Long Beach Boosters, Staff Assail Athletic Director’s Methods

When he arrived at Cal State Long Beach four years ago, Corey Johnson was not what the school’s sports boosters had hoped for. Shy, soft-spoken and without local roots, the new athletic director did not seem equipped to generate winning teams or revive a department afflicted with financial crisis.

Johnson, though, has done both, fulfilling the prediction by those who knew him from his previous job at the University of Miami (Fla.) that he would get things accomplished at Long Beach with little noise or fanfare.

But despite his success, Johnson has been criticized by staff members, fund-raisers, coaches and athletes who believe he is an ineffective communicator who refuses to involve them in key decisions.

“Sometimes there is information that needs to be disseminated and other times it doesn’t need to be passed on,” Johnson said in a recent interview. “Not everybody needs to know everything.”

Now he is being portrayed as a villain by some boosters and athletic department members because of his recent decision to eliminate men’s and women’s swimming, men’s tennis and men’s golf to help the university cut a state-mandated $14 million from its budget. That put three coaches out of jobs.

During a public meeting two weeks ago, at which Johnson explained the cuts, he faced a barrage of complaints from angry athletes, coaches and boosters. The most vehement were backers of the swimming team, who accused Johnson of being unaware of the aquatic tradition in the city of Long Beach.

Johnson said he was aware of the tradition, but attorney Don Dyer, a longtime 49er fund-raiser, said after the meeting, “I think we need Long Beach people making Long Beach decisions, and not just people stopping off on their way to other jobs.”

Dyer is among some boosters and athletic department members whose disenchantment with Johnson includes a belief that he is eager to move on to a more prominent school.

“If the right opportunity would come, I would listen,” acknowledged Johnson, who came to Long Beach after a job as an assistant athletic director at Miami.

Born on a Minnesota farm, Johnson, 42, played football at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., and still has a lineman’s bulk.

Asked to assess his four years at Long Beach, Johnson said, “There has been evidence of progress in all areas. I know we can’t be great in everything, but there are things we can do extremely well.”

He said he hopes he is perceived as someone “fair, consistent and focused in a direction to bring as much success as possible to the (athletic department).”

During his tenure, most 49er teams have been successful. The men’s basketball team has twice gone to the National Invitation Tournament, the women’s basketball team has been to the Final Four, the women’s volleyball team has won an NCAA title, the men’s volleyball team has gone to the national championship game, and the baseball and softball teams have reached the College World Series.

Johnson’s hiring of the since-departed Joe Harrington as men’s basketball coach in 1987 and Dave Snow as baseball coach in 1988 led to considerable recognition for the university. And when Johnson and President Curtis McCray hired the legendary George Allen as football coach in 1989, the school basked in a rare national spotlight that shined brightly until after Allen’s funeral early in January.

The director takes his fiscal responsibility seriously.

Last July, Long Beach Press-Telegram columnist Doug Krikorian tried to chide Johnson into buying an air-conditioner for Allen’s cramped, sweltering office by calling him “Cash and Carry Corey.”

But Johnson, who has balanced the budget three consecutive years in a department so strapped for money in 1986 that football was almost dropped, accepts that nickname with pride.

“I’m very tight in the sense we better have the money before we spend it,” he said. “I’ve been very cautious, I don’t want to be in the hole. I’m very proud we have balanced the budget every year.”

He has been praised for putting associate athletic director Steve Holton in charge of the 49er Athletic Foundation. The foundation, which had 350 members and raised less than $100,000 in the year before Johnson’s arrival, now has 1,600 members and raised $540,000 in 1990-91 to pay for scholarships.

Johnson considers “stabilizing” football one of his foremost accomplishments.

“We eliminated the constant question of whether we were going to drop it,” he said. “I think we’ve identified that we need to play football. We’re not going to be a UCLA or a USC, but I believe we can be successful.”

The 49ers were 6-5 last season, their first winning record in four years. But even with Allen, they drew an average crowd of only 4,697 at Veterans Stadium.

When he arrived, Johnson said he was a people-oriented person. He said it is still one of his strengths.

“I think people know I’m interested in their games,” he said. “Coaches know I’m (at games). I think athletes know when I’m there. I’m a fan.”

“He attended some of our matches, but not on a regular basis,” said men’s tennis Coach Peter Smith, who added that he had two meetings with Johnson--”one when he hired me, one when he fired me.”

Tim Shaw, the swimming coach, said Johnson didn’t attend a swimming meet in four years. But the director was at the recent Big West Conference tournament at the Belmont Plaza Pool.

Few argue that Johnson has improved the department.

“The man has made some good moves,” said Joe Saucedo, the foundation’s top fund-raiser last year. “He took a program that was in near-collapse and turned it into a high-achieving, goal-oriented program. I’ve found him to be very concerned about the coaching staff and the student-athletes. He thinks of them first.”

Saucedo said that the foundation’s board of directors gave Johnson a vote of confidence last week.

