2 Candidates in Running for Football Job at Cal Lutheran

Cal Lutheran has settled on two finalists for the vacant head football coaching position, according to university sources.

After interviewing this week, Dick Arbuckle, former offensive coordinator at Boise State, and Joe Harper, former coach at Northern Arizona, are the top candidates to replace fired Coach Bob Shoup, sources said Friday.

“I know those two are both up for the job, and I guess they are the two finalists,” said junior defensive lineman Dana Zupke, a 1990 team captain. “It’s common knowledge on campus that those two are up for the position, and they both visited the campus. . . . I’ve met both of the gentlemen, and I was impressed with both of them.”

Other university sources who confirmed the finalists declined to be identified.

Arbuckle and Harper both have experience as college head coaches. In addition to his stint at Northern Arizona, Harper coached 14 years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he won the NCAA Division II title in 1980.

He then went to Northern Arizona in 1982 and posted a 12-20 record in three seasons before being fired and moving into private business in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Harper, a finalist for the Cal State Northridge coaching position in 1986, graduated in 1959 from UCLA, where he played offensive guard. He has been an assistant coach at Colorado, UCLA, Colorado State, UC Santa Barbara and Riverside City College and is currently living in Arcadia and selling commercial real estate.

Harper has had a winning record in 14 of his 17 seasons as a college coach.

Arbuckle compiled an 86-55-2 record in 15 years of high school coaching and has a college record of 22-17-2. He coached at the Oregon Institute of Technology in 1981 and 1982 and at Western Oregon State College in 1983 and 1984.

Arbuckle played quarterback and safety at Oregon and graduated in 1961. He served as offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at Oregon State and as offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator for Boise State last season.

In December, Cal Lutheran initiated a national search for the man who would become only the second football coach in school history. Shoup coached the Kingsmen for 28 years, but it became public in August that the 1989 season would be his last.

Shoup contested the dismissal, but the university reiterated its decision in a Dec. 8 news release. Shoup filed a grievance with the Faculty Review Committee, but it was turned down Dec. 19.

Shoup appealed the decision to the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents, but the executive committee upheld the faculty committee’s earlier decision, thereby completing the faculty-grievance process.

The five-person committee to select a coach will meet again Monday. Although Arbuckle and Harper are finalists, applications are still being accepted.