Former Coach Making Goal-Line Stand for 49er Football : Funding: Cal State Long Beach may cut back or eliminate its football program. Jim Stangeland wants to buy time to save what he helped build.

Former Cal State Long Beach football Coach Jim Stangeland once had a feud with a local newspaper columnist who referred to the 49er athletic program caustically as “The Mausoleum on the Hill.”

In 1970, when Stangeland’s team clinched its first Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. championship with a 27-11 upset victory over San Diego State, the writer recanted in a column on the front page of the sports section. Stangeland still has a copy of that story mounted on a wall in his business office.

Now, as Cal State Long Beach prepares to play host to what could be its last homecoming game Saturday night at 6 against Utah State at Veterans Stadium, the former Air Force bomber pilot has enlisted in what may be his biggest and costliest battle--saving the struggling 49er program.

In June, a university task force recommended that the football program be eliminated or severely downgraded from its NCAA Division I-A status because of a campus-wide budget crisis. Another committee is reviewing that recommendation and is expected to report to President Curtis L. McCray in November.

Along with a group of influential boosters, Stangeland wants three years to create an endowment fund they say could eventually generate an estimated $600,000 to $700,000 a year. They also want to build a much needed on-campus football stadium, an idea put forth by George Allen, the late football coach.

“Before I die I want to provide the football coach at Long Beach State with the tools that prior to that none of us had,” said Stangeland, who resigned in 1973.

A successful Long Beach real estate developer, Stangeland is viewed as a highly visible and knowledgeable fund-raiser.

“He’s doing everything in his power to see that Long Beach has a Division I-A football program,” 49er booster Don Dyer said. “It’s an admirable effort. The guy doesn’t have ties to the university but he’s willing to raise money for it.”

Stangeland’s five-year tenure at Cal State Long Beach, which began in 1969, was like a ride on the giant white roller coaster at the city’s old oceanfront Pike. In his first three seasons the 49ers went 25-9-1, won two Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. titles and in 1970 tied Louisville, 24-24, in the Pasadena Bowl. But in his final two, the 49ers had losing records, including 1-9-1 in 1973, the worst in school history.

When he resigned, Stangeland told reporters: “Many people coach too long, and I did.”

In January of 1974, the NCAA placed the football and basketball programs on three years’ probation for recruiting violations. Stangeland believed that the two-year investigation was overblown, but announced his resignation before the investigation was complete and took a job in real estate.

“He paid the price for those violations back then and he has now indicated that he wants to help the university,” interim 49er Athletic Director Dave O’Brien said.

A strong disciplinarian known to former football players and co-workers as “The Colonel,” Stangeland came to Cal State Long Beach after four seasons at USC, where he was an assistant on teams that had a combined record of 32-6-1. Previously, he spent eight seasons as coach at Long Beach City College, where he went 60-14-2, won five bowl games and national titles in 1960, ’62 and ’64.

Stangeland saw Cal State Long Beach as a challenge, much like his first head coaching job at Downey High School, where he took an also-ran and went 13-4 in two seasons in the early 1950s.

“Long Beach was like a sleeping giant to me,” he said. “I still believe it is.”

Stangeland, who is an admirer of World War II Army Gen. George S. Patton Jr., housed 49er football players during summer practices at an average cost of $1.25 a player a day in old Naval barracks on Terminal Island. Practices never lasted more than two hours, but Stangeland often held them four times a day.

Players were required to wear coats and ties on the road, could not play if they wore cleats that were not polished before games and were instructed as to how and where to place each piece of equipment in their lockers. Violations meant a player could not play in an upcoming game.

More than discipline, however, attracting quality players to Long Beach meant raising additional scholarship money. Stangeland established the Touchdown Club in 1969 and in its first year the group provided an additional $30,000, mostly through small donations. Still, Long Beach scholarships averaged $500 below the NCAA limit.

Underneath the military-like exterior, friends and associates say Stangeland has a soft heart.

“I have always felt that a young man should have the opportunity to participate in a sport and I’ve always done things to help him,” he said.

When Stangeland discovered that a standout running back was living in the back seat of a car, he directed the player to a booster who rented the player a flat at a bargain price. Another time, he gave an old blazer to a player who needed one.

“Technically (according to NCAA rules), you can’t do that,” Stangeland said. “But I’m not made that way. So I’m going to help that kid.”

Many people viewed the NCAA sanctions as punishment for a university that grew too successful too fast.

“Even though there were a couple of infractions, I didn’t see any,” said former 49er defensive back Jeff Severson, now a business partner with Stangeland. “The point should be made that it wasn’t like anyone was buying players. It was for emergency situations where someone needed help.”

In his bighearted way, Stangeland, who grew up in nearby Seal Beach, may be making a final stand for 49er football. But it is worth a try, he said. Long Beach, after all, is a city he has always admired, and his business contacts there remain strong.

“(Football) teaches so many lessons,” he said. “For someone who has never played the game, someone who has never been in a huddle, maybe cutting football to save money seems like a good idea.”

Then he sighed. Stangeland refuses to believe that the 49er football program is facing what could be its final battle.

Jim Stangeland’s Coaching Record

This record of game wins, losses and ties is based on Stangeland’s years as a head football coach. He also served as an assistant coach at North Phoenix High School from 1950 through 1953, at Orange Coast College in 1956, and at USC from 1965 through 1968.

Won Lost Tied Downey High School 1954 6 2 1955 7 2 Long Beach City College 1957 5 3 1 1958 6 3 1959 5 5 1960* 10 0 1961 7 2 1962* 9 0 1 1963 8 1 1964* 10 0 Cal State Long Beach 1969 8 3 1970 9 2 1 1971 8 4 1972 5 6 1973 1 9 1

Pct. Won Lost Tied Total .712 104 42 4

* Denotes national championship

Source: Cal State Long Beach media guides