Macalester has named Travis Feezell athletic director. He was the athletic director and former baseball coach at Whitman. Feezell headed the Whitman athletic department for five years, overseeing 18 varsity programs.

A baseball player at Wyoming and a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship in 1989, Feezell said his father, also a collegiate baseball player and college professor, taught him to pursue excellence in both academics and athletics.

"Small college athletics are my passion," Feezell said. "But more importantly they are my pathway to educating college students. The opportunity at Macalester is truly unique. It's an opportunity to shape the course of an athletics program and its place at one of the great liberal arts colleges in the country."

He takes over a department with participation shortages in both women's basketball and football. The women's basketball program cut its 2004-05 season short after six games and will return this year but play as an independent. There were just six women's basketball players on the roster. The football program took a hiatus from the MIAC starting in 2002 and has no timetable for returning.

"It's too early (to comment)," he told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "I need to learn lots more."

Laurie Hamre, vice president for student affairs, called Feezell an outstanding candidate for athletic director at an important point in Macalester's history. "Athletics and recreation form a central part of the lives of many of our students and they are an important piece of the fabric of the college," she said. "Travis understands this and he understands the balance between academics and athletics."

Feezell earned his B.A. in English from Wyoming in 1990, his M.A. in Medieval British Studies from the University of Wales in 1992, and his Ed.D. in education from Idaho this year.

Feezell succeeds Irv Cross, who is stepping down after six years as athletic director to become the defensive coordinator and a fund-raising consultant to the president as the college plans for construction of a new athletics and recreation center.