Wolf Pack Athletic Director Doug Knuth updated the campus community, alumni, fans and friends of the Nevada Wolf Pack with an open letter on Aug. 1. Knuth's letter touched on a variety of topics, including community service totals for Wolf Pack student-athletes over the past year, his recent visit to rural Nevada, efforts to build alumni and fan support in Las Vegas and the special role that Wolf Pack athletics plays in creating a more business-friendly climate for northern Nevada.

During the past academic year, Knuth said Wolf Pack student-athletics participated in "roughly 4,000 hours of community service." This included "hospital visits, elementary school visits, reading programs, service projects such as collecting hundreds of pairs of shoes for families in need, giving blood at local blood drives, community activities like the Race for the Cure."

Knuth also described summer 2014 visits to northeastern Nevada communities in Winnemucca and Elko, where he spent time with fans and alumni and visited the original site of the University in Elko. Knuth said he has made a monthly commitment to visit alumni in Las Vegas "as we build a Southern Nevada Wolf Pack booster group. The response has been very positive as we build an organization of people who are interested in supporting the Pack in Rebel country."

Knuth said he was thankful to now have Wolf Pack athletics be a part of economic development efforts. "Thanks to (President and CEO) Mike Kazmierski and the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN), we now participate in major announcements when companies move to, or expand in, our community," Knuth said. "Each announcement includes a welcome package of Wolf Pack goodies for the CEO/President of the company and an invitation from me for the entire company to attend a home Wolf Pack football or basketball game as our guests.  We want them to know that moving a company to Northern Nevada means you are instantly Wolf Pack fans." A related effort has been the development of the Wolf Pack Business Advisory Group. "We invited 40 local business connectors and leaders to participate in a business advisory capacity -- providing advice on marketing/PR, customer service, sales techniques, business messaging and much more," Knuth said. "This group has been instrumental in many of our new sales and business development initiatives."