Cal State Fullerton Likely to Sack Football Program : Budget: Funding shortfalls apparently doom the sport, even as a new stadium is under construction.

Cal State Fullerton’s football program, which has survived on the major college level for years despite a bare-bones budget, is on the verge of being discontinued because of state funding problems, school President Milton A. Gordon said Friday.

The school announced that Gordon has received an athletics council recommendation to drop the 21-year-old program even as construction of the Titan Sports Complex--which will feature a 10,000-seat football stadium--continues on campus.

“No decision has been made on the matter, and none will until I conclude meetings with representatives of the University Advisory Board, the Titan Athletic Foundation, the city of Fullerton and other parties,” Gordon said in a statement issued by the athletic depart ment. “These meetings will occur as early as next week.”

Fullerton’s coaches don’t appear to be holding out much hope that the program will be saved. Coach Gene Murphy and his assistants wouldn’t comment, but a makeshift sign tacked onto the front of the Titan Football House, the team’s offices, read:

“WE LOST OUR LEASE. CLEARANCE SALE MONDAY. PRICES SLASHED. 50% OFF.”

The athletics council that made the recommendation is a board of faculty and students that advises the university president on athletic policy and takes part in drafting and approving the department budget.

Mel Franks, the school’s sports information director, said high school and community college recruits were told Friday that the program was being dropped and that they should pursue other schools. Those recently signing with the Titans were released from their letters of intent, Franks said.

Larry Manfull, fired as an assistant coach last month but a longtime friend of Murphy, was in the football office Friday and said he saw Murphy phoning current players and telling them the sport was being dropped.

“I got home, and there was a message on my machine from Coach Murphy that the football program had been dropped,” said Phil Nevin, the kicker from El Dorado High School who is also a member of the baseball team. “I was shocked. I never thought it would happen, especially with the stadium going up.”

Construction of the $10.2-million stadium began in October and was scheduled to be completed for the opening of the 1992 football season.

Nevin said that scholarships for players opting to remain at Fullerton would be honored for at least one more season, but he didn’t expect many to stay. Murphy has two more years remaining on his contract, and his salary is guaranteed, but if the program is dropped, six full-time assistants will be released.

Fresno State Coach Jim Sweeney said Murphy called him Friday morning to inquire about possible openings for Titan assistants.

“What he told me was that it was over,” Sweeney said. “Then, I talked to our athletic director (Gary Cunningham), and I heard the final bell has been held off, as in ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls.’ ”

News of the recommendation shocked other Fullerton coaches, who were called to an emergency staff meeting Friday morning. They were expecting across-the-board budget cuts for all teams but nothing this drastic.

Several coaches said Fullerton Athletic Director Ed Carroll outlined the reasons for the recommendation during the 15-minute session.

Carroll would not comment on the situation, but Associate Athletic Director Leanne Grotke said a “very severe budget cut” was passed on to the athletic department by Gordon on Wednesday, forcing a cut of more than $500,000 from the athletic budget. The football program has an annual budget of about $1.3 million.

The university has to cut about $3 million from its $116-million budget for the 1990-91 school year. Making the situation even bleaker is the fact that Fullerton will have to return $540,000 to the state because lottery funds this fiscal year were short by about $10 million out of a projected $60 million.

For the first time, that shortfall will not be made up from discretionary and “enhancement” programs, such as the speakers bureau, but from operational categories such as books and sporting equipment, officials said.

“Next year’s budget had football, and we weren’t even thinking about dropping sports--that was a no-way idea,” Grotke said. “But when we saw the amount that had to be cut--you’re talking about a ton of money. It wasn’t like this decision was made--it had to occur. There was no other option.”

The news also shocked city officials, who have worked in conjunction with the school on the sports complex. Hours after getting the news Friday, Fullerton Mayor Chris Norby raced to Gordon’s home to try to dissuade him from cutting football.

“The news was very sudden and very urgent, and the message I carried to him, of course, was that the city would very much like to keep the football program going,” Norby said. “But we realize they’ve got to come up with a lot of money--I think it’s about $700,000.”

Hanging in the balance is the sports complex.

“Without a Cal State Fullerton football team, the sports complex would not have been built,” Norby said. “At least, not the way it is now. From the city’s standpoint, we’re very concerned, because we have committed to helping (the university) build the stadium. There was never any indication that (the football cancellation) was a possibility.”

Although Norby said he will wait to see if there is any “flexibility” in the complex contracts, an executive vice president for Taylor Woodrow Construction California, which is building the complex, said there is not.

Told of the president’s statement, Taylor Woodrow’s William Ostfeld said: “Oh, that’s great. We have not heard anything about this. But we have a contract with the public entity, and we intend to complete the project--ahead of schedule. We intend to honor the contract, and we assume they will as well.”

With the stadium hole dug and 80% of the grading done, Ostfeld added: “It would cost them more to stop the project now than to finish it.”

Norby said that one way to save the program would be to find quick financial support from the private sector. Four years ago, Cal State Long Beach raised about $500,000 to keep football after financial problems threatened the sport there.

The recommendation to drop the program stunned Fullerton coaches, who locked the Titan House on Friday and wouldn’t let a reporter in. But later in the evening, there was a glimmer of hope, albeit a small one.

“It’s such a screwed-up deal--they don’t have any choice but to let it go,” said one assistant who asked not to be identified. “We called all our recruits to let them know, and now they’ll go to other schools. Today we called all our players. Now as soon as we’ve done all that, Murphy met with the president, and they’re talking about saving it. . . . I think they don’t know what they’re going to do.”

Fullerton finished the 1990 season with a 1-11 record and was ranked last among 106 Division I-A schools by the national sports publication The National.

Times staff writers Robyn Norwood and Eric Lichtblau contributed to this story.

TRYING TIME: Titan coaches wait for a decision about their futures. C1