Sutton’s Legacy Quickly Eclipsed

The announcement was made Friday during a five-minute staff meeting at Providence High in Burbank.

The Fritz B. Burns Foundation has agreed to donate $1 million for the construction of a new activity center at the school.

Some faculty members clapped. Others didn’t, wondering why they hadn’t heard Paul Sutton’s name attached to the new facility.

Sutton, longtime athletic director and coach at the small private school, died at age 41 last August after an 18-month battle with colon cancer.

It was widely believed the activity center would bear the name of Sutton, who was known less for his record as boys’ basketball coach than for teaching life lessons to Providence students in his 14 years at the school.

Two months before Sutton died, his wife, Dana, said she was told by school administrators they intended to name the new activity center after Paul.

When he died, Dana requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the proposed activity center or to an educational trust for Sutton’s children, Alison, 9, and Nate, 8.

Alison and Nate helped raise money for the activity center, earning $39 by selling candy bars and turning the money over to the school.

But it appears that intentions don’t always translate into promises. The activity center will carry the name of Burns.

The actions of the Burbank-based foundation, which has donated millions of dollars to hospitals, colleges, high schools and homeless shelters, cannot be condemned.

The foundation, named after the successful mid-century land developer who died in 1979, has agreed to donate a hefty sum to a worthy cause.

But the school’s change of direction in naming the activity center is perplexing, if not embarrassing.

“Paul left this earth fully believing that they would name the building after him,” Dana Sutton said. “He believed that this was something the school fully intended for him to have as an honor. Now it’s not going to happen. It feels almost like a betrayal.

“I love Providence. It’s an incredible school. And the [Burns] Foundation is incredibly benevolent. I just have a problem with being given something and then having it taken away in this type of manner.”

She is not alone.

“I know how much this meant to Paul,” said boys’ basketball Coach Dan Haasch of Buckley, who was an assistant at Providence in 1990 and remained a friend of Sutton’s. “The guy devoted his life to that athletic program and built it from the ground up. Everything he stood for is now thrown out the window.”

Providence was an ardent supporter of the Sutton family before and after Paul’s death, giving him extra sick leave and paying for a 700-person reception after his funeral.

The school renamed its annual boys’ basketball tournament, attaching Sutton’s name to it. The Pioneers won the tournament title Saturday for only the second time in 11 years. Dana, who was in attendance, was given the championship trophy by Providence players and coaches.

But to not give Sutton a permanent presence on campus would be an oversight.

The gym, which will be part of the activity center, could be named after Sutton, an option that falls on the shoulders of either the Burns Foundation, which declined comment on the situation, or the school.

Sister Lucille Dean, principal at Providence, was unavailable for comment.

Sutton needs to be remembered as a coach who won 166 games and three league titles, and for realizing that what happened off the court was infinitely more important.

When Ernie Godinez died in a car accident in 1996, Sutton organized a tribute night for the former Providence student, shifting the girls’ and boys’ basketball games to a larger gym on another campus and filling it with 800 people, nearly twice the number of students enrolled at Providence.

When the father of Andrew Bencze, one of Sutton’s former players, died in 1995, Sutton attended the funeral.

Said Dana: “Paul didn’t teach athletics. He taught these kids about life. He told them about economics or theater or about furthering their education. He taught them about honesty or integrity.”

Sadly, some people might need a refresher course.