United Athletic Conference

DENVER - It was July 27, 1962. Earlier that month, John F. Kennedy threw out the first pitch at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Washington, D.C. In March of that same year Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game and the Space Needle opened in Seattle for the World's Fair. In Denver, Dr. Paul W. Brechler was starting his job as the first ever commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference.

“He wrote everything. He wrote the rules and regulations for the WAC,” said Wanda Brechler, Paul's widow who still lives in the same house they purchased in 1960. Her home is filled with memories of their life together. Scrapbooks, pictures, even letters from good friend, President Ronald Reagan.

In 1960, Paul was named commissioner of the Skyline Conference, a league that had started in 1938. When Brechler arrived, the Skyline (also known as the Mountain States Conference) had eight members: Brigham Young, Colorado State, Denver, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Utah State and Wyoming. Brechler replaced Dick Romney, the longtime commissioner, and moved the conference headquarters from Salt Lake City to Denver.

The Skyline had been in turmoil for several years. Shortly after Brechler took over, officials from New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah and Brigham Young announced they were leaving the conference. Administrators at Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State were interested in joining those schools and starting a new league. Washington State Director of Athletics Stan Bates later informed the group that the northwestern schools would not be joining the new conference, and all three eventually joined the PAC 8 (now the Pac-12). Bates would later become commissioner of the WAC in 1971.

With the Skyline dissolving, Brechler was named commissioner of the new league. After much debate, the name Western Athletic Conference was agreed upon by the six schools: Arizona, Arizona State, Brigham Young, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

“It was concise. It wasn't as big as the Big 8 (now Big 12) or the Big 10 and the people who were involved cared,” said Wanda Brechler, who became the second employee of the WAC in 1962.

“The Western Athletic Conference powers that be gave $3000 for the budget for a secretary and Paul couldn't hire one for that kind of money. So, with my thing being office management, I went to work for the Western Athletic Conference,” she said. Wanda would carry her electric typewriter to and from work. The conference office was located at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Denver.

A key issue facing the new commissioner was membership. In September of 1967, conference presidents approved the invitations of Colorado State and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), making the WAC an eight-team league.

With the WAC gaining power and prestige, Brechler decided it was time for a new challenge, and in 1968 became the director of athletics at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining the Skyline Conference, Brechler had served as director of athletics at the University of Iowa from 1947 to 1960, at a time when the Hawkeyes won two Rose Bowls.

His stay at Cal was just one season. “That was the biggest mistake I ever made,” he told the Des Moines Register. “To take it, I resigned as commissioner of the WAC, the best job I ever had.”

The Brechlers returned to Denver and were semi-retired before taking over as commissioner and assistant commissioner of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (at the time NAIA) in 1976, where they worked until 1990.

Paul passed away in 1997 at the age of 86.

Brechler was inducted into the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, the University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame in 1990 and in 2006, the press box at Kinnick Stadium was named in his honor.

Now at the age of 88 and 55 years after Paul became commissioner, Wanda looks back fondly on the Brechler's experience in the Western Athletic Conference.

“The WAC was an enjoyable period of time in our lives.”