Athletics Had Good Year on Field, Better at the Bank

Greg Bistline began his job as associate athletic director in charge of athletic development and promotion at Cal State Dominguez Hills with what seemed like a simple task: convincing a Carson restaurant to donate 10 pizzas for a postgame party for the men’s basketball team.

About half a day and a dozen phone calls later, Bistline got the free pasta.

Not all of his fund-raising in the past six months has been that easy, but because of his persistence the Toro athletic program is $45,000 richer.

“We not only had a great year on the field, but we had a tremendous year in fund raising,” said Athletic Director Dan Guerrero.

Bistline, 34, who held a similar post at Cal State Fullerton, lives in Redondo Beach. He sees Dominguez Hills as an underdog in athletic fund raising.

“We are in the greatest philanthropic environment in the world,” he said of Southern California. “It’s a challenge to go out there and get after it.”

Bistline was barely on the job in March when Cal State Bakersfield shocked the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. by bidding $24,000, the most in NCAA Division II history, to host a regional basketball playoff. The site: the Roadrunners’ two-week old, 3,900-seat gymnasium, of which one-half of its $1.5 million price was paid for by donations.

Bakersfield’s bid was considered a coup because it possibly was influential in obtaining a postseason playoff berth for its basketball team, which tied for third behind Dominguez Hills in CCAA play. The incident drew media attention to the CCAA and caused a basketball coach to accuse Bakersfield of buying a spot in the playoffs.

Adding fuel to the fund-raising fire, Chapman College reportedly paid former USC Coach Bob Boyd $70,000, an apartment and car to coach its basketball team. Chapman, a private school in Orange, receives most of its budget from fund raising.

Those moves underscore the importance of fund raising for athletic programs in the 1990s.

Bistline says it’s unfair to draw similarities between Bakersfield and Dominguez Hills.

“In Bakersfield, Cal State Bakersfield is the only show in town,” he said. But he agreed that for Dominguez Hills to compete in the CCAA against teams like the Roadrunners it must seek donations from outside sources.

However, “a fund-raising effort must be well coordinated or it will have a negative impact a couple of years later,” he cautioned.

Dominguez Hills officials would like to see Bistline tap the growing number of corporations in the South Bay, particularly those in the rapidly expanding commercial zones along the San Diego Freeway in Carson. In addition, the large Asian student population at Dominguez Hills could lead to better relations with Pacific Rim companies that have relocated here.

Sponsor logos in the Toro Gymnasium and on the university baseball, softball and soccer fields should start to pop up soon, Bistline said.

His ultimate goal is “to see that each athletic program at Dominguez Hills is capable of offering the maximum amount of scholarships allowed by the NCAA.”

Of immediate concern for Bistline, however, was the acquisition of his own telephone and file cabinet. The phone was installed this week. Previously, Bistline shared a line with Sports Information Director Thomas Neff, and often the line was tied up by incoming calls.