Keele Fired as CSUN Coach After 5th Losing Season

Tom Keele, head football coach at Cal State Northridge for seven years, was fired Friday.

“The administration felt that the football program was not going in the right direction and decided to terminate my employment,” Keele said, “and I want to wish the football team the very best.”

The Matadors were 4-7 in 1985, giving the 52-year-old Keele a lifetime mark at Northridge of 31-42-1. He had five losing seasons.

A former CSUN administrator, who asked not to be identified, said the decision had been made months ago, and that it was based more on Keele’s poor administrative ability than on wins and losses.

Sam Winningham, chairman of the Physical Education and Athletics Department and the man who informed Keele that his one-year contract would not be renewed, denied that the decision had been reached much earlier.

“We felt we were in for a good season,” Winningham said. “We were all disappointed when we didn’t have a good record. This year was a culmination of things. When we weren’t successful this year, it kind of brought things to a head. We felt this was the time to make a change.”

As for the charges about Keele’s skills as an administrator, Winningham said, “The winning and losing has the high priority. There are other elements involved, but those are also related to whether we are winning. It’s all a package.”

Tailback Mike Kane revealed Friday night that the attitude on the team had soured.

“It seemed like losing the past couple of years wasn’t that big a deal anymore on the team,” Kane said. “For me it was, but as a team, people would be having a good time on the bus after a loss and that’s not right. That’s not right at all.

“Tom would get up and tell them it shouldn’t be like that after a loss, but just the fact that it happened, and the atmosphere was like that, wasn’t good. Losing became not a big deal at all. That shouldn’t happen. To get rid of that attitude will be a big factor.”

Added Kane: “Some of the players let it get out of perspective. Maybe it was the players’ fault more than Coach Keele’s fault.”

Once the decision to relieve Keele of his duties was made, administration officials had to decide the fate of his nine assistant coaches.

Only two will be retained. Rich Lopez, offensive coordinator, will remain for one additional year. Mark Banker, the defensive coordinator, will stay for six months.

Of course, a new coach could choose to keep both on staff.

Of the firing, Banker said, “It was just done. Nobody ever said to us that we had to win X amount of games this year. But Sam Winningham and (Athletic Director) Bob Hiegert went to bat for Rich and I. If not, we would not have gotten extensions.”

Among the names tossed around this week in an administrative meeting as a possible successor to Keele was recently deposed Notre Dame Coach Gerry Faust.

That suggestion, by one administration official, was not taken seriously by others.

Faust was quoted earlier Friday, before the Keele announcement, as saying he was considering five offers.

At one point, Lopez was considered as a possible interim coach. But now that the job has been thrown open, he must apply along with all other interested candidates.

“Rich could win here,” Banker said. “I could work with Rich as head coach.”

Kane seconded that opinion.

Of Keele, Kane said, “If he’s definitely fired, then I’d love to see Coach Lopez be the head coach. I think everybody respects him. If he was able to run the team, we could win under him.”

Kane, the leading ground gainer in Northridge history, had his differences with Keele over the number of times he carried the ball, but he expressed sorrow at the firing Friday night.

“I don’t have a bad thing to say about Coach Keele,” Kane, a junior, said. “I’m sorry it happened. I really am. He’s a great person. He’s been really good to me.

“I’m kind of surprised. We all heard rumors near the end of the season that it might happen, but I still thought he’d be there next season.”

Keele knew that wasn’t true at last Wednesday’s football banquet.

“I’ll tell you, Tom was a class act,” Banker said. “At the banquet, he could have gone up there and cried in his soup. He could have taken the night away from his players. But, he was a class act.”

Keele’s successor will be the first beneficiary of an increase in money that will enable the school to offer 18.7 full football scholarships next season. Northridge had nine this year.

“I would just like another shot at the program with some money,” Banks said. “We were sitting on a gold mine here, with the increase in scholarships. That’s what the shame of the whole thing is. We will look like fools compared to someone who will have the money to spend. That is all we needed.”

Instead, Banker will continue to recruit for Northridge while looking for a new job.

“My wife and I just bought a home,” he said. “As a football coach, you always know you can get fired, but I never thought it would happen like this.”

Keele was the sixth in a line of Northridge football coaches that began with Winningham, who served in the post one year longer than Keele.

Keele was an honorable mention All-Coast offensive lineman at the University of Oregon before graduating in 1959.

His first coaching jobs were at North Eugene High, Oregon City High and Sheldon High. The latter position resulted in two prep championships and a coach of the year award.

He then moved up to the collegiate level, landing assistant positions with Pudget Sound, San Jose State, Hawaii and Washington State. Next stop was an assistant’s job with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League.

Then, he became offensive coordinator with Cal State Long Beach before being hired at Northridge in January of 1979.

And, he said Friday night, there will be more.

“I’m going to be a football coach someplace,” he said. “I just don’t know where.”