Allen Puts Long Beach in Spotlight While Still 0-0 : College Football: New Coach George Allen brings a record of success, fame and controversy with him to Cal State Long Beach. The university expects him to score on the fund-raising circuit as well as on the gridiron.

George Allen, the new football coach at Cal State Long Beach, stood at the dais in a conference room of the Airport Marriott Hotel earlier this week, a brown school cap covering shocks of black hair, a 49er jersey in his hand.

He grinned at the media and waved to friends and former players who had come to wish him well in a job that he called “the toughest in America”--rebuilding a university football program that was on the verge of extinction three years ago.

But University President Curtis McCray and Athletic Director Corey Johnson made it clear that they were hiring the highly successful former National Football League coach to do more than win games. They also expect the 71-year-old physical fitness fanatic to give the university a significant financial boost.

“This wasn’t purely a football hire,” McCray said later during an interview. “Football is the focus, but I expect (Allen) to do more.”

As part of his three-year, $100,000 a year deal, Allen has pledged help in raising funds for the school’s athletic foundation, which will pay $34,000 of his salary.

“He has close contacts,” McCray said. “We think he can draw the attention and resources we need.”

Recent revelations that his nonprofit National Fitness Foundation may lose its tax-exempt status and allegations that the organization has spent nearly all of the $2.7 million it raised to cover its costs may weigh on the University’s decision down the line. But by using his prestige and personal charisma now to encourage major donors to contribute “private endowments” to the university, McCray said, Allen should be able to raise at least $1 million by the end of his second football season. “I expect that he and I will be on the road together,” McCray said.

Allen’s hiring seemed to be in line with McCray’s goal--announced when he took office two years ago--of making non-academic campus programs financially self-sustaining.

Of course, Allen’s reputation as a winner also was a factor in the decision. The 49ers were 11-24 in the past three years, which prompted the resignation of Coach Larry Reisbig in November. The team was beaten 52-0 by Big West Conference champion Fresno State, 63-10 by Hawaii and 52-10 by Oregon.

In 12 seasons in the NFL as coach of the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins, Allen had a record of 120-47-5, the third-best winning percentage in league history. He rebuilt both teams quickly. The Ram franchise was 51-87-5 before him, 49-19-4 in five seasons with him. He was voted NFL Coach of the Year four times. He led the 1972 Redskins to the Super Bowl, where they lost to Miami, 14-7.

Allen, wearing his National Football Conference championship ring from that Super Bowl team, admitted Tuesday that he will need all of those skills to help the 49ers. He said he took the job because it was a challenge and because it was close to his Palos Verdes Estates home. He said he would help raise money to build an on-campus football stadium, solicit more support from alumni and get students on campus more enthused about football.

Johnson said he intended to raise the budget of the campus sports information director to handle the increased media attention the school expects to receive with Allen as its coach.

Long Beach, which plays a Division I schedule, shares antiquated Veterans Stadium in northeast Long Beach with Long Beach City College and local high schools, which have preference on dates and times for its use. The facility has seats on only one side, which makes scheduling TV games there unattractive, thereby costing the university much-needed broadcast royalties.

The university’s football program has held a tenuous spot in the community since 1986 when former university President Stephen Horn incurred the wrath of boosters by attempting to dismantle it. After drawing severe criticism, Horn changed his mind and challenged the residents of the city of Long Beach to raise $300,000 or lose a football team. A fund-raising drive was successful and since then Horn has consistently described himself as a strong supporter of athletic programs.

More than $315,000 was raised, but the program’s morale sank. First the football coach, then the athletic director left for other jobs. Game attendance dwindled to an average of 2,650 fans for four home games this season.

Horn, who is now a member of the faculty, praised Allen’s selection. “I’m simply delighted,” he said. “Anyone with (Allen’s) background and personality will have a good leg up on funding. A vibrant athletic program obviously helps the university and the community.

“I think it’s an excellent move. (Allen’s) reputation and credibility will provide the excitement that people want to see.’

Allen’s hiring comes at a time when McCray has made cuts elsewhere on campus, particularly at campus radio station KLON and in the arts. That didn’t, however, seem to rankle Rick Lewis, KLON’s general manager, who expressed support for Allen’s hiring on the grounds that it will help make football self-sustaining and thus help everyone on campus.

