UCI Men’s Sports Lose to Economy, Equality : Athletics: Baseball, track and cross-country cut to close deficit and help meet demands for sexual parity.

Strapped by a budget crisis in the University of California system and under increasing pressure to provide equal opportunity for women, the UC Irvine athletic department announced Tuesday that it is eliminating three men’s sports.

Baseball--granted a reprieve last year when supporters rallied after it was targeted for discontinuation--is officially dead. That leaves UCI with no tenant for Anteater Field, a 1,500-seat campus stadium. UCI does not have a football team.

Men’s cross-country and track and field fell victim too, stunning coaches and team members who had little idea that their programs were threatened. The women’s cross-country and track programs will continue. In addition, women’s crew will be upgraded from club to intercollegiate level.

The changes will have a dramatic effect on the ratio of men to women athletes at UCI, making their numbers almost equal. Athletic Director Tom Ford said the moves were dictated by state and federal law and by recent history--most significantly, a sex-discrimination suit settled in favor of the Cal State Fullerton women’s volleyball team after it was scheduled to be discontinued this year.

Speaking at a news conference at which many of the chairs were filled by disappointed or exasperated athletes, Ford called the moves “severe and drastic.” He said the cuts were necessary because the athletic department, already projecting a $319,000 deficit for this year, expects at least a 10% reduction in university funding for the next academic year.

“These cuts were extremely painful to me and the university,” Ford said. “We did so with a great deal of reluctance.”

With the UC system expecting 15% to 30% reductions in state funding, all non-degree granting programs at UCI have been told to prepare for cuts of at least 10%, and perhaps as much as 18%, said Horace Mitchell, vice chancellor for student affairs.

“In no way has the athletic program been singled out for cuts,” Mitchell said.

Tuesday’s moves trimmed $518,477, or 16.4% from a $3.16-million budget. In addition to the elimination of three sports, the department also made cuts affecting every sport except crew, men’s water polo, women’s basketball and women’s soccer.

Five people will lose their jobs: Mike Gerakos, baseball coach; John Altobelli, assistant baseball coach; Danny Williams, women’s track coach; Kevin McCarthy, part-time assistant track coach, and an administrative assistant.

Vince O’Boyle, cross-country and men’s track coach, will remain as director of track and field and cross-country for women.

“I’m really hurt,” O’Boyle said as he prepared to go to a grim athletic department staff meeting. “I’m hurt about the kids.”

The athletes affected include about 50 baseball players, 58 members of the men’s track team and 24 members of the men’s cross-country team.

Ford said that although achieving sexual equity was not the only impetus for the cuts, the department structured them in order to move toward compliance.

At UCI, there are 318 men athletes and 164 women athletes in the current academic year. Next year, there are projected to be 186 men and 185 women.

In an out-of-court settlement reached in the Cal State Fullerton case last week, the volleyball team was reinstated and Fullerton agreed to add women’s soccer in 1993 and move toward complete gender equity over the next 10 years.

The settlement ended a legal battle that began Jan. 28 when Fullerton announced its intention to drop volleyball and men’s gymnastics in a cost-cutting move. Critics said the cuts made an inequitable situation within the Titan athletic department even worse.

Ford said UCI is moving to avoid a similar situation.

“It heightens our awareness that we could be next,” he said. “Every other school out there ought to looking at it in the same way.”

The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. requires that Division I programs sponsor a minimum of seven sports for men and seven for women, and legislation that provides for minimum allowable funding for each will go into effect in 1994.

“Some feel we do not need to do anything yet because the (NCAA) requirements do not go into effect until 1994, but it is currently a state law and a federal law to maintain a balance in participation.”

Word that the three sports were being dropped was met with disappointment but not surprise by the baseball team, which believed that it was so close to being eliminated last season that players lowered the flag to half-staff and wore black armbands in the final game of 1991.

“We were on life support for a year, but they weren’t going to give us a chance,” said Gerakos, who was greeted at his office door Tuesday by a couple who wanted to inquire about their son playing at Irvine--even as he made the calls to tell the current players that the team had been disbanded.

Players greeted the news with grim acceptance.

“This year, we didn’t expect it, but we knew even if we went Division II, we didn’t have enough funding,” said freshman pitcher Matt LaBelle, standing at the news conference with a glove on his hand.

UCI has had a baseball team since 1970 and won NCAA Division II titles in 1973 and 1974. The program has a 643-565 record.

Members of the men’s track and field and cross-country teams were exasperated that they were not given an opportunity to raise their own funding, as men’s volleyball, men’s soccer, crew and sailing were last year.

“We haven’t been given that chance,” said Todd Coulston, a sophomore on the track team.

One reason they weren’t is because elimination of their teams enabled UCI to improve its sexual equity. But several women on the track team stood by their former teammates, asking for an opportunity to save the men’s program.

