UCI Drops Support of Sports Foundation That Excludes Women

UC Irvine on Wednesday dropped its support of a sports foundation that excludes women, but will not seek a refund of $1,000 in tickets purchased for the foundation’s annual banquet next week, according to Chancellor Jack Peltason.

Ten UCI athletic officials, including coaches of the womens’ track and basketball teams, had been scheduled to attend next Tuesday’s Orange County Sports Celebrities Foundation dinner. At recent banquets, the university has received grants of $1,750 to $2,000.

“The university will not participate in any event that is closed to women,” Peltason said Wednesday. “Our table will not be used.”

The UCI tickets to the banquet were purchased by the university Athletic Foundation, a fund-raising arm, and “will be considered a donation to the (Sports Celebrities) Foundation’s scholarship fund,” Peltason said. If any UCI officials attend the dinner, they must pay for their own tickets, he said.

Officials for other local universities and community colleges contacted by The Times, including Cal State Fullerton and Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, said their representatives will be attending this year’s banquet. Cypress College officials said they have not purchased tickets to this year’s event, but that it is not related to the men-only policy.

Several of the local colleges, including Cal State Fullerton and Orange Coast College, use a portion of their Sports Celebrities grant to pay for tickets to the affair, officials of those schools said. In some cases, the grant money is pooled with athletic foundation money, which are used to buy the banquet tickets.

The sports foundation, organized in 1971 by Newport Beach businessman and former pro football player Paul Salata, has sold $45,000 in tickets to this year’s banquet, which will be held at the Saddleback Travelodge in Santa Ana.

Invitations to the event state: “Gentlemen only, please.” And no female athletes have been honored as the group’s “Sportsman of the Year.”

The Times reported this week that the foundation has not filed required financial disclosure reports for 7 years, prompting state and federal officials in 1984 to revoke its not-for-profit and tax-exempt status. Foundation board member and treasurer Marcus Woods, owner of the Irvine accounting firm Woods & Associates, said he would file necessary papers this week, which he said should enable the foundation to win retroactive restoration of its tax-exempt status.

The stag banquet is the Sports Celebrities Foundation’s only fund-raiser, and a portion of the proceeds are distributed to nine local universities and community colleges for athletic programs and scholarships. Coaches and athletic department officials from a half-dozen public and private colleges in Orange County also serve on the foundation’s board of directors.

Walter Bowman, athletic director of Chapman College, said the private school will use athletic department funds to buy a table--10 tickets totaling $1,000--for the banquet. Bowman, who is on the Sport Celebrities foundation board of directors, said he could not be more specific about the source of funds used to purchase the tickets.

He defended the school’s participation because the college’s past grants of up to $2,000 from the foundation have been used for men’s and women’s athletics.

“The money has not been restricted to men-only programs,” Bowman said. The Sports Celebrities Foundation “is not a sexist organization,” he said.

Other foundation board members with college affiliations are Ed Carroll, athletic director at Cal State Fullerton; Richard Gorrie, golf coach at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana; Mike Rae, assistant football coach at Orange Coast College; Hal Sherbeck, football coach and athletic director at Fullerton College, and Bob Pomeroy, UCI associate athletic director. UCI Chancellor Peltason said Wednesday that Pomeroy does not serve on the board as a representative of the university.

Orange Coast College President Donald Bronsard said Wednesday that he had never heard of the Sports Foundation, but added, “We certainly don’t endorse the exclusion of women.”

Doug Bennett, executive director of Orange Coast College’s Athletic Foundation, said the college foundation has purchased two tickets at $100 each for this year’s banquet. Money used for the tickets comes from the Athletic Foundation’s funds--a pool of private donations that includes an annual grant of up to $1,500 from the Sports Celebrities group. In addition, Rae, the assistant football coach, buys his own ticket, Bennett said.

Cypress College Athletic Director Dick Van Voorhis said he has attended the banquet with two other school officials, but will not go this year. Nevertheless, he said that he expects the college will receive a grant from the Sports Celebrities group.

Carroll, athletic director at Cal State Fullerton and a member of the Sports Celebrities board, said Wednesday that two tickets to this year’s banquet were purchased by the Titan Athletic Booster Foundation, the same fund-raising body that receives the Sports Celebrities annual grants of $1,750 to $2,000.

Asked whether it was appropriate for Cal State, a public university, to buy tickets for an event that is limited to men, Carroll said: “That issue has not been raised before, so it hasn’t been addressed. I have evaluated the organization based on what they do, and money they have contributed to our university has gone into scholarships for men and women.”

Attempts to reach Cal State President Jewel Plummer Cobb were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Fullerton College President Philip Borst said he was not aware of any grants from the Sports Celebrities group to his school. According to internal financial statements provided to The Times by Sports Celebrities, the community college received a $1,250 grant last year.

Golden West College and Rancho Santiago College have both been recipients of Sports Celebrities grants. But efforts to reach officials for the colleges Wednesday were unsuccessful.