Former Pacific West Conference commissioner Bob Hogue is a finalist for the prestigious NCAA Division II 50th Anniversary Gold Award, to be handed out to one male and one female at the NCAA Convention in January. 

This award, which is part of the division's year long 50th anniversary celebration, will recognize one male and one female who have made a lasting and positive impact in Division II. 

Conference offices reviewed the initial pool of 231 nominated individuals and reduced that field to 45. The NCAA Division II Management Council Identity Subcommittee will review these finalists and select the two overall winners, who will be recognized at the 2024 NCAA Convention in Phoenix.

The conference honorees include current and former student-athletes, coaches, faculty members, commissioners and administrators who have helped shape Division II over time.

Bob Hogue became the PacWest's first full-time commissioner at a critical juncture in the conference's history in the summer of 2007 and held the position until his retirement last summer. When Hogue began, the conference had only five active NCAA Division II members and seven schools total, covering a geographical area from Hawaii to California, Utah and Arizona.

After his first year, he successfully petitioned the NCAA to reinstate the PacWest's automatic qualifiers for postseason play. Within five years, he led the effort to double the size of the conference to 14 schools to make it the largest Division II conference in the West Region. He helped the conference add five sports to the conference championships program, going from 10 conference sports to 15.

During his tenure, PacWest teams won six NCAA Division II national championships and were national finalists an additional 13 times. Twenty PacWest teams won an NCAA Division II West Region title, and three times a PacWest athletics program was the NCAA Division II Directors' Cup champion. The PacWest currently has 11 competing schools, with future commitments pushing that number to 14 for the 2024-25 season.

Hogue was one of three nominees from the PacWest. Also honored with a nomination was Point Loma Nazarene University President Bob Brower, who lhas held that role since 1997 and led the school into the NCAA Division II era, and former Dominican athletic director Bill Fusco, who was awarded the D2 ADA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. 

"Each of these finalists in their own way have made a significant impact on Division II," said Terri Steeb Gronau, vice president of Division II. "And from a collective perspective, their commitment to Division II values in helping student-athletes get the most from their college experience is tremendous and has made us what we are today as a division. I couldn't be prouder of this group, and it truly will be a challenge to select only two final recipients of the Gold Award."