Northridge in Rearview Mirror

At least one good thing came out of Pete Cassidy’s parting with Cal State Northridge.

“The boosters gave me a set of golf clubs,” he said. “I figured I should give it a try.”

A few mornings each week, Cassidy leaves his home in Chatsworth for the fairways at Knollwood Country Club or Balboa or Simi Hills golf courses. At 64, he is learning a game he never had time to play as a younger man.

“It’s a different life now,” he said. “Very different.”

For a quarter-century, his life was devoted almost exclusively to coaching basketball at Northridge.

It was a constant struggle with tight budgets that prevented him from recruiting top-notch prospects.

Cassidy developed a reputation as a skilled tactician, using Xs and O’s to compensate for a lack of talent. His teams won four California Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles while compiling a 282-225 record in Division II.

In the fall of 1990, however, the Matadors moved to Division I and struggled, going 52-112 over the next five seasons against schools that had richer, more-established programs.

“We got beat up pretty good,” Cassidy said.

Northridge did not renew his contract in March 1996, nine months before the Matadors were to begin their first season in the Big Sky Conference.

No less than John Wooden came to Cassidy’s defense, telling The Times, “He’s a quality person, the type we need more of in the coaching profession.”

Cassidy ranked sixth among active Division I coaches with 25 consecutive seasons at the same school.

He pined for one more season, especially because the team would receive more funding and additional scholarships as a result of joining the Big Sky.

The end came a little too abruptly.

“You wake up one morning and you don’t have any more problems to solve,” he said. “You don’t know where you’re going to go.”

His emotions on the subject still run close to the surface. He winces occasionally as he talks about the way the administration treated him. Sometimes he throws his hands into the air.

But looking fit and tan, just off the course after a morning round of golf, Cassidy said he is determined not to be bitter.

“I have a choice from this point on,” he said. “I’m not going to sulk or pout. I choose to be happy.”

Over the last two years, he has thought about looking for another job but is not willing to be an assistant, on the road for endless recruiting trips. A head coaching job seems beyond reach.

“Who’s going to hire me?” he asked. “They’re not looking for someone my age.”

For the time being, Cassidy keeps himself busy as president of the Northridge Kiwanis Club. He has been a member of the public-service organization for 12 years but never had the time to be very active.

“My attendance was rather erratic,” he said. “When my time was freed up, they figured, ‘Let’s get him.’ It was payback.”

Each November, he spends a few weeks coaching a traveling all-star team of former college players. This year, they will play exhibition games against college teams at Clemson, Missouri, Louisiana State and Virginia.

“It’s fun,” he said. “You’re around players and there’s no pressure.”

The rest of his time is devoted to golf.

He stands in the kitchen, taking phantom swings as he talks. The game does not come easily to him.

“I’m impatient,” he said.

But it is something to fill his days, something to do while he waits to see if inspiration and fate will conspire to push him toward another career.

“There’s an emptiness,” he said. “You feel like a fish out of water.”