Perry Moore, the CSULB athletic director from 1974-82, characterized the job as lonely and filled with pressure from all sides to make decisions with which the director must live or die.

“Some people can give you a little bit of money and think they can run your program,” Moore said. “Most (athletic directors) roll along about five years, then they have to fire somebody or don’t hire someone the boosters want you to hire, so you fall out of favor with them. Then they say you didn’t do a good job.”

“Corey Johnson is doing one hell of a job.”

But Bill Ridgeway, an architectural designer who raised $40,000 this year for 49er athletics, doesn’t agree.

“I just don’t approve of how (Johnson) does business,” Ridgeway said. “Long Beach is sort of a family, and you need to communicate and he doesn’t. If he does, it’s only with people he’s comfortable with.”

Ridgeway added that he is not out to have Johnson fired but that he would appreciate the director soliciting his opinion. He admits that he may have been spoiled by John Kasser, Johnson’s predecessor who is now director at UC Santa Barbara and who enjoyed drinking beer with the boosters while running ideas past them.

“The job (of fund-raising) is not fun anymore,” Ridgeway said.

Although agreeing that Kasser’s flamboyant style created interest among the boosters, Johnson said, “That’s not me. I’ve always believed you don’t hang your laundry out for everybody to take a potshot at. When you project an open door, I think you have trouble. I think if a president of a bank wants to hire a vice president, I’m not going to be part of his interview team because I don’t know that much about banking.”

Jeff Severson, a realtor and former 49er football player, said there are people who want to help Johnson but that his independence often prevents that.

“Better communication with the community would help,” Severson said. “Input is important. You don’t tell a coach who to play, but in the business world I’m always anxious for input.”

Boosters were surprised when Johnson decided to cut the four sports earlier this month without consulting them.

According to Ridgeway and Sam Breuklander, another member of the 49er foundation, the boosters were told by Kasser and then-President Stephen Horn that they would be consulted before a sport was dropped and given a chance to save it. That promise was said to have been made after a desperate fund-raising drive saved football in December, 1986, and Breuklander said Johnson was informed of it when he arrived.

“I don’t really know of that,” Johnson said this week. “I know there’s nothing in the files.”

When Johnson learned in December that some sports--and positions in the department--would likely have to be cut, he formed a committee composed of himself, fiscal officer Dan Radakovich and associate directors Holton, Kay Don and Robert Donlan.

“Eventually the three of us were cut out of the decision-making,” said Donlan, referring to himself, Don and Holton.

Donlan, who has been at Long Beach 17 years, said that most decisions in the department are made by Johnson and Radakovich, who came less than two years ago from Miami.

Johnson said that the associate directors could not be involved in the final decision on the dropping of the four sports, which eliminated the jobs of swimming Coach Shaw, tennis Coach Smith and diving Coach Daryl Jorgensen. Only golf, coached by Del Walker, appears to have a chance to survive.

“When you’re mandated for potential administrative reductions, you have to consult with the president, the provost and the vice president of fiscal operations,” he said. “They (Donlan, Holton and Don) can’t be involved because technically all positions are reviewed. It’s a matter of confidentiality.”

Foundation member Breuklander said he is convinced that Johnson did what he had to do the best way he could, but “he should have talked to the community and let the people help him make him decision.”

Johnson believes he made the right decision. “You don’t want to see any program eliminated, but we were backed in,” he said.

For the last six months, Johnson, who makes about $90,000 a year, has been linked to athletic director job openings at various schools, including Miami and California. He claims he has talked extensively only with the University of Minnesota and the University of Maryland.

“I’m not saying I’m in a mode where I’d go at all costs,” Johnson said.

But some boosters and members of the athletic department feel Johnson is eager to jump at every opportunity to leave.

Water polo Coach Ken Lindgren said that Johnson had said he would appear at a campus function for parents of Lindgren’s players Feb. 9 but backed out.

“I found out the day before,” Lindgren said.

On Feb. 8, newspapers reported that Dave Maggard was resigning as athletic director at California, where Johnson once was an assistant football coach. That afternoon, Johnson was seen chatting with California officials at the 49er-Cal baseball game in Berkeley.

“That’s not worth comment,” Johnson said when asked if he had snubbed Lindgren to pursue the California job. He said he did not apply for the job.

Johnson’s apparent job-seeking does not set well with some of the boosters.

“It bothers the hell out of me,” said Don Dyer. “We seem to be getting rid of people who want to stay at Long Beach State and keeping those who don’t.”

Dyer believes that the cutting of the four sports will hurt future fund raising.

“There’s absolutely no question about it,” he said. “We’re giving people excuses not to give us money.”

But Johnson appears undaunted.

“We’ve found many more people in the community who are now involved,” he said. “Our goal was to find new workers.”

The four years have taken no visible toll on Johnson, except that his hair is grayer than when he arrived.

His optimism has not wavered and he remains confident of his leadership. And he still rarely raises his voice, even when talking about his detractors, whose criticism he says he appreciates.

“That tells me the sensitivity’s out there, and that’s a positive,” he said.