In Reno, Nev., a city that has been known as the "divorce capital of the world," the marriage of Chris Ault and the University of Nevada has been something of an anomaly.

For theirs is a union of such longstanding as to be remarkable not only in Nevada but in the transitory world of Division I-A football. For more than 30 years now, Nevada and Ault have been inextricably linked, 22 seasons of them with him as the Wolf Pack's head football coach.

Indeed, Ault has been there so long that in his first season as head coach the Wolf Pack beat a Portland State team quarterbacked by the man who will be standing on the opposite sideline Saturday night at Aloha Stadium, Hawai'i's June Jones.

Back then the 29-year-old Ault was the youngest college football coach in the nation. Even then, three decades before installing the "pistol" offense that propelled Nevada to a share of the Western Athletic Conference championship last season, Ault was, well, quite a pistol in his own right.

"We about had a fist fight at halftime," recalls Mouse Davis, a UH assistant who was Portland State's head coach at the time. "My defensive coordinator and one of his coordinators were arguing about something and Ault came over and said to me, 'you ought to fire that defensive coordinator of yours.'

"I said, 'fire him? I thought I'd give him a raise.' So, we went back and forth a while. I don't know that the kids knew what was going on. We were just a couple of short, obnoxious coaches at each other's throats a little bit."

Ault, the coach now known as "the Little General" for his self-assured, dictatorial manner that can come across as arrogance, isn't everybody's cup of tea. But for Nevada, the 5-foot-8 taskmaster has been almost heaven-sent.

In three coaching stints (1976-92, 1994-95 and 2004-present) sandwiched around time as the school's athletic director, he has gone 180-75-1, suffered just two losing seasons and presided over the Wolf Pack's rise from Division II, through I-AA and into a competitive I-A program. Along the way, the Wolf Pack has won or shared eight conference titles across the Big Sky, Big West and WAC.

It is a resume that earned him a place in the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame four years ago. But not something that prevented him from coming out from behind the AD's desk to return a strong hand to the program in 2004 after a rash of felony incidents.

"They say a team takes on the personality of its coach," Davis said, "and I'm sure some of him has carried over to the kids there." After 30 years, the "Little General" has put his imprint on the Wolf Pack.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.