Garrido Is Still Alive and Fighting at Illinois

It was Aug. 12, 1987--Augie Garrido’s first day as the University of Illinois baseball coach. According to sources familiar with the agreement, Garrido reportedly would earn more than $100,000 a year in salary and camp revenue. He owned two College World Series championship rings, courtesy of the 1979 and 1984 Cal State Fullerton teams, and a coaching record good enough to average 40 wins during the last 20 years.

He stepped in front of the microphones and mini-cams assembled in the Varsity Room of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium and told onlookers how happy he was to be a Fighting Illini, how hard he would work to put championship rings on the fingers of Illinois players, how pleased he was to be part of an athletic department team that included athletic director Neale Stoner, a close friend from the days when both worked at Fullerton.

“I built a race car and won the race twice,” he told reporters. “Now I get to build a new car and start over.”

And with that done, Garrido, the mechanic that he is, set off to fulfill his own heady predictions. The problem was, he didn’t have much of a tool set.

His Illinois team finished the season 26-20, which wouldn’t have been so bad except that the guy the school fired finished 32-24 a year earlier.

Nor did the community look favorably on out-of-staters, specifically anyone who used sun block and had a California driver’s license.

First had come the football coach, Mike White, and his impressive number of wins, matched only by his equally impressive number of NCAA rules violations. Stoner was there, too, a respected administrator and fund-raiser, but alas, a Californian.

Now this new guy, Garrido. Self-assured and smooth as sipping whiskey, Garrido completed what was caustically called the “California Mafia,” later changed to the “California Cancer.” Not exactly what you would call a Welcome Wagon mentality.

Garrido didn’t mind. He figured he would build sort of a Fullerton of the Midwest, complete with annual visits to the playoffs, a trip to the College World Series and, one day, a chance to design rings for his own Illinois team. Winning, he knew, often quieted detractors, won friends, influenced people. It had worked at Fullerton, why not at Illinois, where he had an ally in Stoner, a West Coast recruiting pipeline and a personality and ego to make it all work?

What he didn’t plan on happening was a mini-scandal that recently sent Stoner packing and Garrido ducking for cover. Turns out Stoner wasn’t the Boy Scout everyone thought him to be. Though many of the violations were trivial in nature, Stoner had misused university funds and manpower, as had several members of his staff. Stoner was pressured to leave, and Garrido was left wondering what had happened to that neat little dream of a year earlier.

About the only sure thing anyone knows is that Stoner--and all the assistance he could have provided Garrido--is gone. Garrido is still in Illinois, of course, but now the question college baseball recruits are asking throughout the country is: Does he want to be there, and if so, for how long?

In other words, does Garrido wish he had stayed at Fullerton, with its warts and all, rather than step into the muck at Illinois?

Depends on which Garrido you talk to. There’s the Garrido who continues to put on the company face, repeat the company line and profess good will toward all. Then there’s the Garrido who occasionally lets the anger and frustration seep through, who maybe wishes for the days of being the big walleye in the little pond.

The company man first:

“I think it’s been, like all situations, one where I’ve seen some very big highlights, some things to get excited about, and there’s been some problems, I guess,” Garrido said earlier this week from his coaching office in Champaign. “The most negative thing has been the resignation of Neale Stoner. That’s been very disturbing and very upsetting. That’s been the bottom.

“On the top end, we have the backing of an individual here who will subsidize the baseball facilities, fund the operating budget. It’s money to work on a private basis, so (the baseball program) can operate the way we wanted it to. But we hate to lose Neale Stoner.”

Now for some of the hurt and confusion. For instance, had he thought of leaving Illinois when news of Stoner’s fate became public?

“I’d be less than honest with you if I denied that,” he said. “I was angry about why it happened, how it happened and who it happened to. That was my first emotional response. I got angry and I thought it was very unfair, extremely unfair. That was a reaction.

“But I have several people to be concerned about in this situation: the coaches, their families, the recruits, my players. Once you get your emotional reactions out of it, I started looking at it logically.

“But I think Illinois’ loss is going to be somebody’s tremendous gain.”

It’s not a bundle of fun being Augie Garrido these days. One of your best pals and supporters has just been pushed aside. You’re not exactly thrilled about the winters in Champaign. That artificial turf field you’ve been hoping for at your baseball stadium isn’t anywhere in sight. Your team isn’t all that great. Your recruits are wondering what’s up: Are you leaving or staying?

Fires all over the place, and only a garden hose to put them out.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen for about a month and a half,” Garrido said. “There were lots of rumors flying around Southern California (where Garrido does much of his recruiting). Everything from me leaving to me getting fired, none of which is true. I think we can get the job done here. I mean, if I would have left Fullerton every time there was a problem, a tough situation, I would have lasted six months.”

Oddly enough, the day Stoner announced his resignation, the state board of trustees approved the Fullerton sports complex, which will house, among other things, the baseball stadium Garrido had long fought for. And wasn’t it also ironic that Fullerton enjoyed another trip (its fifth) to Omaha and the College World Series while Garrido’s infant program languished in Illinois? Strangest of all, perhaps, were the coaching vacancies at Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Northridge--all filled by former Garrido assistants.

So Garrido, it seems, is stuck at Illinois. The money is good. The university first-rate. The possibilities enormous.

But what do you do about the playing field, which is ordinary at best? Or how do you combat this anti-California sentiment and the rumors of his imminent departure? And how exactly is Garrido going to fare under a new athletic administration?

“What we need out of the athletic department is cooperation,” he said.

What he needs is a good public relations firm and one of those 40-win seasons.

“I’ve taken some grief,” he said. “It’s almost like 22 years of coaching all went out the window.

“But I’m doing good. I’m OK. I’m doing good.”

The sad part is, he could be doing so much better.