Unlikely Dream Crowds Keele’s Nights at CSUN

It may not bump the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. from the history books, but Northridge football Coach Tom Keele also has a dream.

“It’s one of my goals, one of those things I want to attain someday,” Keele said Wednesday. “I want to consistently fill the seats at North Campus Stadium, fill it so that when our team walks onto the field there aren’t any empty seats in the whole stadium.”

If that’s all Keele wants, what’s the big deal? Hire a construction crew to rip out 6,000 of the 9,000 seats.

The Matadors, who are 4-6 overall and were bumped out of the Western Football Conference race very early, have averaged fewer than 3,000 fans a game this season, but in many games nearly half of the fans belonged to the visiting team. More than 28,000 people attend the university, and it doesn’t take an afternoon with calculators and floppy discs to figure out that the percentage of Northridge students who look forward to catching a glimpse of the Matadors is roughly the same as the percentage of Warsaw residents who looked forward to seeing German tanks.

“It’s disappointing, but it’s expected,” Keele said. “It’s the same problem at all commuter schools. People just find other things to do. They don’t feel a part of the campus or a real part of the school and we have a devil of a time getting the big crowds.”

A big part of the problem, Keele admitted, is that the Matadors haven’t exactly reminded anyone of Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers.

“If we want to attract big crowds, we know we have to play consistent, winning football,” Keele said. “If we do that, then the fans will come.”

Maybe Northridge football will never pull in the big crowds. As Yogi Berra once noted at Yankee Stadium, if the fans don’t want to come to the games, you can’t stop ‘em.

CSUN’s season comes to an end Saturday at Portland State. If someone wants to bet that the final score will be 7-6, mortgage the house and take it.

Portland State, behind the cannon-arm of Terry Summerfield, is the No. 1 passing team in the WFC, averaging 323 yards per game. CSUN has the second-worst defense against the pass. CSUN’s passing offense is second in the conference. Portland State has the worst defense against the pass in the conference.

One Matador who eyes the season finale with mixed emotions is running back Mike Kane, who became the school’s all-time leading rusher this year. His season has had more peaks and valleys than a brick patio built by the town drunk.

It began when he learned during the summer that Keele has going to a run-and-shoot passing offense. This was akin to Richard Petty finding out that NASCAR had decided to allow only 1965 Ramblers in all stock car races.

“It was tough to adjust,” said Kane said. “I was mad but I kept it to myself. When reporters asked me about it I just told them it didn’t really matter. But it did matter.”

Kane came to accept the new offense.

“It changed me,” he said. “Instead of thinking of my own stats, I started thinking more about the team.”

And just when he started having fun again, he collapsed during the Cal Lutheran game with severely strained and bruised ligaments in his right foot and missed three games.

“The worst part about it is that I think I did it to myself,” he said. “My right foot came across and I stomped on my own left foot.”

He played sparingly last week and will play again Saturday, even though his foot is telling him to cool his heels.

When San Luis Obispo Coach Jim Sanderson sends a quarterback to the shower, the shower usually ends up being at the player’s house.

Jeff Byars, a junior, began the season at quarterback. When he was replaced by Yale Keckin, he quit the team. Keckin, in turn, was edged out by Robert Perez. Keckin also turned in his uniform.