TITAN NOTEBOOK / MIKE DiGIOVANNA : Testimony Heats Up in Huffman’s Suit

Lynn Rogers, Titan gymnastics coach, said the trial involving former women’s volleyball Coach Jim Huffman, who filed a $1.2-million wrongful termination suit against the school, has put “a negative cloud over the university.”

It has been more like a cumulonimbus cloud, delivering occasional thunder and lightning to the courtroom and a steady drizzle over the athletic department.

“Things are very, very tense around here,” one athletic department employee said.

Long-time coaches and administrators testifying against their school. Athletic department employees testifying against their athletic director. Personal attacks on witnesses, which have led to skirmishes among attorneys.

These are some of the dynamics in Orange County Superior Court, where the tension has thickened during the first week of the trial.

Huffman’s attorneys, who must prove that retaliation was a motive in the March 23, 1992, firing of the coach, spent much of the first week trying to build a foundation that Huffman was a good coach whose program, despite a 25-80 record from 1989-91, was making significant improvement.

They claim the school terminated Huffman not because of substandard performance but because the coach “spoke out about illegalities in the CSUF athletic department and initiated successful legal proceedings, which resulted in negative publicity to the school and its administrators.”

Huffman was fired one working day after a judge signed a preliminary injunction blocking the school’s Jan. 28, 1992, attempt to drop volleyball. Huffman and his players had subsequently filed a suit claiming the move violated state sex discrimination laws.

Rogers, former Fullerton Athletic Director Ed Carroll, and volleyball coaches Craig Choate (San Jose State), Paul Lenae (Nevada) and Marlon Sano (Utah State) are among those who have testified on Huffman’s behalf, and Huffman spent a day and a half on the stand.

Defense attorney Kevin Gerry, who claims the decision not to renew Huffman’s appointment was made in November or December of 1991--before the school tried to drop the sport--has hammered away at the team’s record and NCAA violations that occurred in the volleyball program in 1990.

Gerry also questioned Huffman’s performance in fund-raising and academics. Defense witnesses will begin testifying next week.

Some key testimony so far:

* Carroll, who resigned as Fullerton athletic director in February, 1991, said Huffman’s NCAA violations were “very minor” and that the administration was “extremely pleased with the quality of recruits Jim was bringing in and his creative fund-raising efforts.”

* Lisa Hall, student secretary during the 1991-92 school year for Fullerton Athletic Director Bill Shumard, said business manager Nan Bullington had a meeting with Shumard in December, 1991, and was told that Huffman’s contract was going to be renewed.

* Huffman said Shumard told him that volleyball--and Huffman’s job--were discontinued “because of budgetary reasons--not a word was mentioned about performance problems.”

* Rogers said that after Huffman filed the gender-equity lawsuit, Maryalyce Jeremiah, associate athletic director, told Rogers that “a line had been drawn in the sand between Jim and the university.”

The civil case had been fairly civilized until Monday, when Gerry, during his cross-examination of Huffman, asked: “Isn’t it true that (Colorado State Coach) Rich Feller was not going to rehire you (as an assistant in 1989) because of an affair you were having with a student-athlete?”

Attorney Kirk Boyd’s vociferous objection was sustained, and the question was stricken from the record. Afterward, Boyd fumed.

“Don’t be bringing up relationships, that’s a violation of the court agreement (not to discuss such allegations),” Boyd told Gerry. “That’s despicable!”

Attorney Jared Huffman, who is also representing his brother, accused Gerry of smear tactics.

“He’s just trying to plant sleazy seeds in the minds of the jury,” Huffman said.

*

The three Big West volleyball coaches and Carroll, now the associate athletic director for financial affairs at UC Irvine, all testified that Huffman’s gender-equity suit, his firing and his subsequent wrongful-termination suit have permanently damaged his coaching career.

Huffman, who now works for an Anaheim sports apparel company, said he has applied for several Division I head coaching jobs but, for most positions, “I don’t even get a response.”

Lenae of Nevada testified that he tried to hire Huffman as an assistant “but was not allowed to--my women’s athletic director said she didn’t want to have the press in Reno dealing with the situation.”

Choate of San Jose State said he thought Huffman’s coaching career was over in 1992. “Bucking the system doesn’t endear you to many administrators,” he said.

Said Carroll: “People don’t want to hire people who file lawsuits.”

Gerry said current Titan Coach Mary Ellen Murchison, whose teams are 2-55 in two seasons, was able to get a Division I job despite filing a gender-equity suit against Santa Clara in the mid-1980s.

“They did that to cover their butts,” Huffman claimed.

*

Former Titan football Coach Gene Murphy testified that his program was placed on two years private probation by the Big West in 1990 for NCAA rules violations.

A Fullerton assistant coach was reprimanded for using his personal credit card to register five players in summer-school courses, and Murphy was reprimanded for bringing an academically ineligible freshman on the season-opening trip to Auburn.

Murphy and Carroll testified that the football violations were “much more serious” than the volleyball violations in 1990--$1.16 in improper phone calls by athletes and an extra housing benefit provided for an athlete.

Asked if Shumard talked to Murphy about the violations after Shumard became athletic director in 1991, Murphy replied, “No.”

Asked if he was ever told his job was in jeopardy because of the violations, Murphy replied, “No.”

The school claims the volleyball violations, which occurred before Shumard arrived, led in part to Huffman’s termination. Huffman’s attorneys are trying to establish that Shumard knew of Murphy’s more serious violations but took no action against the football coach, yet he used less severe infractions against Huffman.

Titan Notes

Fullerton’s 1993 final four men’s soccer team will make an encore performance on Feb. 12, when it plays host to FC Keli Linz, a First Division professional team from Austria, in a 4:30 p.m. exhibition in Titan Stadium. The game will mark the final Titan appearances of seniors Mike Ammann, Ken Hesse, Paul McDonald, Todd Patrick and Mark Vaught, who led the team to a 16-7 record last season. . . . A women’s alumni basketball game, featuring former Fullerton standouts such as Genia Miller, Claudette Jackson and Jill Matyuch, will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday, preceding the Fullerton-Nevada Las Vegas game.