By Jeff Hunter ’96

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After taking the helm in October, Cameron Walker experienced a whirlwind March that saw the Utah State men’s basketball team cut down nets in Logan and Las Vegas and secure an NCAA Tournament win over Villanova.

But as any athletic director knows, success can come with a cost. And less than a day after Utah State’s season came to an end with a second-round loss to No. 1-seeded Arizona, USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun was hired away by the University of Cincinnati, leaving Walker to make the most significant decision of his brief tenure as the athletic director at Utah State.

Walker hired longtime Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson on March 30, while simultaneously supporting USU’s spring sports and continuing to spearhead the Show Me initiative he unveiled in late January. With Utah State leaving the Mountain West for the new-look Pac-12 on July 1, Walker recognized the need to create a comprehensive modernization and fundraising campaign focused on increasing revenue in three specific areas: ticket sales, philanthropic giving, and sponsorships.

As of mid-April, the Show Me initiative had already generated over $7 million in donations, alongside significant growth in Big Blue Club memberships and football season ticket sales.

“We just have tons of momentum,” Walker declares. “It’s exciting to see just how much the community is buying into what we’re building — the strategy and plan and the momentum of the university. I think there’s momentum even in the community itself, and I believe the Pac-12 and the energy around that plays into it a little bit.”

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

Perhaps it’s a little bit ironic that a man now in charge of a collegiate athletic department was once a student-athlete who experienced the loss of not only his athletic programs, but the institution’s entire athletic department.

But decades before Cam Walker was hired as Utah State’s athletic director, the Rexburg, Idaho native played baseball in his hometown for Ricks College for one season before leaving on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2001. However, while he was serving in Russia, Walker got the news that the LDS Church had decided to convert Ricks College from a two-year junior college to a four-year university, and as part of that adjustment, the school now known as BYU-Idaho would discontinue all of its sports programs.

“I played baseball at Ricks my freshman year, left on my mission, came back and there were no more athletics,” Walker laments.

But that unlikely confluence of events might have provided Walker with the nudge towards what is now his current vocation.

Suddenly a baseball player in search of a team, Walker found a new home playing for his old coach at a four-year university rather than a two-year junior college. After 11 years at Ricks, Jerry Schlegelmilch relocated to Southern Virginia University, and he ended up bringing along a lot of former Vikings to play in Buena Vista, including Walker.

After graduating from SVU in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in business management and leadership, Walker stuck around the Shenandoah Valley for a year to serve as Schlegelmilch’s assistant coach. But by that time, he and his wife, Heather, were about to have their first child, and Walker was thinking more and more about how to best provide for this family.

Along with coaching, he was also serving as an intern to SVU President Rodney K. Smith, who had previously served as the dean at three different law schools.

“He looked at me, and I think he could tell I was miserable,” Walker says of that pivotal conversation with Smith. “And he said, ‘Have you thought about going into college athletics on the administrative side?’ And I said, ‘No … but tell me more.’

“He said, ‘I think you should go get a law degree and do it.’ … And I started going on that track, and I haven’t looked back since.”

After graduating cum laude with a juris doctorate from the University of Arkansas, Walker was hired as the director of compliance at Utah Valley University in May 2010 and spent six years in Orem before being leaving for Central Florida in May 2016. While in Orlando, Walker worked under UCF athletic director Danny White in a variety of roles, including director for compliance and executive associate athletics director.

And when White was hired as AD by the University of Tennessee in January 2021, Walker followed him to Knoxville, where he served as deputy director of athletics for competitive excellence. When he was hired by interim USU President Al Smith last fall, Walker was the Volunteers’ senior deputy director of athletics and chief strategy, as well as the executive director of the UT Athletics Foundation.

Relocating from East Tennessee to North Logan wasn’t the easiest thing for Walker and his family, which includes Heather, a Heber City native, and the couple’s four children: Aleksandra, Hudson, McCann and Jackson. But when he was hired, Walker recounted a story of driving through Logan Canyon and Heather telling him while they ate Aggie Ice Cream, “‘Wouldn’t this be a cool athletic director job?’ And I said, ‘This would be awesome.’”

“And it has been awesome,” says Walker, who notes that it takes him just six minutes to get from his home to his office. “Cache Valley has delivered in spades. It’s been unbelievable. I had high expectations for living here, but it exceeded those the expectations. So, that been outstanding.”

ALIGNMENT IS THE KEY

The son of a sound engineer, Walker knows how to listen.

Trent Walker worked for the LDS Church at Ricks College, then served as the senior audio engineer for Bonneville Communications in Salt Lake City. He and two other sound engineers were nominated for a Grammy in 2008 in the Best Engineered Album, Classical category for their production on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas album Spirit of the Season.

Now retired, Trent and Lori Walker live in Arkansas near one of their three children, but they also have a summer home in Bear Lake which will come in handy when they want to visit their eldest child in Cache Valley.

But where Cam Walker really lucked it out was when it was announced in late October that another native of Madison County, Idaho — Brad Mortensen — had been tabbed as the new president of Utah State University. Walker being hired by an interim president was rather unusual in the moment, and he admitted that it was, “a little unnerving when you don’t know who your final boss will be.”

While they’re a decade or so apart in age, Walker and Mortensen both attended Madison High School and Ricks College in Rexburg before continuing their education elsewhere. That Gem State connection, as well sharing their strategies for the future at Utah State, has given the two new administrators plenty to talk about.

“The Madison Bobcats are coming in strong here,” Walker says with a laugh. “Brad’s been exactly what we thought he would be, which is terrific. And I’ve been thrilled getting to know him and just learn about his leadership style and values.”