Resurrection : After Being Fired by O.C. Sports Assn., Promoter Andersen Is Back With Big Plans

He went to high school in Orange County, left for a time to pursue a career, but found reason to return.

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Don Andersen, promoter, public relations expert and sports marketing whiz, knew Orange County, knew it as well as almost anyone. He orchestrated the development of the Orange County Hall of Fame, brought the Senior PGA Tour to Orange County, enlisted marquee teams to play in the poor-man’s Freedom Bowl.

But then in the 34th year of a career that has enhanced the reputation of USC athletics, the Seattle Seahawks, Chapman University and the Orange County Sports Assn., there was this April Fool’s Day pronouncement: Don Andersen has been asked to resign as director of the OCSA.

It was no joke.

“Casey Stengel got fired by the Yankees; did they not win nine world championships in an 11-year period?” Andersen said. “I don’t think he became an idiot in a span of two years.

“I’m no Casey Stengel, but let’s get on with it. Isn’t it inherent in anyone worth his salt, no matter what their line of work, to say, ‘Yeah, you’re darn right I’ll be back.’

“Sure, things haven’t gone well, but damn, this isn’t an obituary. This is just a respite.”

Four months later and Andersen is back, the promoter promoting. The LPGA, familiar with the Andersen Enterprises calling card, has talked about returning to the area with his assist. There are infant, but innovative plans that include a partnership with long-time Orange County newspaper reporter John Hall.

“After being released, yeah, I probably felt my reputation had been damaged, but was I a failure? Absolutely not. No apologies.

“I never worked harder in my life than on the projects for the association. I never had anything that I took home more with me than the association. I lived and breathed that association.”

He worked so hard and worried so much that it put him in the hospital at times. “I don’t want anyone saying, ‘Poor Don Andersen.’ Hey, there have been times when people were saying, ‘Lucky Don, you get to do that golf tournament. . . . you’ve gotten to work seven Super Bowls, five Rose Bowls, put on two NCAA basketball championships, boy, have you had the life, Don.’ ”

He sure has. “And sure will,” Andersen said. “The last couple of months have been miserable, sure, absolutely. You go home and question yourself, but I’m only 54 and the way I figure it, I’ve got 11 more good work years left in me. That’s one-quarter of my career left in front of me to bounce back and be successful.”

The telephone is ringing again, but Andersen is not always there to answer. There is a sports luncheon, one more booster club meeting, the 44th Shrine All-Star high school football game and he wants to be there--still bullish on Orange County.

“I had people talk to me, wondering if I was going to stay in Orange County,” Andersen said. “I don’t want to leave Orange County; on the contrary, I have a desire to stay.

“Where else can you have the wonderful things we have? I don’t want to sound corny, but I’m a believer. It will just take a couple of little things, like the Angels winning the pennant, or resolving the bankruptcy in some way, or a turnaround in the housing market . . . something to pull us together.”

Image is everything, however, and the Freedom Bowl has to win NCAA approval for this year’s event. The Rams have left town, the first-place Angels are drawing better lately, but attendance is down from last season. And the Orange County Sports Assn. is $1.7 million in debt.

“The whole county just can’t throw up its hands and say woe is me,” Andersen said. “You had 50,000 people show up on the beach for Hulk Hogan. . . . Look at the attendance for the surfboarding championships.

“I went to that Shrine game at Cal State Fullerton, a game that got hardly any ink and it drew 10,000. I was shocked at the turnout for a high school football game; that was great. There were 2,000 people waiting in line for tickets and they were young people. They said the Shriners bought a lot of tickets in advance, but those weren’t 70-year-old buyers in line; that leads me to believe there is some disposable income in the county among young sports fans.”

Talk of hope, and yet Andersen, the voice of optimism for Orange County, was fired. His failure: He inherited a huge debt when taking over the leadership of the OCSA, and could not overcome it.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t get a sponsor for the Freedom Bowl,” he said. “But I’m not sure even a sponsor could save the game.

“We did a survey earlier and many of the 19 bowls games are substantially subsidized. We went to Orange County long before the bankruptcy and found out Orange County doesn’t even have a promotional budget. Here it is the tourism capital of the world and five years ago the county didn’t even have a budget to promote itself. You watch the Sun Bowl and there’s a commercial for visiting El Paso.

“Orange County had a wonderful free ride for 38 years because of Disney. But now that’s one thing that’s going to have to change in Orange County.”

The sports association, built on a foundation of quicksand after early Freedom Bowl blunders, doomed Andersen from the outset. A year before his arrival, Freedom Bowl officials invited the University of Florida.

