The WRIGHT Way to Athletic Success at Pepperdine

Among the pictures hanging on the office walls of Pepperdine Athletic Director Wayne Wright are two of sailboats, one braving a stormy sea and the other at anchor in a safe harbor.

“I like to tell people that this is where I am,” said Wright, pointing to the wave-battered boat, “and this is where I’d like to be,” pointing to the other.

If perilous seas constantly torment college athletic directors, Wright has shown an unusual capacity for riding out storms. He’s been at it for 10 years.

Only coaches seem to get fired more often than leaders of major college sports programs, who must deal with a variety of factors: better job, can see to it that a university’s teams win more games.

There are larger university sports programs--with more money--that try to lure away the best coaches.

And then there’s the problem of maintaining a sound program, in which teams win in the arena and at the box office.

If the number of wins are the sole criterion for retaining an athletic director, the 52-year-old Wright, who coached Pepperdine baseball teams to a record of 194-166 from 1969 through 1976, has given the administration little reason to give him the heave-ho.

In Wright’s decade at the helm, Wave teams have a record of 1,801-988, a winning percentage of .646. National rankings and postseason appearances have become a matter of form for Pepperdine teams. In the last academic year, 8 of its squads were ranked among the nation’s top 20, 3 in the top 10.

In the last 10 years, Pepperdine men’s volleyball teams have won three NCAA Division I championships. The first came in 1978, the second in 1985 under Coach Marv Dunphy, who took a leave last year to become head coach of the U. S. men’s team for the 1988 Olympics, and the third in 1986 under first-year Coach Rod Wilde, a three-time All-American at Pepperdine who played for Dunphy’s 1978 champions.

Outstanding Tennis Record

Some of the coaches who have worked for Wright during most of his tenure include: Allen Fox, men’s tennis, nine seasons, 200-57, .778; Rick Rowland, men’s swimming, nine seasons, 68-26, .723; Jim Harrick, men’s basketball, seven seasons, 138-66, .676; Gualberto Escudero, women’s tennis, nine seasons, 172-88, .662; Dave Gorrie, baseball, eight seasons, 324-166, .661, and Roland, water polo, 11 seasons, 243-126, .659.

In 1985, Nina Matthies’ first year as women’s volleyball coach, her team was only 6-25 with players she inherited and walk-ons. In the last two seasons, with players she recruited, her squads have gone 44-30.

Pepperdine will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1987-88, and the school’s athletic success didn’t happen overnight.

It had winning teams at its old campus at 79th Street and Vermont Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles, including a mythical small-college national championship in football in 1947. But, except for basketball, the competition was mostly of the small-college variety--and so were the facilities.

Winners Attract Donors

The school didn’t start to go big time in sports until it opened its Malibu campus in 1972. As its sparkling seaside campus grew, so did its fund-raising. And so did athletics, which made it easier for Pepperdine to raise money. Winning teams tend to attract donors with deep pockets.

If it were not already a university with law and graduate schools as well as satellite centers, Pepperdine could still be categorized as a small college. Its undergraduate enrollment at Malibu is only about 2,400.

But, except for the fact that the Waves don’t play football, there is nothing small-time about Pepperdine athletics. Its teams win, its seven men’s and six women’s teams qualify for NCAA Division I status (The NCAA requires six each), and its athletic department had a $2-million budget last year.

With big-time status, however, come big-time problems.

Wright said his budget consists mostly of grants-in-aid or scholarships to athletes. A full ride for an athlete next fall, when tuition rises from $9,440 a year to $10,200 and room and board is expected to top $4,000, will be more than $14,000.

“Sometimes the more successful you are, the more it costs you,” Wright said. “And costs go up every year, both internally and externally. It gets tough.”

It got especially tough early this year when Wright had to decide to drop one men’s sport because the university had increased its women’s teams to six to meet NCAA Division I requirements.

Tougher on Rowland, whose men’s swim team was eliminated and its funds ($167,000) spread among women’s sports. Rowland resigned as water polo coach and confined his duties to teaching and the campus ministry. Terry Schroeder, a three-time All-American under Rowland and a star of the 1984 U. S. Olympics team, will be the new water polo coach next fall.

Swimmer Kept Scholarships

“Almost every institution I know of in the last five years has dropped sports, mainly to improve women’s programs and also because of inflation,” Wright said. He added that Pepperdine has not dropped the scholarships of 10 swimmers and that the grants will be continued until they transfer or graduate. Any savings to the athletic program won’t be realized until “two or three years down the road,” he said.

It becomes tougher for Wright to hang on to a coach like Harrick, whose teams have won five West Coast Athletic Conference titles, including last season’s, and gone on to post-season play after each championship. Harrick’s name seemed to be mentioned last season every time there was a coaching vacancy at a top school.