“This not only devastates the guys but the girls,” said heptathlete Kristi Kaufmann, who will be affected by the loss of McCarthy, the assistant coach who works with athletes in the field events.

Marieke Veltman, UCI’s school record-holder in the long jump, said she will probably consider transferring because of the loss of the men’s program.

The men’s cross-country team, in existence since 1971, won NCAA Division II titles in 1975 and ’76. The track team, begun in 1972, won the NCAA Division II title in 1976.

While deciding how to tackle the budget crisis, Ford said, he and other administrators considered the possibility of returning to Division II, which has lower scholarship limits, or Division III, which does not allow scholarships. Those options were rejected, he said, because administrators believe that there is potential for growth in the university and community that will support a Division I program.

James Fallon, a UCI anatomy professor who served four years as faculty representative to athletics, said he believes that a switch to a lower division remains possible. “I think things are going to be really grim for a few years, and I think there’s a real good chance we (could) lose Division I status in a few years,” Fallon said. “I think Tom Ford has done as fabulous a job as anyone can do. But this state budget is putting very essential programs in jeopardy. . . .

“Yes, there’s the desire to stay in Division I. But when you are faced with competition from other academic programs for scarce dollars, there are certain cuts that almost have to be made, decisions the administration has to make.”

After announcing the reductions, Ford walked back toward his office to prepare for a meeting with the head coaches--those remaining and those who will be unemployed when their contracts for this school year expire.

“I’ve always held out hope we wouldn’t have to (cut sports),” Ford said. “Even earlier this year, we were thinking maybe we could pull it off.”

Times staff writer Kristina Lindgren contributed to this story.

PENNER COLUMN: The last cut is the deepest. C1

RELATED STORY: C14

Tough Losses for UCI Athletes

UC Irvine, facing a $319, deficit in this year’s athletic budget, announced Tuesday it is dropping baseball and men’s track and cross country and adding women’s crew, leaving the school with the Division I minimum of 14 sports. The 1992-93 athletic budget is being reduced $518,477, or 16.4%.

Athletic Participation: By school year 1992-93, the number of male and female athletes is projected to be evenly divided.

Men Women 1990-’91 345 175 1991-’92* 318 164 1992-’93* 186 185

* projected

Team Cuts, Gains: The entire track and cross-country cut is in the men’s program. Men’s crew received a big increase and women’s crew will go from no funding to $20,000.

Cuts Men’s baseball: -100% Co-ed sailing: -64.5% Men’s, women’s track and cross-country: -56%

Gains Men’s crew: +58% Women’s crew: +100%

Program Cuts

How funding of intercollegiate athletic teams at UCI will change, listed from those receiving the largest cuts to largest gains:

1991/92 1992/93 Percentage Projected Projected Change Baseball $174,382 0 -100.0 Co-ed sailing 20,710 7,352 -64.5 Men’s, women’s track and 180,270 79,364 -56.0 cross-country Men’s volleyball 40,520 24,582 -39.3 Men’s golf 52,231 33,631 -35.6 Men’s, women’s swimming 104,444 84,669 -18.9 Men’s tennis 123,067 102,843 -16.4 Men’s soccer 52,574 44,698 -15.0 Men’s basketball 697,914 600,960 -13.9 Women’s tennis 70,670 65,375 -7.5 Women’s volleyball 148,365 137,468 -7.3 Women’s basketball 300,771 303,438 +0.9 Women’s soccer 28,393 29,547 +4.1 Men’s water polo 44,838 46,850 +4.5 Men’s crew 23,913 36,300 +51.8 Women’s crew 0 20,000 -- Total $2,063,062 $1,617,077 -21.6

Expenses Vs. Revenues

Athletic department deficits will disappear in 1992-93 if expense and revenue projections are fulfilled.

Actual Projected Projected 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 Expenses $3,434,629 $3,164,763 $2,646,286 Revenues 3,229,275 2,845,950 2,673,286 Shortfall/surplus -205,354 -318,813 +27,000

Administration Also Cut

Athletic administration and support functions also will be cut, by nearly 7%. Only the marketing and medicine budgets will be increased.

Projected Projected 1991/92-1992/93 1991-92 1992-93 Percentage Change Sports marketing 25,046 27,700 +10.6 Sports medicine 163,996 186,300 +13.6

1990-91 Gate Receipts

Baseball was the second-largest revenue producer in 1991: Sport: Amount Men’s basketball: $148,000 Baseball: $4,500 Men’s soccer: $3,200 Women’s volleyball: $2,000 Men’s volleyball: $1,800 Men’s and women’s track: $1,600 Water polo: $1,000 Women’s basketball: $360 Note: Figures do not include tournament revenue, except in men’s basketball.

Jobs Lost

Five jobs will be lost as a result of the budget cuts:

Head baseball coach

Assistant baseball coach

Women’s track coach

Assistant track coach (part-time)

Athletic department administrative assistant

Source: UCI