Poets’ Visser to Coach Chapman Football : Colleges: He will get school’s Division III program off the ground.

Chapman University hired its first football coach in 62 years Wednesday, picking Whittier College Coach Ken Visser to put together a team for next fall.

Chapman, which last fielded a team in 1932 when the institution was in Los Angeles and called California Christian, opens its first season since then Sept. 17 at Whittier.

Visser, who also has coached at Servite High, Long Beach State and Occidental, gave his notice to Whittier Tuesday and was on the Chapman campus Wednesday to accept the position from Athletic Director David Currey.

Currey said Visser’s experience makes him the ideal person to start Chapman’s Division III program.

“What better person to help us in that department than someone who has experience at Occidental and Whittier,” Currey said.

In 1979, Currey, then coach at Long Beach State, hired Visser to be a 49er assistant. They have been close friends since.

“I had somebody tell me this morning that this was a done deal all the way. That’s far from the truth,” Currey said. “But I am thrilled that it worked out this way.”

Currey received more than 100 inquiries about the position. The field was narrowed down this fall. Four received on-campus interviews--Visser, former Santa Clara Coach Terry Malley, Chico State assistant Bob Owens and David Hill, a Pomona-Pitzer assistant and Chapman’s assistant director of admissions.

Visser, who was a finalist for the top job at Orange Coast when Bill Workman was hired in 1986, said he wasn’t looking to leave Whittier. Currey had approached him for advice on how to run a Division III program and eventually asked if Visser would be interested in applying.

Visser was, even though he had turned around a dismal Whittier program in three years. The Poets, who were 0-9 the year before Visser got there, were 11-16 in three seasons under him. They were 4-5 last season and won four of their last five games.

Now Visser faces a more daunting building job. Whittier, which has fielded football teams since 1907, has been coached by former NFL coaches George Allen and Don Coryell. Chapman has no such legacy.

“That’s one thing that is really something,” Visser said. “Whittier has a great football tradition, and basically we’re going to ask the young people coming in here to start their own tradition.

“For a couple of years it’s going to be a battle and a challenge. There’s no doubt. But we, hopefully, will be able to get something going after a while.”

Visser was coach at Servite from 1974 to 1978, leading the Friars to a 37-14-1 record. The 1978 team advanced to the Southern Section Big 5 Conference final, losing to Fountain Valley, 34-14.

Visser, 46, lives in Garden Grove with his wife, Pat, and daughter, JanMarie, 23. He played football at Westminster High, Orange Coast and Occidental.