Chapman Making Its Plans to Tee It Up--Again : Football: College wants to restore sport in 1994, 62 years after disbanding it.

The partially deflated football and battered helmet affixed with Chapman University decals could have been somebody’s idea of a joke.

Football at Chapman ? You must be kidding?

But the well-worn equipment resting on the table in the school’s gymnasium Wednesday at “Meet the Coaches Night” were merely hastily arranged props in a serious attempt to resurrect the football program at this institution, 62 years after it was disbanded.

And the slapdash nature of the display did little to diminish the enthusiasm of potential players who signed up for a Division III team that won’t play its first game until Sept. 17, 1994 .

“I walked up a bit late and there was a line waiting at the table,” said Terry Boesel, the assistant basketball coach, filling in for a football coach who hasn’t been hired yet.

During the first 30 minutes of the university’s two-hour orientation week session, 10 incoming students filled out interest sheets for Boesel. The students’ football experience ranged from limited to extensive, but all were excited about having the chance to play college ball.

“I rushed down here because I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to sign up,” said Will Schaer, a junior transfer from Randolph-Macon College. Schaer, who was a walk-on receiver at the Division III school in Ashland, Va., came with his roommate, Chris Thomas, a freshman from South Gate High School. Both Thomas, a safety who was a track standout at South Gate, and Schaer said the return of football was one of the reasons they decided to attend Chapman.

Sean Picquelle, a sophomore transfer from Orange Coast College, had already decided to study food science at the university when he learned of the new football program, and he was heartened to hear the news.

Picquelle, a former Huntington Beach High quarterback, said he believed he never got a fair shot as the Oilers’ starter in 1986 and had to give up football after graduating in 1987.A full class load and nearly full-time job while attending OCC prevented an earlier comeback.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” he said. “It’s like a second chance. Not that I’m going to be an NFL quarterback or anything, but I just would like to see how I would do if given an honest opportunity to be the guy.”

Picquelle and some of the other wanna-be Panther football players have already played some impromptu pick-up games on campus, and Picquelle says there are some talented players.

“The morale is very high,” he said. “I think when we do play next year, we’re going to be relaxed. It’s going to be fun, and I think we’re going to win some games.”

There it is: the first Chapman University football prediction--unofficial, of course.

These first steps toward fielding a football team next fall might seem wobbly, but momentum is building. Athletic Director Dave Currey promises to have the program up and running in time for next fall’s opening game at Whittier College.

The reintroduction of football will coincide with the 40th anniversary of the campus moving to its present location in Orange. The last time the institution fielded a football team, the school was called California Christian, and the campus was in Los Angeles. After the 1932 season, the team was disbanded, a casualty of the Depression.

So now, in the midst of one of California’s worst economic slumps since the Depression, Chapman is bringing back football? How is that possible, especially when the recent trend in college athletics is to cut budgets and programs?

It’s a matter of juggling the dollars. Chapman is pumping the $500,000 it saved by eliminating athletic scholarships into the athletic department. Four new women’s teams have been added for this school year--cross-country, tennis, track and field and swimming. Next year, football and golf will be added to boost the department to eight men’s teams and eight women’s teams.

Football is by far the most ambitious offering, and Currey says it has the campus buzzing.

“I can’t tell you how many people have come up to talk to me about their enthusiasm about having a college football program,” Currey said. “I can imagine the mayors of Whittier and Orange sitting together in the stands and betting something trivial on the outcome of the game.

“Those are things that happen in the Midwest every day, and wouldn’t it be nice for it to happen here?”

The reality is that local interest in Chapman athletics is low. The men’s basketball team, the department’s marquee attraction, is lucky to draw 750 to home games.

Currey admits that initial community interest in football might not be much better, but he said that isn’t an issue.

“The success of our football program won’t be measured by how many people are in the stands but by how many are on the field,” he said. “And isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?”

It’s a question asked often around Chapman. Chapman officials see football, especially on the non-scholarship Division III level, as a way to get back to the purity of college athletics.

The seeds for football’s resurrection were sown in the fall of 1991 when a student attending an informal gathering at the home of University President Jim Doti brought up the subject.

