MALIBU, California — Toward the end of the 2021 Pepp ESPYs ceremony, the script took a turn from issuing athletic awards, watching highlight videos of Pepperdine student-athletes and a healthy dose of emcee hijinks.
 
One by one -- people ranging from beach volleyball's Alexis Filippone, to Pepperdine swimming record-holder Sammie Slater, to athletic director Dr. Steve Potts -- gave tributes to Dr. Don Shores, Pepperdine's Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR), who will be retiring this summer.
 
And while Shores' accomplishments weren't put into a highlight reel like most of the Pepp ESPY nominees, he has been a key contributor to improving not only the student-athlete experience at Pepperdine, but also the West Coast Conference, over the past two decades.
 
"It's been wonderful to be the FAR," Shores said. "I got to have my head in the door of athletics to try to understand what's happening, the challenges of athletics and the challenges of student-athletes that most faculty don't get to see. To see both sides of it and interpret one side back to the other has been thrilling."
 
While Shores started as the FAR in 1998, he first came to Pepperdine as a communications professor back in the 1980s. When Shores, his wife Kathy and his two oldest daughters moved to California in 1981, they didn't anticipate their stay to be lengthy. However, it didn't take long for the Shores family to fall in love with the Pepperdine community, the students in the communications department and -- contrary to Don and Kathy's southern upbringing -- a lack of humidity.
 
"It was a far-out dream to think about coming to California," Shores said. "So we came out here as an adventure. We thought we would go out to Pepperdine and spend two, three or four years here, get some experience and then go back home to the south and live the rest of our lives there. Forty years later, we never did that."
 
"And it's been a wonderful experience here."
 
Starting as a professor in the communications department, Shores learned the ropes from Pepperdine professors like Dr. Fred Casmir, Dr. Morris Womack and current sports administration professor Dr. John Watson. In particular, Shores built a strong working relationship with Watson, who would eventually become Shores' boss in the athletic department. When Watson was elevated from FAR to Director of Athletics in 1998, the school needed a new FAR. With recommendations from Watson and others, former Pepperdine President David Davenport made it official in 1998, as Shores started his 22-year tenure as Pepperdine's FAR.
 
"Most FARs have no idea what they're getting themselves into when they agree to become a FAR," Shores said. "I really didn't have much of a concept of it, so John Watson tried to explain to me briefly what was coming and what I would be involved with. Once you get started, you realize you cannot do everything that you feel like you should be doing. So we have to do what we can do."
 
What Shores did do was act as a liaison between the professors, administrators in the athletics department and the student-athletes themselves. He also advocated for the academic well-being of student-athletes by making sure they had enough time, resources and support from faculty members to excel in the classroom.
 
"As the FAR, your job is really to be certain that the interest of the student-athletes in their academic pursuits are not hindered by athletics, or have any biases toward athletes by faculty," Watson said. "They're advocates for student-athletes to be certain that they create an atmosphere in which they are supported in both endeavors."
 
Put succinctly, Shores himself said in an October 2005 Pepperdine Graphic article that his job was "to ask if we're treating our athletes right."
 
As Pepperdine's FAR, Shores has had a hand in making several decisions to change the student-athlete experience over the years. His main task? Examining pieces of proposed NCAA legislation with the goal of putting student-athletes in the best position to succeed in the classroom. While working with the WCC, Shores had a hand in several conference commissioner searches, and, most recently, establishing the Russell Rule, which requires universities to interview candidates of color for coaching and administrative positions.
 
According to Watson, Shores was an effective FAR because of his intelligence, calm demeanor and genuine passion for advocating for student-athletes. Not only that, Watson said Shores was an effective mediator, which quickly earned him more credence and respect amongst his peers.
 
"He's reasonable about his approaches and he is a person who presents his points of view without being seen as attacks on other points of view," Watson said. "People who think or see things differently aren't offended by listening to what he has to say, so he's able to negotiate quite well. But he's able to do this because of his thoughtfulness and his ability to reasonably present an argument."
 
This diplomatic approach isn't confined to Shores' work at the conference. His communications ethics classes play by the same diplomatic approach he uses as a FAR: respect others, respect their opinions and be willing to listen to have a dialogue with people with different viewpoints.
 
"He's not so much of a lecturer as he is an engager of conversation," Watson said of Shores' classes. "He shares the theme he wants the students to talk about, and he really causes the students to think. And most of his students actually enjoy that kind of experience -- although they might not like it at first because it can be pretty tough. But he's patient. He works with his students until they become comfortable enough to start thinking internally about what they really believe."
 
When asked, Shores doesn't like to single out particular students during his time at Pepperdine, yet he does concur that he has noticed that student-athletes have continued to raise the bar throughout his tenure.
 
"I think our group of athletes today are some of the best athletes we've ever had — not just as athletes, but also as students," Shores said. "They're athletes who do are exemplary in the classroom and are also All-Americans who are winning conference championships and vying for national titles. In many cases, we don't even realize how amazing they are until they're gone, and then we see all of the things they were involved in and all of the things they accomplished as student-athletes."
 
On the other hand, choosing his favorite Pepperdine athletic highlights he's ever seen is an easier task. Shores fondly remembers the men's basketball team upsetting Indiana in Bob Knight's final game coaching the Hoosiers in 2000, men's golf's national title in 1997, and he distinctly recalls where he was when Pepperdine won the 1992 College World Series. But he has never seen Pepperdine win a national title in person -- although he might not regret that too much.
 
"I used to have a running joke with Marv Dunphy that the times I was there at the final game, we always lost," Shores said. "I always told him that he wouldn't want me there because I was a bad omen. So maybe it was a good thing I was never at the championship venue when our teams won national titles."
 
Nevertheless, one thing Shores has learned throughout his time as the FAR is that sports aren't always an us-versus-them affair. Before he worked as the FAR, Shores was a sports fan first: He loved the teams he rooted for, and anyone who played against them was the enemy. Yet as he got to know student-athletes, athletic directors and FARs from around the WCC, he celebrated their success too.
 
"All of a sudden, I understood these people around the conference aren't enemies -- they're friends," Shores said. "And we should rejoice every athlete and every team that succeeds, not just our own. The family gets bigger; it goes beyond our campus. It's been a really thrilling thing for me to be involved with and get to know these professionals from other schools. I wish every faculty member had that opportunity. It's a humbling and yet a thrilling kind of experience."