Takes over full-time duties at growing NCAA II league; Replaces retiring Woody Hahn
QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. – With more than 30 years of radio and television broadcasting experience and six years as a state senator in Hawai‘i, the Pacific West Conference has selected
Bob Hogue as its new commissioner.
“I am so honored to have this opportunity,” Hogue said on Saturday from his home in Hawai‘i. “The Pac West is an exciting conference with great coaches and tremendous athletes at seven fantastic institutions of higher learning. “I am looking forward to raising awareness about the conference and increasing our visibility.”
Hogue replaces Woody Hahn who is retiring after serving as the league’s commissioner since its inception in 1992. He will be based in Hawai‘i where four of the Pac West’s seven schools are located. Tom Di Camillo, the league’s part-time conference information director who came on board last September, will be based in suburban Phoenix to give the Pacific West Conference a dual-presence to help service the most dispersed NCAA Division II Conference in the nation.
“The Pacific West Conference will certainly benefit from the strong leadership, development and media relations expertise that Bob Hogue brings to the commissioner’s position,” Dr. Jeffrey L. Philpott, Hawai‘i vice president for student affairs and search committee chair, said. “I am confident that Bob will work hard to generate support and prepare for the imminent growth of the conference in Hawai‘i and on the mainland.”
Hogue will be made available to the media at an official press conference on Monday hosted by Hawai`i Pacific University at its Downtown Campus in Honolulu. The event will take place in the President’s Conference Room of the Hawai‘i Pacific University Building (2
nd floor) located at 1166 Fort Street.
The press conference will begin promptly at 11 a.m. HT (2 p.m. PDT and MST; 3 p.m. MDT) with an opening address by Hogue and a question and answer session from the media.
In addition to Hogue and Philpott, Chatt G. Wright, president of both Hawai‘i Pacific University and the Pacific West Conference, will be available to the at the press conference. Members of the media will also have access to Darren Vorderbruegge, athletic director and head men’s basketball coach at HPU, and Ken Wagner, athletic director and head men’s basketball coach at Brigham Young University Hawai‘i, for comment during the event.
Any media representatives wishing to attend the press conference should contact John Barry, HPU’s director of sports information and marketing, by phone at 808-544-0220 (office) or 808-292-1462 (cell).
For members of the media not available to attend the press conference, an official transcript of the session will be distributed to the media by e-mail and posted on the Pac West Conference website by Monday evening. Hogue will also be available for phone interviews following the press conference and may be arranged by contacting Di Camillo by e-mail (
pacificwestconference@msn.com) or phone (480-983-6605).
In addition to his public service and media careers, Hogue is also a certified public accountant having earned his business degree from the University of Southern California. He has a long background in the print media mostly covering collegiate athletics and was a former student athlete who played baseball at USC, earning a pair of NCAA National Championships during his tenure.
Hogue started his broadcasting career in college sports at the University of South Dakota as a color commentator for Coyote football. He then became the primary play-by-play announcer for the Iowa Television Network covering University of Iowa basketball and football.
His broadcasting experience also extended to University of California football, Sacramento State football and basketball, University of California-Davis football, and University of the Pacific football. Locally, Hogue has performed play-by-play for Hawai`i Pacific University and BYU-Hawai‘i, as well as Division I University of Hawai‘i.
Hogue served in the Hawai‘i State Senate from 2000-06, while he currently hosts a sports talk show on a local radio station and is a sports columnist for one of the local weekly newspapers. He has four children - Jesica, Becky, Amanda, and Jeff - and resides in Kailua with his wife Elaine.
In addition to welcoming Hogue to the Pac West’s top position, Wright thanked Hahn for his years of service and leadership.
“Woody provided the management experience and leadership for this conference for 15 years, and everyone who is now or has been a part of the Pac West Conference is indebted to Woody for all of his efforts in creating one of the most diverse and successful intercollegiate athletic conferences,” he stated. “I am confident that Bob Hogue will build on the foundation that Woody created, and provide new, fresh leadership and direction that will be positive and productive for the member institutions and ensure the academic and athletic success of the thousands of student-athletes who compete for them.”
The current Pacific West Conference consists of seven institutions - Brigham Young University Hawai‘i; Chaminade University of Honolulu; Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz.; Dixie State College of Utah; the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo; Hawai‘i Pacific University; and Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Calif.
The Pac West also competes in 10 sports - men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball. In 2006-07, the Pacific West Conference added the sports of men’s and women’s soccer and women’s basketball to its roster of programs that compete for league championships.
All seven schools will be eligible for Pacific West Conference titles this coming season, while five of the institutions are eligible for the NCAA Division II post-season. Both Dixie State and NDNU are successfully progressing through the provisional stage of Division II membership but will not be eligible for NCAA post-season events this year.