Northridge in Rearview Mirror

The past is not easily left behind.

Just glance around Bob Hiegert’s new office in this suburb east of Oakland. He has come here to be the commissioner of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

Hiegert speaks enthusiastically about the job of overseeing a conference of 12 Division II schools located in such far-flung locales as Stanislaus, Calif., and Phoenix. He is clearly excited about the future.

But his office is adorned with reminders--the NCAA championship trophies won by Cal State Northridge baseball teams while he was coach and the awards presented to him during his years as athletic director at the school.

The San Fernando Valley, so far away, “is where I was born and raised,” he said. “Leaving was hard.”

Hiegert piled up impressive numbers at Northridge. In 18 seasons as baseball coach, his teams won 609 games, five NCAA West Regional titles and two Division II national championships.

In 17 years as athletic director, he tended to a program that won 49 conference championships and 25 Division II national titles.

But things began to sour in 1992 when a new president, Blenda J. Wilson, arrived on campus. Hiegert clashed openly with her vice president of student affairs, Ronald Kopita.

It was a difficult period for Northridge. The athletic department was making a costly transition to Division I status. Then came the earthquake in 1994.

Kopita thought Hiegert was spending too much money. Hiegert thought Kopita had too little experience with college athletics.

Still, Hiegert said, “I did not see the writing on the wall. In hindsight, maybe that was stupidity.”

It wasn’t just that Hiegert was told to resign. It was the way he was told.

“I was told by the president over the phone,” he said.

For the next two years, Hiegert stayed at Northridge as a tenured kinesiology professor while his wife, Jackie, concluded her career with the Los Angeles Unified School District. He poked around, applying for jobs at various universities.

The CCAA position opened up last year. Northridge had been a conference member in the past, so many of the school presidents and athletic directors knew Hiegert. They hired him as a part-time commissioner at first, then made him full-time when the conference expanded from seven to 12 teams this summer.

Hiegert subsequently established an office in the same bank building where the Pacific 10 Conference has its headquarters.

“I think it’s terrific,” said Rudy Carvajal, athletic director at Cal State Bakersfield. “Obviously he has a knowledge of the conference. He’s a hard worker, very enthusiastic.”

The new commissioner is also a no-nonsense kind of guy, his gray hair combed neatly back, his words well-chosen.

“This reminds me an awful lot of the way Northridge was years ago,” he said. “Most of the people [in the conference] are here because they want to be and they are willing to take the time to do things right.”

The biggest task, at first, will be attracting attention to conference events in cities such as Davis and Chico. Last week, Hiegert was in Bakersfield arranging for a men’s and women’s soccer championship, looking for ways to get local businesses involved and to get residents to attend games.

“We’re not going to be a marquee conference in large metropolitan areas,” he said. “But we are going to be in lots of small markets.”

Even with so much work ahead, Hiegert does not claim to have put Northridge completely out of mind. But he seems to have put the past into perspective.

“It might have been time for a change,” he said. “In the good Lord’s plan, it might have been time to get out of a difficult situation.”