Florida had lost its final two regular-season games, fired its coach, suspended its quarterback for gambling and was still reeling from reports that running back Emmitt Smith was going to jump to the NFL. No one who supported Florida wanted to come to Anaheim, including Florida’s athletic director, who didn’t make the trip.

The Freedom Bowl lost $600,000 that year, and on top of earlier losses, the chase for the next dollar became never ending.

“It was a mess before Don got here and nobody could have done as much to make it right,” Hall said. “The guy worked so hard he screwed up his health and went through a couple of tough surgeries.

“In a way the county betrayed him the last couple of years. He couldn’t say no to anybody. He would help different events and take no fees. Imagine living with that debt and people wondering all the time when they were going to get paid. It was a horrific atmosphere, and now he’s forced to start all over. That’s not right.”

So much work, and most often it was met with disappointment and frustration. The Pigskin Classic, which already was in place when Andersen was hired, had Disney’s backing and then Andersen’s expertise. But like the Freedom Bowl, it flopped.

“Florida State was ranked No. 1 and was matched against the Heisman Trophy winner,” Andersen said. “There was the return of Bill Walsh to Stanford and playing against one of the top three teams in the nation. All the matchups had marquee value in some way, but there are other things to do in Orange County in the middle of August besides going to a college or professional football game.”

Andersen said he has taken time to reflect on a quote he read from John Shaw, Ram president: “Orange County apparently is not a suitable market for a professional football franchise because even when the Rams were successful, they were not successful in drawing people during the preseason or creating an atmosphere of community excitement and involvement.”

Initially, there was no argument from Andersen. “The Rams go to training camp and no one notices,” he said. “The Broncos or Seahawks go to camp and you have every local TV station and radio personality out there.

“We don’t have our own over-the-air television stations. We really don’t have our own radio stations and the electronic media is very influential these days, which hurts Orange County as a sports market.

“And people talk about the wealth of Orange County, but there probably aren’t as many corporate headquarters here as other areas of this size.

“The other thing Orange County needs is a feeling that somebody cares. No disrespect to Gene Autry, but he’s an absentee owner. He doesn’t live in Orange County or go to the Rotary meetings. When somebody suggested to John Shaw that the Rams build a stadium in Garden Grove, Shaw said, “Is Garden Grove in Orange County?’ It’s a community thing, community pride and if things don’t go well, people want to believe that it’s hurting one of their very own too.”

So why remain here, only to get clobbered once again by a county unable to make it work in sports?

“I say all that and buy into what Shaw has to say until the Mighty Ducks sell out 60 games in a row,” Andersen said. “That throws everything off, doesn’t it?

“Maybe everybody is pinning their hopes on Disney and maybe they should. Take away Disney and we’re going in circles. They have the track record of making things successful, and they should do a wonderful job with the Angels. There have been rumors for the last five years that Disney was going to get involved in football, basketball, baseball and hockey. Maybe they really are.

“That’s the thing, I take heart from Disney. My gut still tells me that this county can support sports such as professional football with local ownership. There were a lot of naysayers who said The Pond couldn’t be built, but someone had vision.

“It just takes leadership, and while there’s not a political leader that comes quickly to mind, you also need bucks, lots of bucks. That’s what kept OCSA from being as influential as it could have been. The debt was too steep to overcome and so there was no clout. But it can happen here, it is happening here with Disney.”

Disney, the master marketer, keeps raising the prices to attend Ducks’ games and people stand in line. “It makes me jealous,” Andersen said. “Here I was trying to get anybody and everybody interested in the Freedom Bowl.

“Four days after resigning from the OCSA I had to give a speech to the OC Pioneer Council in front of 300 people. I asked them to excuse me for being a bit nervous, because I had worked the Freedom Bowl the last five years and this was one of the largest crowds I had ever seen. They laughed, but I was being serious.”

The Pioneer Council folks had no idea how difficult it was for Andersen to make that public appearance four days after being fired.

“You smile, you shake hands and you suck it up,” Andersen said. “Letting everyone know you’re fired is hard because you’re basically telling everyone you didn’t get it done.”

But the Senior PGA Tour would not have been in Orange County without Andersen. There would be no Orange County Sports Hall of Fame without Andersen. In recent months money woes kept the Hall of Fame closed, but Andersen will not be discouraged.

“I guess I’ve had my hand on the pulse of Orange County, and while it’s still beating, it’s a little erratic. But it just takes one event, and then one more event and so on. Now’s no time to give up.

“That’s where I’m at. I don’t want to be the CEO of the county, no sir, but if I can be a cheerleader, then one small project at a time, we can build this area into something positive once again. That’s why I’m here and going to stay here.”