Boosters Set to Help Carry Ball for Struggling 49ers : Football: Club is ready to propose a fund-raising drive on the eve of a panel’s report on the sport’s future.

A booster club is ready to propose an ambitious fund drive to save the struggling football program at Cal State Long Beach, as a university committee prepares to announce its recommendation on the future of the team.

The Touchdown Club of Long Beach, part of the university’s larger fund-raising effort for sports, is expected to propose a three-year campaign that eventually will need to raise between $600,000 and $700,000 a year.

Meanwhile, interim 49er Athletic Director Dave O’Brien, who heads a Cal State Long Beach committee reviewing the financially strapped football program, said he expects a recommendation to be forwarded to university President Curtis McCray no later than Nov. 15. The committee was commissioned by McCray in June after another university fact-finding committee recommended that football be dropped or downgraded to deal with a severe budget crunch.

McCray has not said when he will act on the current committee’s report. But coaches say a quick decision is necessary so they will not be at a disadvantage in recruiting players if football continues. The period from mid-November to Jan. 1 is considered prime recruiting time.

Possible committee recommendations range from eliminating football entirely to dropping the program from its current Division 1-A status to a lower level of play, which would require less money to operate. In recent weeks there has been speculation that the committee will recommend that football continue in Division 1-A in 1992 if boosters prove they can raise the needed funds. University officials apparently want a guarantee from boosters that at least $300,000 will be raised by the middle of January.

That option is similar to what occurred in late November, 1986, when boosters saved the program by raising $315,000 in a little over a month.

“What we want to be sure of in any proposal is that it has a reasonably good chance of being successful,” O’Brien said. Although O’Brien does not expect to receive a formal proposal from the Touchdown Club until later this week, he said that in preliminary discussions boosters have been very thorough in their approach to save football.

University funding for the $1.3-million football budget, much of it earmarked for scholarships, has decreased over the years as state funding for higher education has shrunk. McCray has said he expects to trim at least $400,000 in the next fiscal year from the overall athletic budget of $5.3 million, with football expected to take some of the hit.

The forgotten people during all of the autumn dickering have been the players, who are struggling on the field while playing a schedule that includes national powerhouses. In exchange for lucrative contracts that brought in $495,000 for eight road games, the 49ers were asked to be patsies for the likes of San Diego State, Arizona and second-ranked Miami. It has been an eye-opener for some players.

“When the season began, I thought we were going to win all of our games,” said senior cornerback Bingo Williams. “I have been kind of disappointed.”

Cal State Long Beach has had only two winning seasons in the last eight years, and is 2-7 this season. The 49ers have played only three home games this year. They lost a Big West Conference game, 51-24, to the University of the Pacific last Saturday. Two games remain, at New Mexico State on Saturday and at Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 23.

“Things haven’t gone the way we would have liked them to,” defensive back Chad Wilson said.

The loss to Pacific, which McCray attended, may have been the low point of the season. First-year Coach Willie Brown, visibly upset as he talked to reporters after the game, held a 6 a.m. practice Monday.

“We just didn’t play well,” assistant Coach Dave Galias said. “Coach Brown thought we needed to (work things out right away).”

Although he won’t say so publicly, Brown is said to be discouraged with the team’s progress. He became miffed last Saturday when many players missed a pregame meeting. But when asked about the possibility of football being dropped, the former Oakland Raider responded that he considers it his job to coach the football team, not worry about its future.

Boosters and some coaches point out that for the 49ers to be successful, the school has to bolster its roster by signing better players. But persuading talented players to attend Long Beach has been difficult since officials nearly dropped football five years ago.

“We know full well . . . that every time (our coaches) go into a recruit’s home other coaches have been showing them local newspaper articles questioning whether football will be at Long Beach,” said attorney Don Dyer, a longtime 49er booster. “How in the world can you get blue chip prospects with that kind of atmosphere?”

Brown points out that Cal State Long Beach has lost 12 players to injuries during the season, which has hurt the team’s consistency. “You don’t have a lot of depth here,” he said.

Galias, the assistant coach, was a starting offensive linemen for the 49ers in 1983 and 1984. He points out that recruiting is not likely to yield better players unless the university makes a solid commitment to support football over the long term.

“Who in the hell are you going to get (to come here) to a program that is always just about to be dropped?” he asked.

Even if the university committee recommends that Cal State Long Beach maintain its Division 1-A status for another season, there are other hurdles that must be cleared.

For example, the 1992 and 1993 football schedules include difficult road games at Hawaii (twice), UCLA, Wyoming, Louisiana State University, Arizona and San Diego State. In fact, only seven of Cal State Long Beach’s next 25 games are scheduled to be played at home in Veterans Stadium.

O’Brien, thought to be interested in seeking the athletic directorship on a permanent basis, said he is not pleased by the schedules.

“There is no way in the world we should be playing this kind of football schedule we have,” he said. “It’s a disservice to all.”

Another longtime gripe by coaches and boosters has been Veterans Stadium, which is owned by Long Beach City College and has seats on only one side. Its seating capacity of 12,500 is about half the size needed to meet National Collegiate Athletic Assn. requirements for participating in Division 1-A.

The Touchdown Club says it wants to carry out the lofty wishes of the late football Coach George Allen and raise additional funding to build an on-campus stadium, possibly within five years. But some question whether it is possible to raise that kind of additional money at a university that has never raised more than $500,000 a year for all its sports.

It also is doubtful that a larger stadium would be profitable. Cal State Long Beach averaged 3,893 spectators for its three home games this year, and season ticket sales over the years have never been higher than about 1,000.

In addition, the university intends to raise about $5 million to complete a new basketball gymnasium, which is slated to open sometime in 1993. That leaves some people, including O’Brien, wondering where the additional money for football will come from or if the Touchdown Club’s proposal will conflict with other fund-raising projects at the university.

49ers Football

Record (2-7)

13 at San Diego State: 49

14 at Boise State: 48

20 San Jose State*: 32

21 at Arizona: 45

34 at Nev. Las Vegas*: 19

14 at Fresno State*: 42

0 at Miami (Fla.): 55

7 Utah State*: 6

24 Pacific*: 51

Nov. 9--at New Mex. St.*

Nov. 23--at C.S. Fullerton*

* Big West Conference games