Cal State Fullerton Athletics

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Jim Donovan, a veteran collegiate athletics administrator with more than 20 years of experience, was appointed Athletic Director in December, 2012.

Since taking the reigns as the 11th director of athletics in school history, Donovan has brought Cal State Fullerton to new heights as the athletics department has notched several major accomplishments, both academically and athletically.

Under Donovan’s leadership, the Titans have won 31 Big West Conference Championships. The Titan baseball team made the College World Series in 2015 and 2017 after not making it to Omaha since 2009. The softball program has also soared to new heights, as it's begun a dynasty of its own, claiming five conference titles under head coach Kelly Ford including four straight from 2016-2019. Women’s soccer has advanced to the NCAA's in four seasons, men’s soccer has qualified for the NCAA Tournament in three campaigns, while Titan Men's Track & Field won back-to-back Big West crowns in 2017 and 2018 and three consecutive championships from 2021-23. Women's Track & Field won their first Big West title in 2019.  Men's Golf had an outstanding season in 2018-19, winning the Big West Tournament, and qualifying for the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2014. Men’s basketball won two Big West Tournament Championships to punch a ticket to the NCAA Tournament in 2017-2018 and 2021-2022. 

Following the 2018-19 academic year, Donovan was rewarded for his efforts by being named one of the recipients of the 2019 Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year award, as presented by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).

As dominant as Fullerton has been on the field of competition, the Titans’ accomplishments off of it have been even more impressive. During Donovan’s tenure as Athletic Director, the Titans have raised over $13.8 million through the department's development office. Ticket sales have also increased by nearly 46 percent since his arrival, as the Titans managed to sell a school-record $560,494 in tickets during the 2017-18 campaign.

Most impressively, the Titans have shed the “commuter school” label that many thought would be impossible. Since Donovan’s arrival on campus, Titan Athletics has gone from barely being able to attract 1,000 students to athletics events over an academic year, to now seeing an average of nearly 17,000 passionate Cal State Fullerton students supporting Titan student-athletes in each of the past three seasons. The newly created “Stampede” student section has rapidly increased by over 1,200 percent over the last six seasons, making Titan facilities some of the rowdiest in the Big West Conference.

Titan Athletics completed the new $16 million baseball complex and the newly renovated softball complex. For baseball, a two-story complex was built next to Goodwin Field’s left field bullpen. It includes a locker room, coaching offices, conference rooms and a ticket office. The softball clubhouse is located between Goodwin and Anderson Family Field, formerly housed both baseball and softball locker rooms, was renovated into a softball only facility. 

Donovan and the athletic department also completed an $8 million modern 53-meter pool with a moveable bulkhead that could accommodate multiple activities simultaneously. Following the completion of the pool, Donovan announced the addition of men’s and women’s water polo to Titan Athletics.

In 2019, a remodeled and upgraded Athletics Academics Services facility was introduced.  Funded by a Grant from the NCAA, the rooms will service Cal State Fullerton student-athletes and ASI leadership members.

The 2017-18 academic year was one for the ages, as Titan Athletics made history under Donovan’s sixth year of leadership. Fullerton claimed the department’s first Big West Commissioner’s Cup title in school history. The award is given out yearly to the conference’s winningest athletics department, based upon league titles and top finishes.

During 2017-18, the Titans claimed conference titles in a school-record six different team sports in Baseball, Softball, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer, Men’s Basketball and Men’s Track & Field. Fullerton also finished second in women’s tennis and earned top three finishes in both men’s and women’s cross country. The dance team also notched second place at the UDA/UCA Collegiate National Championship.

In 2016-17, the Titans proved to the rest of the conference that they were a department to be reckoned with across the board, as Cal State Fullerton produced a record-setting year, as seven different teams boasted winning records for the first time in school history. Baseball, softball, men’s basketball, women’s tennis, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and men’s track & field all accomplished the feat.

In addition to the overall success, Titan baseball found themselves back in Omaha in 2017 for the 18th time in school history, after defeating rival Long Beach State at Blair Field in the Super Regional round. 

Women’s golfer Martina Edberg wowed the golf world, leaving Cal State Fullerton as arguably the greatest golfer to ever tee it up it for the Titans. Her collegiate career ended at the NCAA National Championships in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The Titan dance team also kept its incredible streak of dominance alive, as it won its 16th overall UDA/UCA Collegiate National Championship. It marked the program’s eighth consecutive title.

For there to be success on the field, there has to be support off of it, and Donovan has been able to get plenty of that. Fullerton’s development team was able to raise over $2 million, while the department was also able to net nearly $300,000 in sponsorship dollars. Both marks were department records at that time. The Titans also set new single-season records for student attendance and ticket sales.

During the 2015-16 season alone, men’s and women’s soccer, softball and baseball brought home conference titles and each made appearances in the NCAA postseason along with women’s golfer Martina Edberg.

In January 2016, the Cal State Fullerton dance team clinched its 15th UDA/UCA Collegiate National Championship at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla., as the Titans competed in the Division I Jazz category.

