Eilefson’s Switch to San Jose Is Official : Traumatic Year Ends for Titan AD

For Lynn Eilefson, 1984 was a year of drastic changes. It was a year that began in silent despair and unspeakable agony. And a year that ended in the rebirth of joy, hope and new beginnings.

He limped into 1984 painfully. He was drastically weakened by the effects of radical radiation treatments for cancer (lymphoma) and “challenged in the night,” as he puts it, by the grim prospects of his future.

But he strolled into 1985 with a clean bill of health, a new job and a wide smile.

Eilefson, the athletic director at Cal State Fullerton the past three years, joked with reporters here Wednesday before a press conference to announce his appointment as director of men’s intercollegiate athletics at San Jose State University.

Later, Eilefson addressed the group formally and talked about great potential, exciting new opportunities and an “extremely bright future.”

Just a year ago, though, “bleak” would have been a better word to describe what lay ahead.

Eilefson was one of the first cancer patients to undergo a new Stanford University treatment that included an almost daily bombardment of X-rays for more than a year. His physician, Dr. Langsford Chong, would not go into a detailed description of the discomfort involved (at Eilefson’s request), but he did call it “a very difficult and most prolonged course of treatment.”

It was, of course, worth every second of pain.

“The doctors have told me to consider myself cured,” Eilefson said. “I’ve been blessed with a miracle handed down by the good Lord coupled with a miracle of modern medicine. In fact, because of the changes in my diet and life style, they said I’m in the best shape I’ve been in in 10 years.”

So, three weeks ago, when San Jose State officials contacted him and asked if he would at least come talk to them about the Spartan athletic director position, Eilefson was feeling open to new suggestions. After all, he’s been feeling like a new man lately.

“To tell you the truth,” he said on the flight up to San Jose Wednesday morning, “I never even considered this job before they called. I mean I knew it was open (Dave Adams resigned in August), but it was the farthest thing from my mind.”

A contract that reportedly is in excess of $60,000 a year (a 30% increase over his Fullerton salary) helped him start considering the job, although Eilefson says he would never make a move for strictly financial reasons.

“Financially, it was very much worth my while,” he said, declining to specify a figure. “But I learned a long time ago that financial reasons alone are not enough to change jobs. It will be hard to leave Orange County because I love the area. But I knew I would never leave California, so there aren’t really that many other opportunities.”

Eilefson admits that on the surface the move appears to be somewhat lateral. He’s staying in the California State school system and even in the same conference (Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.), but he can point to a host of reasons that he believes make the job a professional advancement.

“It is in many ways a lateral move, “ he said, “but, from a professional standpoint, it offers a whole new set of challenges. The most obvious one is marketing Spartan sports. I think there is a much greater opportunity to attain a strong local identity here then there was at Fullerton.

“The facilities are here, too. The football stadium will be expanded to 30,000 seats this summer and an on-campus basketball arena has been approved.

“I also think the timing is right. San Jose has been a little down in the areas of the major sports (football, basketball and baseball), and I think athletics go in cycles. I believe San Jose State is ready for some major successes.”

San Jose State President Dr. Gail Fullerton agrees.

“I’m very, very pleased with this appointment,” she said. “Our program is at a critical juncture . . . poised to either leap forward or backslide.

“When I charged the (selection) committee, I told them I wanted a Divison 1-A athletic director with a history of being able to relate well with the academic community, the alumni and supporters and, of course, the coaches.

“I knew such a paragon would be very difficult to find. And now that we have Lynn, I’m extremely pleased.”

Eilefson began the press conference with a short, prepared speech and emphasized that he had been “very happy at Fullerton.” A couple of hours earlier, however, he had gazed out the airplane window and chronicled his frustrations with the Titan program.

“The most obvious negative at Fullerton is the lack of facilities,” he said. “It’s really a shame that the plans for the (on-campus football) stadium were tangled up in the courts for so long.

“But the biggest frustration for me was the scheduling problem. I was literally turned away at the door when I tried to schedule the kinds of teams you have to schedule to enhance your recruiting.”

Titan Football Coach Gene Murphy, a close friend of Eilefson (he still affectionately calls him “Trail Boss”), understands those frustrations all too well. Murphy had hopes of landing the coaching job at Missouri last month and turned down chances to go to Utah and Oregon State while pursuing the Tigers’ position.

On Dec. 17--while Murphy was sweating out Missouri’s decision--Eilefson was in San Jose for a preliminary interview. Eilefson says he didn’t tell Murphy where he went because he was still a long way from making any decision about leaving.

“More than anything in the world, I wanted Gene to stay at Fullerton, but I encouraged him to go after the Missouri job,” Eilefson said. “He’s a tremendously gifted coach and a rare human being.

“I admit that the timing of this whole thing was terrible and that has been an embarrassment on my part. I didn’t want Gene to find out through the rumor mill. But I feel like a victim of circumstances. The hardest part for me was leaving the relationships I had developed with most of the coaches.”

Murphy isn’t harboring any ill feelings, though. He also has no intentions of applying for the Fullerton AD position (“I’d want that job when I can go ice fishing at Irvine Lake,” he says).

“He didn’t actually tell me he was considering the job,” Murphy said, “but we had a long talk after he got back and I told him I’d help him back his bags.

“You can’t be so dang selfish that you’d try to stand in the way of a friend’s professional advancement. You look at our conference and you’re looking at San Jose and Fresno. Fullerton’s all right . . . I mean there’s nothing wrong here that 100 years wouldn’t solve.

“It hurts us, but he deserves it. Lynn’s a legitimate Division 1-A athletic director. Our loss is their gain.”

Eilefson still bristles at the notion that he and Fullerton President Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb didn’t see eye-to-eye and that was one reason he left.

“I have had absolutely no frustration dealing with Dr. Cobb, beside the fact I wanted to start calling the teams Fullerton State and she insisted on Cal State Fullerton,” Eilefson said. “I’ve always found her to be very supportive of the athletic program.”

The admiration is obviously mutual. In a prepared statement issued Wednesday, Cobb said, “I am deeply saddened by Lynn Eilefson’s departure but realize he has made a choice that is best for him professionally.

“He is an extraordinary person and a great leader with a positive attitude that is an inspiration to all who have been associated with him. He has instilled our athletic program with new vigor and a new sense of pride.”

Leanne Grotke, the Fullerton associate athletic director in charge of women’s sports, Wednesday was named acting athletic director, pending a nationwide search for Eilefson’s replacement. Grotke, the Titans’ first full-time women’s AD, held a similar position at Indiana before coming to Fullerton in 1978.

Sources close to the program believe Grotke has an inside track on the permanent position. Eilefson said he isn’t in a position to comment on that, but quickly added, “I have the greatest respect for Leanne Grotke, and I think she is one of the outstanding women’s administrator’s in the country . . . she can certainly put my name on her resume.”

Eilefson, 52, is obviously excited about the move and the new challenges ahead, but his wife, Bev, says she will miss the atmosphere and weather of Orange County. “We’ve moved six times in 24 years,” she said. “I don’t mind. Home is where Lynn is.”

“I really believe San Jose State is a sleeping giant,” Eilefson said. “Oh, sure, there’ll be problems. Frustration is part of an athletic administrator’s job description. But there seems to be a tendency these days to shy away from challenges in this business.

“What some might consider headaches, I think of as puzzles that need solutions. I love this job, and that’s just the sort of thing to get my juices flowing.”

Always the optimist, even in those darkest of days, Lynn Eilefson is sounding very much like a man with a new lease on life these days.