Recruiting Controversy at Fullerton : Blair Player Claims School Reneged on Scholarship Offer

A Blair High School football player said that Cal State Fullerton football coaches reneged on a promise of a four-year athletic scholarship, a promise Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy said never was made.

Jamel Ward, Blair’s leading rusher and receiver last season, said he was offered a full scholarship by Dale Bunn, a Fullerton assistant coach, during a recruiting visit to Fullerton in January.

Bunn and Murphy said they told Ward they wanted him to attend Fullerton on financial aid next fall, when it’s likely he would have been a redshirt, then give him a scholarship in the fall of 1988.

“We never offered him a scholarship,” Murphy said. “Sometimes kids hear what they think they want to hear. My recollection is that it got down to the point where we said we would get him a scholarship his second year. That’s what we conveyed to him.”

Ed Carroll, Fullerton athletic director, said he is conducting an investigation.

“I’m looking into it,” he said. “What I’ve learned so far is that a student athlete says a promise of a scholarship was made and our staff says it wasn’t. I’m not sure how that communication error was made.”

Ward said that he and his mother left Fullerton after the January visit thinking a scholarship had been offered. Ward said he told recruiters from other programs, mostly small colleges and community colleges, that he was going to attend Fullerton.

Ward and his mother said they didn’t have cause to think the offer would change until Feb. 11, the first day high school players could sign National Collegiate Athletic Assn. letters of intent.

“We didn’t hear from them, but I was so sure that everything was OK that I didn’t bother to call,” said Mattie Ward, Jamel’s mother.

Blair Coach Steve Somerlot said he contacted the Fullerton coaching staff Feb. 11 about setting up a photo session of Ward’s signing for a Pasadena newspaper. But Bunn told him Ward’s scholarship had been given away.

“Bunn said the scholarship had been used on a junior college transfer, someone who they thought was going to the University of Miami but didn’t go,” Somerlot said. “He said they were bringing Jamel in on financial aid the first year, with the possibility of a scholarship after that.”

Ward said he was stunned when his coach told him of his conversation with Bunn.

“I took the trip two weeks ago,” he said. “This is like a guy telling me I have a job, then two weeks later, me going to work and being told my position’s been filled.”

Said Murphy: “He wasn’t bumped (out of a scholarship). We don’t operate that way, and we won’t operate that way. It’s done nationwide, but we don’t do it.

“And we don’t usually get kids who decide to go to Cal State Fullerton instead of Miami.”

Murphy said he knew of no such player among Fullerton’s recruits.

Ward said Wednesday he is considering some area junior colleges and is leaning toward attending Glendale. He said, under the circumstances, he wouldn’t attend Fullerton.

“I really wouldn’t trust them now,” he said.