One of Donovan’s first priorities upon arrival was to revamp and improve fundraising for Titan Athletics. With the addition of Associate Athletics Director for Development Greg Paules, in 2013, there has been a significant upward trend in overall donations and net revenue from numerous fundraising events and sources.

During the 2015-16 school year alone, Titan Athletics raised more than $1.45 million and in just three full years since Donovan’s arrival the athletics department raised upwards of $4 million, essentially matching the amount raised in the previous ten years. The more than three-fold increase in fundraising has enabled all sports to enhance their budgets, which is having a direct impact on the improved competitive success of a majority of athletic programs.  Annual fundraising totals have now averaged over $3.6 million in each of the last two years.

Since Donovan’s hiring in 2012, Cal State Fullerton has also seen a spike in sponsorships from $120,000 to $271,000, a 125-percent increase as well as in ticket sales from $385,000 to $534,552 in 2018-19, marking a 39-percent increase.

Since taking the helm of the Cal State Fullerton athletics department, Donovan has been an integral part in getting the Student Success Initiative (SSI) passed. The SSI, which was approved by the Student Fee Committee, President Mildred Garcia and CSU Chancellor Timothy White over the summer of 2014, allows the university to make substantive improvements through a multi-faceted student fee that will bring upgrades to athletics facilities and provide additional scholarship support for students as well as strengthen academic advising and provide upgraded technology and much more for the good of the university as a whole.

With the SSI in place, Cal State Fullerton athletics facilities have seen many upgrades including a state-of-the-art weight and training facility, the refurbishment of Titan Gym and Titan Stadium which incorporated a new $550,000 video scoreboard, lighting upgrades to the intramural fields, as well as first-class branding at all the athletics facilities.

A $12 million Baseball and Softball facilities upgrade project is expected to break ground after the 2020 seasons.

Additionally, the tennis courts have been completely refurbished and refinished along with Titan branded windscreens and Anderson Family Field boasts a new video scoreboard and a branded outfield fence highlighting the success of the softball program.

More than $1 million was spent upgrading the Titan Track facility, including the jumps area, shot put area, hammer area, spectator bleachers and the track is scheduled to be resurfaced before the end of the calendar year.

In 2013, Donovan implemented the “Titan Top Ten Musts” which focused all department employees on the importance of customer service – not just to ticket purchasers, but also to student-athletes, donors, members of the campus community, alumni, and other department staff members. Each year Titan Athletics conducts an academic year-ending survey, and to date every year the customer service scores for the areas that Titan Athletics manages have consistently improved.

During Donovan's tenure, Titan Athletics has seen steady increases in APR scores and graduation rates.

Donovan came to Cal State Fullerton after overseeing the University of Hawaii’s 21-sport operation with a budget of more than $30 million from 2008-12. During his time there, the athletic programs saw a collective improvement in both APR and overall grade point average (GPA) while managing a department that included more than 120 full-time staff, 200-plus part-time staff, and 450-plus student-athletes.

Donovan spearheaded a fund-raising effort that secured more than $40 million in public and private capital improvement projects and increased planned giving and major gifts from $5 million to an estimated $14 million. He also secured a partnership with ESPN Regional Television for the creation of the Diamond Head Classic basketball tournament and negotiated a contract with Oceanic Time Warner Cable and KFVE-TV on another television partnership that brought in more than $14 million to the athletics department over a six-year period.

On the field, the Rainbow Warriors competed at a high level, making 20 postseason appearances, including two football bowl appearances, an NCAA semifinal appearance for women’s volleyball, softball’s inaugural appearance in the Women’s College World Series, and postseason tournament appearances for men’s basketball, sand volleyball, and men’s and women’s tennis.

Donovan spent 17 years in athletics at Hawaii prior to a six-year hiatus as the Executive Director of the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl from 2002-08, beginning as a two-year offensive lineman for the Rainbow Warriors in 1981-82, earning honorable mention All-Western Athletic Conference honors as a senior. From there, he spent two years as a graduate assistant football coach and followed that with a three-year stint as manager of baseball’s Les Murakami Stadium.

In 1988, Donovan was promoted to sports marketing director, spending six years heading up the promotion and corporate sponsorship aspects of the department. In 1994, he was named the assistant athletics director for administrative services and, two years later, became the department’s associate athletics director for nine years, serving as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

He served on the Gender Equity Subcommittee and was the department’s spokesperson for matters involving the Hawaii state legislature, UH Board of Regents, Athletic Advisory Board, Aloha Stadium Authority, NCAA Certification Committee, and various other community organizations. Donovan also served as president and CEO of m2c, Inc., a business consulting company that provides leadership and strategic direction in event management. Some of his clients included ESPN Regional Television, Panda Travel, and Sodexo Food Services.

A 1983 graduate of the University of Hawaii with a B.A. in Geography, he earned an Executive Master’s degree in Business Administration in 1996.

An Anaheim, Calif., native who attended both Servite High School and Santa Ana College, Donovan is married to the former Tracy Orillo and they have two children, Jacqueline and Joshua.