“I suspect it will make more people attend,” said Lewis, whose radio station suffered a 9% cut in its budget last year. “There’s no jealousy. In general I think it’s good to make a program as good as you can make it.”

However, some Allen-bashing has surfaced in the media since his appointment last Tuesday. He is known for attending to some of the smallest details when he is on the football field, like the time he became obsessed with the number of empty water cups dropped by Ram players on the field during summer practice in 1978. Allen made such a big deal about it, the incident is reported to have led to his firing just two games into the Rams’ preseason schedule.

Yet strangely, while Allen has been known to become preoccupied with details on the field, he left many of the details of his contract at Long Beach to others. By his own admission, he did not research the position as thoroughly as he would have liked to. For instance:

He said he could not remember the length of his contract, although he said he thought it was for three years (The Washington Post reported that it was for five. No one at the school was available to confirm its length, but one Long Beach official said he thought it was only three).

Allen also said he couldn’t remember his salary with the 49ers, but added, “I’d make more money in two weeks (speaking somewhere).”

Allen insisted that he be provided with a car and driver to shuttle him to and from his home and the 49er campus, a distance of about 20 miles. In fact, at one point in the negotiations Allen turned the job down because the university balked at his request. Allen since thinks he won on the transportation issue. He accepted the job late in the evening last Monday night after he had told The Times that afternoon that he was turning the school down. However, at Tuesday’s press conference McCray said that if 49er boosters wanted to provide Allen with a car and driver, that was fine, but the university would not pay for it.

Allen said he had not met with the seven assistant coaches being retained by the school. He says he has two men, “one in the NFL right now” that he wants to add. The school will allow him two hires, but Allen wasn’t sure what the jobs paid, or if that would be enough to encourage anyone he knows to join him.

He also said he had not visited the school’s playing field. “The last time I was at Veterans Stadium was in 1966,” he said. “Has it changed much?”

As for building a winner, Allen said: “You say ‘what is realistic’ to me and you mention 5-5. That doesn’t sound good to me. . . . Here it might be a heck of a season.”

Allen also has a reputation as as a spendthrift. His NFL coaching career ended when he was fired from the Redskins job by then owner Edward Bennett Williams in 1977. “He was given an unlimited budget and he exceeded it,” Williams said at the time.

Is there the possibility Allen will make the same mistake at Long Beach?

“You can’t spend what you don’t have,” said Johnson.

Late last week, however, reporters from The Times asked Allen to explain why his National Fitness Foundation had failed to file the proper papers with the State of California, thereby threatening its tax-exempt status and risking fines.

Allen’s reply: “That’s news to me.”

Ken Visser, assistant coach with the 49ers for 11 years, still had not been introduced to Allen as he waited for his new boss to exit a TV interview in an adjoining room following Tuesday’s press conference. He had come as “a liaison,” for himself and the six remaining full-time coaches.

“I think George understands the (financial) limitations that Long Beach has, and he has taken on the challenge the way it is,” he said.

And Allen drew support from other 49er supporters. Bernie Jones, president of the 49er Athletic Foundation, said he was delighted to have Allen in town. He said he expects the Foundation to move on one of Allen’s priorities, upgrading the campus weight room. Jones said he feels his organization, an independent booster group, can raise $1 million next year. Much of it in all likelihood will go to Allen for the football program.

Said Visser: “It’s time to get on with (the business of) football.”

At the press conference Tuesday, Allen, a grandfatherly figure, seemed at home with the flashing strobes from cameras and bright television lights. The impression he gave was one of himself about to have some fun. He recognized some of his former players, Washington Redskins defensive back Jeff Severson, a graduate of Cal State Long Beach, and Rams running back Dick Bass.

“I’m no miracle worker,” he told them, and the crowd.

After 15 minutes of questioning he beckoned the crowd of reporters and well-wishers to “give three big hip, hip, hoorays” for the 49ers.

It will take more than cheerleading to help the 49er football program, yet McCray and Johnson, like boys with a new toy, joined in to lead a rousing yell.