Chapman Names Boyd Athletic Director

The fortunes of Chapman College’s financially troubled athletic department seem to rest more and more with Bob Boyd, who was hired Friday as the school’s athletic director.

Boyd, who was named the Panthers’ basketball coach in March, has been the interim athletic director since May. He replaced Walt Bowman, who resigned in March and is now an associate athletic director at Cal State Fullerton and the executive director of the Titan Athletic Foundation, a fund-raising group.

After conducting an informal search during the past four months, Jim Doti, Chapman’s acting president, met with Boyd this week and offered him the position.

“We’re very fortunate to have Bob Boyd,” Doti said. “He knows a lot of people. He’s highly regarded and has roots in this community. The reputation he has established will serve us well.”

And “well” would mean increased contributions for the Chapman Athletic Foundation.

Boyd, 59, inherits a department that has been streamlined to consolidate its financial resources. Last January, the school dropped six sports and reduced the number of scholarships that will be offered.

Only baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and women’s volleyball are currently scholarship sports. And none of those sports will offer the maximum of 12 scholarships allowed in Division II programs by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.

Boyd’ said his main goal will be to restore the scholarships to the NCAA maximum in all sports, saying it is essential that the school return to full scholarships if Chapman is to be competitive with the other schools in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

“We want to at least give each coach a fighting chance,” Boyd said. “I feel the athletic director is responsible to his staff to give them the opportunity to win. As it is right now, it’s quite a challenge for our teams to be competitive in the CCAA.”

The men’s basketball team will have 10 players on scholarship next season, some of whom will have partial scholarships. The other sports may also divide their scholarship money to accommodate more athletes.

Boyd said that a scholarship at Chapman is worth $15,630 a year.

“Chapman College has decided that those are, ‘hard dollars,’ ” Boyd said. “They are not paper scholarships. The money has to be raised.”

The Chapman Athletic Fund covers approximately 20% of the athletic department’s scholarship needs, Doti said. To meet Boyd’s goal of full scholarships for every sport, the athletic fund would have to cover all costs, he said.

“Our goal is that, in four years, we’ll be at the point where community support funds all our scholarships,” Doti said.

Boyd, who has a three-year contract worth about $60,000 a year, said he will not be in charge of fund raising, as Bowman was in the past. Boyd said his duties will be to coach basketball, recruit and take care of administrative chores.

Don Anderson, who was hired as an associate athletic director in July, will head the athletic fund drive.

Anderson has worked with Boyd at Santa Ana College (now Rancho Santiago) and at USC. Anderson was the sports information director at both schools while Boyd was the basketball coach. Boyd also was an associate athletic director at USC.

“I have a great respect for Don’s talent,” Boyd said. “Before coming to Chapman, he had a sports marketing company that was quite successful.”

School officials are hopeful that Boyd will be a catalyst that helps the athletic department move forward financially.

“Bob Boyd is the focal-point of our department,” Doti said.