The RoundHouse | 7/21/2020 3:44:00 PM

 
Bill Belknap, those who worked with him say, provided an ideal blend of wisdom, kindness and military bearing to help Wichita State's athletic department through a difficult time in the 1990s.
 
Belknap, 81, died Friday in Moscow, Idaho from congestive heart failure. He worked at Wichita State as athletic director from 1994-1999. He took over at a time when the department struggled financially with men's basketball slumping and Henry Levitt Arena showing its age. Media reports from 1994 put the athletic department deficit at $2 million.
 
"Things were really, really tough," said Becky Endicott, senior associate athletic director. "He was an extremely gentle man who had the ability to get people to follow his lead. He had a vision of how we were going to make Wichita State athletics better."
 
When he retired in 1999, according to The Wichita Eagle, the debt was erased and a 1995 student-fee hike helped budgets and facilities. 
 
Wichita State opened Wilkins Stadium in 1998 and plans to renovate Eck Stadium began during his time. Shocker baseball played in the College World Series in 1996. His hiring of Randy Smithson in 1996 as men's basketball produced mixed results, highlighted by winning seasons in 1997 and 1998, the program's first since 1989.
 
Belknap hired Grier Jones to coach men's golf, a move that paid off with 15 Missouri Valley Conference titles and 13 NCAA regional appearances before Jones retired in 2019.
 
"It was interesting," Belknap said in 1999 upon retiring. "The years were sometimes trying and sometimes rewarding."
 
Endicott, hired by Belknap in 1994, credits him with getting the department on solid footing. His work restoring Wichita State's finances laid the groundwork for the expansion and renovation of Levitt Arena into Charles Koch Arena starting in 2001. Jim Schaus succeeded Belknap and oversaw a revival of men's basketball and significant success in many other sports.
 
"It's a huge loss for our history, because he had the vision before Jim came of how we were going to improve men's basketball," Endicott said. "We needed the community support and the community really liked Bill. That set the stage for Jim to come in and be able to raise the money to renovate Charles Koch Arena and do the things that needed to be done to get men's basketball back on track."
 
Belknap worked for 10 years as athletic director at Idaho, where his tenure was highly regarded for hires such as basketball coach Don Monson and football coach Dennis Erickson. He coached football at Arizona for 10 years before working three years as an associate athletic director.
 
He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1961 with a commission in the artillery of the U.S. Army. 
 
Belknap was born in New Castle, Pa., on March 18, 1939. He is survived by one sister, Linda Lenz, who resides in Fayetteville, Pa.
 
Arrangements have been entrusted to Short's Funeral Chapel of Moscow and condolences may be left at www.shortsfuneralchapel.com.

Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.