THE SIDELINES : Outpouring of Support Saves Cal State Fullerton Football

The Titan football program will survive at Cal State Fullerton thanks to private fund-raising efforts already under way, President Milton A. Gordon announced today.

Orange County’s only college-level football program has been on the verge of collapse because of a wave of campus-wide cuts expected under Gov. Pete Wilson’s austere state budget. The campus Athletic Council last week recommended dropping the troubled football program rather than making deep cuts in everything from baseball to women’s sports, and Coach Gene Murphy proceeded to advise recruits and current players that football would be no more.

However, Gordon said today that an outpouring of public support for football persuaded him that the community and Titan boosters will be able to raise private funds to cover a projected athletic department shortfall of $650,000 in the coming school year.

“I view the decision as an opportunity for all of Orange County to join in keeping the county’s only university-level football program and to prepare it for success in an on-campus stadium that will open in the fall of 1992,” Gordon said.