Coug star Mayes returning to WSU
After five months of fund raising for the University of Washington in Seattle, former Washington State University football star Rueben A. Mayes is coming home to his alma mater in Pullman to raise money for undergraduates.
Mayes, 41, came to WSU from Saskatchewan in the 1980s to study business and be a running back for the Cougars. In 1984, he broke the NCAA single game rushing record with 375 yards in a game against Oregon. In 1986, he was named the NFL’s Rookie of the Year.
Mayes was drafted by the New Orleans Saints. He played with them for five years before coming back to the Northwest to play for the Seahawks for two years.
His first career was football, but he moved easily into the world of fund raising. His first development job came in 1994 working for CRISTA Ministries, a Seattle-based nonprofit Christian charity.
He moved back to Pullman in the mid-‘90s, along with his family, to work with transfer students coming into the university and to earn a master’s degree in business. Mayes worked his way through the ranks on campus to become director of the WSU Athletic Foundation and then executive director of the President’s Associates Program, a program for donors who give $1,000 or more.
This spring, he was lured away with a job as assistant dean for external relations for the UW Business School, a job he started in early March.
When word spread that Mayes would be leaving for Seattle, an air of disappointment filled campus, said Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Doug Baker.
“I didn’t think we could get him back,” he said. But other WSU leaders thought that with his wife, Maria, and children not yet relocated and by tapping into his attachment to WSU, he could be convinced to return.
Mayes said he was excited about the new job in Seattle, but the dean that hired him left and now, with a new president, many parts of the UW’s administration are changing. “There was an opportunity to return to WSU and to Pullman during this window of transition,” he said. “I’m glad to be coming back. My roots are in Eastern Washington.”
He’ll be director of development of the WSU Office of Undergraduate Education, a new office with the mission of improving the undergraduate student’s experience at WSU. His salary will be $87,000.
“As a Washington State University graduate, Rueben is uniquely positioned to communicate the value of the undergraduate educational experience to WSU’s friends and alumni,” said WSU President V. Lane Rawlins in a statement Friday.
“It’s a very good fit,” Mayes said.
Mayes is scheduled to start work Aug. 10 as the new office is shaping its goals and direction, said Baker, who will supervise Mayes. “It’s the perfect time for Rueben to come back and help us.”