Shumard Quits Post at Fullerton : Titans: Athletic director, who had a controversial three-year tenure, says it’s time for a change in leadership.

Bill Shumard’s turbulent, three-year tenure as Cal State Fullerton athletic director came to an end Wednesday, when he announced his resignation, effective May 31, indicating he felt it was time for a change of leadership.

“Probably never being able to turn the corner with the program was my biggest disappointment,” Shumard said. “Maybe new leadership will accelerate the healing.”

Shumard’s three years were marked by unrest among student-athletes over cuts in the program--including the termination of football--and two controversial court cases stemming from an ill-fated attempt to drop women’s volleyball in January, 1992.

Jim Huffman, the volleyball coach at the time, was the big winner in both. First, he fought successfully to have the program restored in the courts the following March. Then, after he was subsequently fired, he successfully proved in a wrongful-termination suit that his contract was not renewed in retaliation, and he won a $1.35-million judgment plus substantial court costs against the school last February.

The jury said Shumard and Jack Bedell, another university official, had fired Huffman with “callous disregard” to Huffman’s First Amendment rights and that Shumard had acted with “fraud, malice and oppression.” Shumard was ordered to pay $3,000 in punitive damages.

Shumard, 43, said that “the outcome of that trial was painful to me, and what bothered me most was that there were 12 people in Orange County who believed that I was that person.”

Shumard said he sensed he had been supported by university officials after the verdict--which is under appeal--and that he felt no pressure to resign. “I didn’t make any decision autonomously, but I’m ultimately responsible for any decision in the athletic department that is made,” he said.

Jared Huffman, brother of the volleyball coach and one of two attorneys who represented him in both suits, expressed doubts that the case was not a major factor in the resignation.

“You can’t help but think there’s a connection,” he said. “It’s pretty obvious this case highlighted some extremely poor decision-making by him and some other people who should share the blame.”

Jim Huffman also said he wasn’t surprised Shumard resigned. “I’m maybe a little surprised that he did it this early,” Huffman said. “But I didn’t think he would be back for this next season. I’d have been surprised if he had been.”

Huffman said the resignation would be beneficial to the athletic program. “It obviously wasn’t working, and he’s going to be happier when he gets out, and Fullerton’s going to be happier when he gets out.” Before he was hired in August, 1991, Shumard had been an assistant athletic director at USC for three years. With the Dodgers from 1975-88, he had been director of community services and special events and had worked in the public relations department.

He was manager of the athletic news bureau at Cal State Los Angeles from 1973-75 and sports information director at Long Beach State in 1972-73.

Shumard said he has no definite job plans.

“There are some opportunities that have arisen,” he said, declining to be specific. “I feel confident that in the next 45 days I’ll know something about my professional future. We’re going to have to look at things very closely, but I’m not going to make any rash moves. . . . My first goal is to keep my family in the area. I’m not ready to leave unless we have to.”

Shumard said he had been considering resigning for “about six months” and that he felt no pressure from a recent yearly review.

University President Milton A. Gordon issued a statement saying the school would name an acting director and begin a search for a permanent one as soon as possible.

“As Bill Shumard considers new interests, I know the Titan family joins me in wishing him well,” he said. A university spokesman said Gordon would have no further comment.

One person mentioned immediately as a possible acting director is associate athletic director Maryalyce Jeremiah, a former Titan women’s basketball coach.

Shumard informed the athletic department staff of his decision at a late-afternoon meeting. “I told them that this was easily the richest experience of my life, but not necessarily the best because of the good and the bad about it,” he said.

Shumard also said one of his greatest difficulties was dealing with myriad financial problems.

“There is always a concern because of the scrutiny you’re under and the fact that the athletic department has long had a program that it couldn’t afford,” Shumard said. “We have lost something like $750,000 in state funding since I came here.

“The financial burdens have been tremendous. I inherited a house of cards and it seems like I was always the bearer of bad news financially for the university, but I’m glad we did that. I think I gained a lot of credibility on this campus. But I believe financially there are better times ahead.”

Shumard said he had to cut down the program “to one we could afford.” But those cuts brought internal problems and repeated controversy.

With limited funds available for wrestling after Dan Lewis left as coach, Shumard said he told wrestlers that their scholarships were being reduced for the 1992-93 school year. But he failed to notify them in writing, a minor NCAA infraction that Shumard reported to the NCAA. The wrestlers have protested that reduction in funds, and as recently as this week there were placards around the campus critical of the athletic department’s handling of the case.

Shumard and the athletic department also have come under fire from a group of 15 football players who protested an athletic department edict that they would have to work 10 hours a week for the university to continue receiving part of their scholarships when the program was suspended. Flyers critical of Shumard on that issue also were posted on bulletin boards in the hall near his office this week.

