be grateful. We will miss the many people we have gotten to know in the Loras and Dubuque communities. There are very few opportunities that would have had us consider leaving. The position I accepted happened to be that rare, special one. Regardless, Loras will always hold a place in our hearts. We are looking forward to the new opportunities and challenges ahead.”

On accepting Walthall’s resignation, Collins said, “This is the down side to hiring good people – you often lose them to great opportunities. I am grateful to Chad for his years of leadership and contributions to Loras, and I know that this is a wonderful position for him. He and Coach Lickliter have known each other a long time and have a good relationship. I wish him all the best at Iowa and what I am sure will be a lot of success.”

The 2006-07 men’s basketball season was a memorable one for the Duhawks. Walthall led Loras to a 15-1 conference record. Along with achieving regular season success, Walthall led Loras to its first IIAC tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth in school history. He also coached the IIAC Player of the Year (Kyle White) as well as two other all-conference honorees. In a win over Hanover on December 30, Walthall gathered the 100th win of his coaching career.

This past season’s 21 wins are the school’s most since joining Division III in 1986. The Duhawks held their conference opponents under their season scoring average in all 16 conference games, and in conference games, led the IIAC in scoring defense (61.1 points/game), scoring margin (+9.2), field goal percentage defense (40.6 percent) and rebounding margin (+5.4).

In the three years preceding Walthall’s arrival, Loras had won a total of 35% of conference games and 40% over-all with it culminating to a 10th place 5-15 finish in the IIAC in 1999-2000. In Walthall’s first season of rebuilding the program in 2000-01, Loras dramatically improved with a fourth place finish. Since that time, Walthall progressively built Loras into a perennial league contender and one of the top teams in the West Region.

Walthall led Loras to winning seasons in the tough Iowa Conference in each of his first seven seasons and over the past three season, Loras has won 77% of their Iowa Conference games, and 70% overall, which included 11-game winning streaks in 2005-06 and 2006-07.

Loras has maintained control of their home court under Walthall. They recently completed a 22-3 home record the past two seasons and won the conference regular season and tournament titles on their home floor in 2006-07. They Duhawks hope to continue that success in the new state of the art Athletic Wellness Center, with a 2,500 basketball arena scheduled to open for the 2007-08 season.

Walthall came to Loras from Eastern Michigan University, where he was an assistant coach for the NCAA Division I Eagles. At Eastern Michigan, Walthall coached with Lickliter. He also was a graduate assistant coach at Saint Cloud State University, head high school boys coach at Redwood Falls and assistant coach at Saint Olaf College.

The Staples, Minn., native attended Concordia College (Moorhead, Minn.), earning a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1991. While at St. Cloud State he received his master's degree in athletics administration (1993).

As a collegian, Walthall led Concordia College to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) football championship in 1990 as the starting quarterback, as well as earning All-Conference honors in that sport as a junior and senior. He was a student assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at Concordia for two years.
As a high school athlete, Walthall was captain and a three-sport all-Conference selection in football, basketball and baseball. He was selected to the All-State All-Star Game as a senior.

Walthall Coaching Record at Loras
(116-69, 79-41 IIAC)
Year Record IIAC
2006-07 21-7* 15-1
2005-06 17-9 10-6
2004-05 18-8 12-4
2003-04 16-10 9-7
2002-03 17-10 11-7
2001-02 15-12 11-7
2000-01 12-13 11-9

*Iowa Conference Regular Season and Tournament Champions

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