“That’s the case any time you have a successful coach, but it’s a nice problem to have,” Wright said. “Anyone who is career-oriented would want to go where he can have 14,000 people a night watching his team.

“But a lot of people also want to coach here. We have a small turnover (in coaches). Our coaches are satisfied with the institution, and our institution is satisfied with them.

“We have never fired a coach for losing. When institutions put extra pressure to win at all costs, then you’re going to have problems, you’re going to have cheating.”

A Nice Problem

Wright won’t have to fire Wilde, current men’s volleyball coach, when Dunphy returns as coach after the 1988 Olympics. Wilde took the job with the understanding that it was temporary. But Wright will still have to replace a man who brought the school an NCAA title in his first year with one who had won two national championships.

Again, that’s a nice problem for Wright to have. But by the time Dunphy returns, Wilde probably will have been snapped up to coach in a top volleyball program elsewhere.

But there are some not-so-nice problems on the horizon.

One is the growth of drug use among athletes, dramatized so tragically this summer by the deaths of Maryland basketball star Len Bias and Don Rogers, Cleveland Browns defensive back and former UCLA All-American.

Wright said that the deaths focused attention on athletes’ drug use but that “the problem is bigger than that. It’s one of the biggest problems in the nation, but no greater for athletes than it is for the rest of the nation.”

Pepperdine Testing Expected

Last January the NCAA authorized drug testing at championship events and football bowl games, and 105 schools reportedly test for drugs in some manner.

Pepperdine has had some drug education for athletes in the past, Wright said, and expects to have “some kind of drug testing” program before the end of this year. He said Pepperdine has no medical facility on campus but expects to use a laboratory in Ventura for testing, which may be tied in with preseason physicals for athletes, probably with random tests afterward.

Wright also said he hopes to hire an academic adviser by September to monitor athletes’ class attendance and set up tutoring programs. He said that Pepperdine’s graduation rate for athletes “is a little over 80%, and I’d like to see it get better.”

Although Firestone Fieldhouse has a seating capacity of 3,104 for basketball (The record crowd for a basketball game is 4,500.), Wright said that he does not envision expansion in the next three years. One thing he does see is resurfacing of its floor, “at a cost of $150,000 to $200,000 if it’s synthetic.” It was last re-floored eight years ago.

Sports Endowment Fund

He said that that informal efforts to create an endowment for the athletic department, which began about 18 months ago and have raised about $175,000, probably will be officially established to coincide with the school’s 50th anniversary year. He would like to see the endowment reach $10 million in the next 10 years.

“A private institution has to have some kind of built-in regular income for its athletic program other than gate receipts and guarantees,” Wright said.

He said that although Pepperdine teams have support groups, “almost by design, we haven’t encouraged great growth of large booster clubs. The rules violation problems of many institutions have been the result of large booster organizations.”

Wright said that the athletic department has been fortunate in receiving strong support, particularly in its liberal scholarship policy, from past university presidents William Banowsky and Howard White as well as from the current administration of David Davenport.

Though the school is increasing tuition, he said, every student will receive season tickets to all athletic events. He said that the university “is not requiring us to make a profit or break even.” He said that Pepperdine administrators are well aware that athletics has helped the school gain a reputation and name recognition, that this reputation has helped the university become one of the nation’s best in fund-raising in the last 10 years.

When Gorrie’s baseball team eliminated Texas this year at the NCAA Central Regional tournament in Austin, it took place before “7,000 screaming Texans” who should remember the name of Pepperdine, Wright said, adding:

“If we weren’t winning, we wouldn’t be valuable. But we’ve been fortunate.”

He said that the resurgence of Loyola Marymount athletics, particularly with strong national showings in basketball and baseball this past year, has been good for the West Coast Athletic Conference’s “recognition factor” as well as for Pepperdine.

Strong Competition Helps

He said that Brian Quinn, who recently completed his first year as Loyola’s athletic director, “is doing a super job. When other schools close around us get better, we get better. We’re better because USC and UCLA are outstanding, and that’s the case with Loyola.”

How can the Waves keep on winning? “It’s not accidental,” said Wright. “Our location helps us, and the administration supports us (in such ways) as 13 grants for baseball. It’s like (John) Wooden at UCLA. When you get on a roll, success breeds success.”

Being allowed to give the maximum number of scholarships permitted by the NCAA is “not a guarantee of success, but it places you in the arena where you can compete.

“You can enter a donkey in the Kentucky Derby, and you’re not going to win. Having a thoroughbred in it doesn’t guarantee a win.” But you will give them a race.