Demands Imperil Northridge Football

A high-ranking Cal State Northridge official said Friday the school would cancel the remainder of the football season and consider abandoning the sport altogether before agreeing to demands by black student leaders that athletes be given free food.

The announcement from Ronald Kopita, Northridge vice president of student affairs, came after the team lost two starters for tonight’s game at Nevada Las Vegas as a result of a tumultuous week of campus protests and a player boycott.

Cornerback Vincent Johnson was suspended from the team Thursday after cursing Athletic Director Bob Hiegert during a meeting of the school’s Athletic Congress, and free safety Gerald Ponder refused to make the trip to Las Vegas after Johnson was suspended. Both players are members of the Black Student Athletic Assn.

A group of more than two dozen students jeered the team buses leaving early Friday for tonight’s game at the Silver Bowl in Las Vegas. In a dramatic moment, offensive guard Jon Beauregard joined the protesters, abandoning teammates as they left the parking lot.

Perhaps, even more surprising, the player later changed his mind and flew at his own expense to Las Vegas to rejoin the team.

“He was so upset he didn’t know what to do,” Coach Bob Burt said. Beauregard, who arrived in Las Vegas on Friday evening, was unavailable for comment.

The dispute that erupted this week over providing a training table for student-athletes stems from longstanding resentment and criticism of the school by African-American students. A boycott of football practice by players Monday was followed by student demonstrations during the week and demands that the school athletic director resign.

Additional demonstrations are planned to pressure more into joining the protest, said leaders of the school’s Black Student Union.

Kopita said, “If the team boycotts a game, I would have to consider ending the season” and would be forced to evaluate whether the sport should be continued. He added that the school cannot afford the estimated $80,000 it would cost to feed all Northridge athletes during a school year.

“Food is a symptom and finances are the real issue,” said Kopita, who oversees both athletics and the school’s financial aid office. “ . . . I’m interpreting the cries of ‘Feed me,’ as people who do not have enough money to buy groceries.”

For years, black athletes at the San Fernando Valley campus have complained of poor treatment, a lower-than-average graduation rate and broken promises of financial help. The complaints prompted a study last year that supported some of the charges.

In response, school officials hired an academic adviser for the student-athletes. But demonstrators this week said the campus has not responded quickly enough to the financial troubles that have prompted some athletes to go hungry.

A campus study shows that Northridge football players last year received an average annual grant of $2,613, including scholarships and financial aid but not student loans. Combining all sports, the school estimates that Anglo male athletes get an average annual grant of $2,585, compared to averages of $2,963 for African-American men and $3,091 for Latinos.

Loyalties to the football team, as well as to friends and members of the black campus leadership, has posed a dilemma for many of the players. As the team buses pulled out of the school parking lot early Friday, Beauregard said he realized he could not go through with the game.

So he asked the driver to pull over.

“I want out of here,” he recalled saying.

Ponder stayed behind to protest Burt’s one-game suspension of Johnson, Ponder’s roommate.

Ponder might be gone permanently.

“I’ll deal with that on Monday,” Burt said from Las Vegas. “I have a football game to prepare for. The whole team is tired of this junk.”

Beauregard, a junior from San Bernardino, originally said his conscience--and the actions of the protesters witnessing the team’s departure--convinced him to stay home. Dressed in sweat shirts and jackets to combat the early morning chill, the protesters urged team members to boycott tonight’s game in objection to the financial woes suffered by some Northridge athletes.

Some coaxed players aside and spoke quietly to them. Others chanted slogans and jeered those who rebuffed their advances.

“We said they needed to show their manhood,” said Beth Borrou, 22, a senior liberal arts major and treasurer of the BSU.

Then the protesters resorted to one final act of persuasion. As the buses made their way from the parking lot, the protesters lined up, folded their arms across their chests and turned their backs on the team. “I feel (members of the BSU) are the only persons who care about us, and when I saw them turn their backs on us, that really hurt me,” Beauregard said before his change of heart.

Although all but one of the protesters were African-American, Ponder said the issue of fair treatment for athletes is not divided among racial lines. “This is not a racial issue,” he said. “This is a human rights issue.”

Last year, tales of Matador players searching the garbage bins of local pizza parlors played a role in the formation of several special committees, including a “Blue Ribbon” panel of experts who studied the football program and the school’s financial commitment to competing in the NCAA Division I.

Two weeks ago, Johnson, the football team’s elected representative to the Athletic Congress, met with Kopita to request a one-meal-per-day “training table” for Matador athletes.

On Monday, after leading two dozen football players into a meeting with Kopita for a progress report, Johnson and Ponder organized a one-day boycott of practice by the team.

During a meeting with the squad the following day, Hiegert, the athletic director, threatened team members with disciplinary action--including the possible cancellation of their scholarships--if they missed games or practices.

Johnson and other team members said Hiegert used profanity while admonishing the team, an act Johnson said he retaliated for at Thursday’s meeting of the Athletic Congress. Johnson said he told Hiegert, “( . . . ) you and everything you stand for.”

Burt said he suspended Johnson for his use of profanity, but added that he expected the junior from Cleveland High to rejoin the team next week.

Northridge, an NCAA Division I-AA team, is being paid $35,000 to play UNLV, a Division I squad from the Big West Conference. “That’s what this whole thing is about, the money situation,” Johnson said. “They don’t care about winning or losing.”

Said Ponder: “I don’t feel it was the right decision made by the coach. (Johnson) was expressing the emotion of the situation.”

About the disciplinary action he faces for his actions, Ponder said, “I have no control over what they do. I made my decision and I’ll take responsibility for it.”

Chris McCall, one of the protesters, said the group decided to show up for the team’s scheduled 7:30 a.m. departure because several players said “they might walk off the bus if they see enough support.”

Dressed casually and many of them packing travel bags, the majority of Northridge players ignored chants such as “Are you a man? Take a stand!” and “Sellout!”

A heated exchange took place between Matador assistant coach Lance Mocny and three of the protesters, who referred to him as “Uncle Tom.” There also was a loud and animated conversation among protesters and defensive players Ralph Henderson, Victor Myles and Oscar Wilson.

Four campus policemen watched the confrontation unfold after being summoned to the scene at about 7:20.

“These people are not behind me,” Wilson said. “They’re trying to break down the team for their own means. They’ve got to make a stand for their reasons, just like I’m going to make a stand for myself by getting on the bus.”

Linebacker O.J. Ojomoh, who leads the team in tackles, said, “I really don’t want to listen to this. This is just childish.”

But a few Matador players seemed genuinely troubled. “It’s a tough decision,” said Chris Koen, a reserve cornerback. “There’s pressure there with what happened to Vinnie. You want to show your friends you’ll stand by them, but we’re also members of the team. We’re caught in the middle.”

Protest organizers predicted more players would have stayed behind if not threatened with their scholarships. “They were forced,” McCall said. “It’s plain and simple.”