The football players took the case to the State Board of Control and it was rejected, Shumard said.

“Those were very tough decisions I had to make on volleyball, the wrestlers and the football players,” he said. “I think the Huffman case escalated the football and wrestling situations. Even though I’m comfortable with our positions in both of those, if I allow new leadership to take over it might help the healing process.”

Immediate reaction to Shumard’s resignation from some current Titan coaches was mostly one of surprise.

“I was shocked,” baseball Coach Augie Garrido said. “I didn’t see it coming at all. I sat there with my chin on the floor when he announced it to us. I had a business-like relationship with him. He always dealt with me straight up. I respected the difficulty of his position.”

Basketball Coach Brad Holland said he “enjoyed working for Shumard. . . . I’m going to miss him very much.” Soccer Coach Al Mistri shook his head and said: “All this turmoil is such a sad thing. It seems like we always have to keep starting all over.”

Shumard said he has “battled hard not to be bitter and resentful” toward his critics. “I don’t harbor grudges and I think I’ll be a better person because of that,” he said.

One of the harshest of those critics, Jared Huffman said: “I don’t want to wish ill on anyone, but the bottom line is Mr. Shumard shouldn’t be pitied at a time like this because he brought these problems on himself. I wish him well. I hope he learns from his mistakes, and that things go well for him in the future.”

Times staff writers Mike DiGiovanna and Martin Henderson contributed to this story.

The Shumard Era at Fullerton

1991

June 14: Cal State Fullerton names Bill Shumard, 40-year-old assistant athletic director at USC and a former Dodger employee for 13 years, as athletic director, replacing Ed Carroll. Shumard says being a major college athletic director has been his lifelong professional goal. “I think there are a tremendous amount of positive things happening or about to happen at this university,” he says.

1992

Jan. 28: Fullerton drops men’s gymnastics and women’s volleyball for the 1992-93 school year. “We came to the conclusion that we were trying to be too many things to too many people,” Shumard says.

Feb. 3: The women’s volleyball team and Coach Jim Huffman go to court seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the dropping of the program, saying the move violates state gender equity laws.

March 16: John Sneed’s contract as men’s basketball coach is not renewed. Shumard cites belief that “someone else can take us to a higher level.”

March 19: A Superior Court judge signs an injunction blocking the move to drop women’s volleyball.

March 23: Huffman receives a letter from Jack Bedell, acting associate vice president of academic affairs, saying that he has been fired.

April 8: In Shumard’s first major hire, former UCLA assistant Brad Holland, 35, is named men’s basketball coach. It is his first head coaching job at any level.

May 20: Fullerton agrees to reinstate women’s volleyball, add women’s soccer and achieve equity for women’s athletes in 10 years.

May 29: Maryalyce Jeremiah gives up job as women’s basketball coach and is named associate athletic director/senior woman administrator.

June 25: Mary Ellen Murchison, a former UC Irvine assistant, is named women’s volleyball coach.

June 29: Deborah Ayres, 34-year-old Solano College coach, named women’s basketball coach.

Oct. 1: Gene Murphy, citing budget cuts and program instability, announces retirement as football coach at the end of his 13th season.

Oct. 7: Football players say they are considering a boycott of Oct. 17 game at Southwestern Louisiana as a way to pressure school into making a quick decision about the program’s future. They later decide to play the game.

Dec. 7: Fullerton President Milton A. Gordon announces Division I-A football will be dropped but that the sport will return at a lower level in 1994.

Dec. 14: Jim Huffman files wrongful termination suit against Cal State Fullerton, claiming his firing was retaliatory because of his fight against the school dropping volleyball.

1994

Jan. 19: Opening statements made in Huffman wrongful termination suit.

Feb. 8: Jury awards Huffman $1.35 million, saying Shumard and Bedell “acted with reckless disregard of, or callous indifference to,” Huffman’s First Amendment rights. Shumard is found to have acted with “fraud, malice or oppression” and to have interfered with Huffman’s civil rights “through threats, intimidation and coercion.”

Feb. 22: School President Gordon, citing reductions in state funding, says, “It would be unrealistic to bring football back under these conditions” and declares the program will remain sidelined in 1994.

March 22: A Superior Court judge orders Fullerton to pay $300,000 in attorney’s fees in Huffman case, and Shumard is ordered to pay $3,000 in punitive damages. Bedell is ordered to pay $1,500. School attorneys say they will appeal. Huffman’s judgment will earn 10% interest during the process, which could take up to two years.

May 4: Shumard resigns as Fullerton athletic director, effective May 31.