ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 7, 1997 TAG: 9703070060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wally Walker, Seattle Supersonics president, said he and Allen were classmates, but that they haven't stayed in touch.
Gov. George Allen has appointed former University of Virginia basketball star Wally Walker and three other people to the university's Board of Visitors.
The others appointed Monday were William Crutchfield Jr., an Albemarle County businessman; James Wheat III of Henrico County, a business executive who was the treasurer of Allen's 1993 gubernatorial campaign; and Terence Ross of Alexandria, a lawyer and longtime Allen political supporter.
Walker, president and general manager of the Seattle Supersonics, is vice chairman of the university's $750 million capital campaign.
UVa Rector Hovey Dabney said Walker, 42, adds youth and fund-raising prowess to the board.
``We had to have a national presence and he gives us that,'' Dabney said.
Crutchfield is president of Crutchfield Corp., one of the nation's largest mail-order retailers of electronics equipment. He also serves as vice chairman of the UVa Health Services Foundation's Board of Directors.
Wheat, a graduate of UVa's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, succeeds Warner Dalhouse on the board. Dalhouse, a Democrat from Roanoke, was eligible for reappointment.
Ross is a partner in the nation's 10th largest law firm, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, and is a 1983 UVa law school graduate. He said he met Allen in 1982.
Crutchfield, Ross and Wheat are active Republicans. Walker said he is a registered Republican in Seattle but doubted that his out-of-state party registration had anything to do with his appointment.
Walker said he and Allen were classmates at Virginia, but they ``really haven't stayed in touch.''
After graduating from UVa, Walker played professional basketball in Houston and Seattle. He attended graduate school at Stanford University and worked for Goldman Sachs before becoming the Supersonics' president and general manager.
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