Doti, then in his first semester as president, asked the students what would improve life on campus. One mentioned a football team to liven up the weekends.

Doti was skeptical at first, thinking of the expense and hassles a big-time program would engender. But the idea of a Division III team was intriguing. As he began to investigate that level, he concluded the entire athletic department would benefit from a move.

At the time, Chapman was the only private school in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., one of the strongest Division II conferences in the nation. The baseball team had just made the jump to Division I.

Doti was concerned that athletic scholarships were separating athletes from the rest of the student body. Embarking on an effort to boost the school’s academic standing, he wanted to make sure athletes were students first.

As an economist, he liked the idea that a non-scholarship department would be able to serve more students per budget dollar. Officials envision the program eventually serving about 300 athletes, double the current roster count.

“Frankly, I think of Division III athletics as part of the academic program,” Doti said. “It’s part of the learning experience.”

In March 1992, the plan to drop all teams to Division III was announced to the dismay of many in the athletic department. Baseball players and parents were especially upset and had a contentious meeting with Doti.

But the university’s board of trustees stood solidly behind the decision. One of them, incidentally, is Ernie Chapman, who played in California Christian’s final football game, a 12-7 loss to Ventura Junior College.

When Chapman--the school was renamed in honor of his father, Charles Chapman--played, the helmets were leather and the players played the entire 60 minutes, on both sides of ball. He played against a Whittier College team that included Richard Nixon.

In the late 1970s, a club football program was formed, and Chapman was on the bench as a mascot for most home games. This time he has been asked to flip the coin before the first home game.

“I think it will generate an enthusiasm and unity in the student body and over the campus,” Chapman said. “Many people don’t get as excited about baseball and basketball as the whole country does for football.

“It will make a difference, of course, if we win a few games, but I don’t think we expect to win very many the first year.”

But at least one future opponent isn’t counting on Chapman to be a patsy. Mike Maynard, who coaches Redlands, the three-time defending Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion, said he expects Chapman to be a strong opponent next year.

“I don’t want to put pressure on those guys, that isn’t my intention at all, but I think they will be competitive with the best teams in our league in not much time at all,” Maynard said. “There won’t be much of an evolution there. I think they’ll be good pretty quickly.”

Maynard said Chapman will benefit from its Orange County location, an area rich in high school and community college recruits.

The presence of Currey, who was a head football coach at two Division I schools, Cal State Long Beach and Cincinnati, is an added advantage, Maynard said.

But Currey won’t be coaching the team; he prefers to concentrate on his administrative tasks. The most pressing matters are completing the $500,000 renovation of the on-campus stadium, purchasing equipment and hiring a coach.

A new lighting system is already in place, and the field is expected to be sodded next week. Next up is the search for suppliers for footballs, helmets, goal posts, uniforms and other equipment.

Currey is looking for a well-rounded coach who is equally proficient coaching offense and defense. With only two full-time assistants planned, the head coach won’t be able to delegate many responsibilities.

The coach--Currey hopes to have him hired by Dec. 1--will face the tough task of attracting enough players to fill out the team. Tuition, room and board at Chapman runs about $20,000, so knowledge of the financial aid system will be crucial.

Currey said the coach will have to follow SCIAC recruiting rules, which are more restrictive than those of Division III and don’t allow off-campus recruiting visits.

Maynard, the Redlands coach, said it will be a difficult job, requiring decisions on “everything from who will pump the footballs with air to deciding offensive and defensive strategies.”

But many would jump at the challenge, Maynard said.

“You will be able to start your own tradition,” he said. “You don’t have to follow John Wooden or anything. It would be a real exciting opportunity for a coach to have that kind of deal.”

Planned ’94 Schedule

Sept. 17 at Whittier 7 p.m. Sept. 24 Claremont TBA Oct. 1 at Redlands 7 p.m. Oct. 8 at Azusa Pacific 1 p.m. Oct. 15 at Occidental 7 p.m. Oct. 22 Menlo 7 p.m. Oct. 29 La Verne 7 p.m. Nov. 5 Pomona-Pitzer 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at Cal Lutheran 1 p.m.