Harper Knew His ABCs, but in the End Only the Ws Counted

Joe Harper had a lot of success as a football coach in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. He began his head coaching career with a 9-1-1 record at Riverside College in 1960.

In 14 years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Harper compiled a 96-43-3 record. He led the Mustangs to the NCAA Division II championship in 1980 and was named coach of the year five times by the American Football Coaches’ Assn.

Harper knows football. At one point in his career he knew how to motivate young athletes and had a great working relationship with them.

But those days apparently are gone.

At Cal Lutheran the low-key Harper hit the wall. He had little success in six seasons and was recently forced to resign.

Getting rid of Harper was a good move on the part of Athletic Director Bruce Bryde, who was hired in July. Bryde probably didn’t take long to figure out something had to be done to salvage the ailing football program.

“Joe may have achieved what he could here football-wise,” Bryde said earlier this month, on the day Harper’s resignation was announced.

Bryde, who came to Cal Lutheran after three years as athletic director at Widener University in Chester, Pa., hasn’t trashed Harper. He has nothing negative to say about the man who also served as the school’s interim athletic director for a year.

On the contrary, Bryde has complimented Harper repeatedly.

“He’s an outstanding individual and a great man,” Bryde said. “He is a good person.”

But Harper couldn’t consistently win games and the football program has had only marginal success since he took over. Bryde wants a coach who will post big numbers in the W column.

And Harper is no longer the guy.

In six seasons as the Kingsmen’s coach he had a 23-32-1 record, and only two winning seasons.

The team’s best finish was 6-4 in 1991, thanks to a forfeit victory by Azusa Pacific.

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Things only got worse. In 1992 the Kingsmen were 3-6 and after their only other winning campaign in ’93 (5-4), went back to 3-6 in ’94.

Cal Lutheran finished at 4-4-1 this year and punter Jeff Shea became the school’s first All-American pick in 10 years. But that couldn’t make up for the past.

Sources within the football program say it was time for Harper to step down, whether he wanted to or not.

And speaking of what he wanted, it’s anybody’s guess.

Harper has not returned phone calls and his statement in a news release prepared by the school’s sports information director revealed little.

In it Harper says: “After six years of hard work, a lot of good experiences and some significant strides in program development, it appears that this is the appropriate time for me to bow out of coaching at CLU. . . .”

Sounds like a diplomatic statement from a 59-year-old man whose professional destiny was chosen for him.

“You could see it coming,” said a source within the football program. “Those kids need a different kind of guidance than what he offered.”

One athlete, who competes in another sport at Cal Lutheran, said football players are content with Harper’s decision to step down, whether he was encouraged by school administrators to leave or not.

“Let me just put it this way, I don’t think anyone was too upset about it,” the athlete said. “Football players knew they needed a change.”