Gordon Banking on Community Giving $1 Million

Cal State Fullerton President Milton A. Gordon decided against terminating the school’s football program because he believed city officials and athletic boosters when they said they could raise more than $1 million in the next year and a half.

Gordon said at a news conference Friday that members of the community convinced him this week they could bring in $650,000 in addition to the regular annual Titan Athletic Foundation goal of more than $400,000 by the end of fiscal year 1991-92. The $650,000 covers a $150,000 current deficit in the athletic department and a projected shortfall of $500,000 for ‘91-92.

The questions now, of course, are: Can the football backers put the money where their mouths are? And, why should they be able to more than double this year’s fund-raising output, given the state of the economy and the public’s preoccupation with the war in the Gulf?

Much of their optimism is based on the public response to Coach Gene Murphy’s announcement a week ago that his program had been killed. It’s highly unlikely that there was any premeditated scheme involved in Murphy’s premature declaration of football’s demise, but it turns out it might have been the team’s saving grace.

“People respond to a crisis,” said Walt Bowman, director of the TAF. “We’ve seen it in telephone calls from a broad base, not just people of affluence and influence, but regular people.

“I had a call from a gentleman today who said, ‘If you keep the program, I’ll bring you a check for $1,000.’ He’s waiting in my office right now. And I think there’s alumni out there who have never given to athletics, but are now saying, ‘I can’t sit by any longer. I can only send you 25 bucks, but you’re gonna get a check from me because I believe in what you’re doing.’ ”

Bowman also thinks the TAF--with help from a professional fund-raising firm--can succeed because of strong community-based leadership, provided by people of “acumen and integrity who have been successful in their own private worlds of business and enterprise and wouldn’t attach themselves to something that won’t be successful.”

Longtime Titan booster Buck Johns, who has been pumping money into Titan athletics for almost two decades, is one of those who will have to take a leadership role in the fund-raising campaign.

He has been through these financial wars before, so his optimism is slightly more guarded. But he believes the Titan football team should be given a chance to play in the on-campus stadium, which is scheduled for completion in 1992.

“Almost 15 years ago, seven of us sat down with (then President) Don Shields, trying to figure how to get a greater role in funding from the private sector for the university as a whole,” Johns said. “You need a window for that, an opportunity to reach out to the community.

“Well, there’s a sports section in your paper every day. They don’t have a section for the chemistry department. And there are some 80,000 alumni in the area. We needed to elevate their interest and enthusiasm. (Then Athletic Director) Neale Stoner said at the time that we would never be able to do it properly without an on-campus stadium.

“So maybe the missing part of the equation is that stadium out there. For this thing to be self-sustaining, we have to tap into the community. And I’m convinced the stadium is the vehicle, the missing link. The city of Fullerton took a $10-million risk that it was.”

Clearly, city officials made Gordon acutely aware of their investment in Fullerton’s football future. So the Titans will live to play again, at least for one more year.

But the fund-raisers will be faced with raising at least another $1 million for the 1992-93 year. And if state budget slashing--the university’s overall deficit rose from $4.7 million in 1990-91 to a projected $14.1 million in 1991-92--continues, what then?

Most coaches at Fullerton learned long ago to worry about paying today’s bills and disregard speculation about tomorrow. But what if the fund-raisers come up, say, $100,000 short? Which sports’ budgets would be cut to make up the difference?

“You have to be delighted for Coach Murphy and the players,” said Judy Garman, Titan softball coach, “but the frightening thing is we’re all facing a big financial crunch and where the money is going to come from has to be rectified.

“This is my 12th year here. In my first year, I didn’t have to raise any money. This year, I had to raise between $60,000 and $70,000, half of my operating budget, just to keep the program afloat. If we get another 20%-30% cut next year . . . well, there comes a point where we can’t make it without a great infusion of money from the community.

“We have no choice but to be optimistic, but the plain truth is we need help.”

If you can believe the movers and shakers in local government and the TAF, help is on the way. But, as Athletic Director Ed Carroll admitted, longtime watchers of the financial struggles of the Southland’s commuter colleges won’t be convinced until the money is in the bank.

“We can talk until we’re blue in the face,” he said, “but certainly, the proof is in the pudding. When you start collecting the checks and you get the dollar totals, that’s the proof. And nothing else will matter to the skeptics.”

Or the creditors.