Dalis Will Step Down at UCLA

Peter Dalis didn’t step in front of Bob Toledo and take a bullet. It just seemed that way to Toledo.

Moments after the football coach was grilled in a news conference Monday about UCLA’s second loss in a row, Dalis took the microphone and announced he will retire June 30 after 19 years as Bruin athletic director.

Toledo, on whom Dalis took a chance six years ago much the way former chancellor Charles E. Young took a chance on the unknown and unproven administrator in 1983, responded in genuine surprise.

“What?” he said. “I didn’t know that. Congratulations.”

Toledo took a moment for the announcement to sink in, then added jokingly: “Pete’s a great friend of mine. He’ll do anything to take the heat off me.”

Not likely. Dalis is most effective from the back of a room, an anonymous functionary more comfortable with memos than microphones. He doesn’t display the ego of some athletic directors who are former athletes or coaches because he was neither.

Before replacing Robert Fischer, Dalis was director of UCLA’s cultural and recreational affairs department. His closest brush with the playing field was serving as manager for legendary football coach Red Sanders in the 1950s. Dalis graduated from UCLA in 1959, earned a master’s from the school in 1963 and has never been employed anywhere else.

“I was a nontraditional candidate, and the chancellor took a lot of heat for my appointment,” he said.

He had moments of awkwardness to be sure, such as acknowledging in January to having two conversations with Rick Pitino when Bruin basketball Coach Steve Lavin was under fire, and calling Dick Vitale a “bootlicker.” And those moments all seemed to come when he made an infrequent public comment.

Dalis acknowledged that in some ways his post, which pays $167,508, made him uncomfortable.

“This is a very public job,” he said. “You are at the whim of everyone.

“I was thinking about retiring when I took the job.”

That comment was merely his dry humor coming through. But he gave retirement serious thought the last two months. He and his wife, Margaret, talked it over with family while accompanying the football team to Washington State last weekend.

Dalis, 63, said his decision had nothing to do with the football team’s recent failures or the basketball team’s frequent turmoil.

“I’ll be 641/2 when I retire and you don’t get these years back,” he said. “I’d like to enjoy life with my wife.”

Monday, Dalis informed his immediate staff, then made the announcement before telling even his coaches. Lavin wasn’t informed until he ran into Toledo in a hallway while Dalis was in the news conference.

“All coaches are concerned when there is a change in leadership because you want a climate where you can continue to be successful,” Lavin said. “But I also realize UCLA is a no-nonsense institution and will give internal as well as external candidates a chance.”

Several of the seven associate athletic directors are expected to express interest, including Betsy Stephenson, Rick Purdy and Ken Weiner.

Outside candidates could include athletic directors Gene Bleymaier of Boise State, Dan Guerrero of UC Irvine and Gary Cunningham of UC Santa Barbara. Bleymaier is a former UCLA assistant athletic director, Guerrero was a Bruin baseball player and Cunningham was a UCLA basketball player and coach.

A search committee chaired by Vice Chancellor Peter Blackman is expected to appoint a successor by late spring. “I hope it is a Bruin,” Dalis said. “This is a very special place.”

One of his last acts will be to increase buyout amounts in the contracts of Toledo and Lavin, who both said they feel indebted to Dalis for hiring them. However, Dalis and Lavin have locked horns, most recently when Dalis told reporters about his conversations with Pitino.

“When I was hired with no previous head-coaching experience, all parties realized there would be a learning curve,” Lavin said. “Because he had the vantage point of 40 years experience, I realized there would be bumps in the road.

“But he gave me my first opportunity to be a head coach at the Division I level. As a result, I will be grateful for the rest of my career.”

Dalis hired Lavin after firing Jim Harrick in 1996 in a dispute over a false expense report and misleading statements. Harrick, who led the Bruins to the 1995 national championship, remains angry at Dalis, saying a year ago “his name is Peter Principle, it really is.”

But Dalis lasted nearly two decades, and is leaving on his own terms. He considers his greatest accomplishment improved athletic facilities and will supervise the construction of one more before he leaves. The Acosta Center, adjacent to Pauley Pavilion, will house weight rooms, locker rooms and training facilities.

He weathered crises ranging from the softball team forfeiting the 1995 national championship because pitcher Tanya Harding was ineligible to football players illegally using handicapped parking permits in 1999. Dalis’ most enduring memory of the latter is revealing of his nature. He is more interested in how people respond to a problem than how they got into it.

“Those players took a lot of public abuse,” he said. “I have admired how they conducted themselves.”He said he will miss the players and will return for the games.

“If I could do anything over,” he said, “I would spend more time with the teams and the players.”

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The Dalis Years

What UCLA has done with Peter Dalis as athletic director:

* In his 19 years, Bruins have won 39 NCAA titles.

* They have won at least one NCAA team title in 17 of the 19 years, and at least two titles in 13 years.

* They have won team titles in 14 sports: men’s basketball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s soccer, men’s tennis, men’s track, men’s and women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s water polo, softball, women’s indoor track.

* Men’s basketball team has been to 14 NCAA tournaments and won the 1995 title.

* Football team has been to 12 bowl games, including seven New Year’s Day games and four Rose Bowls. Bruins have won eight of the 12 bowl games.

* Bruin teams have won 102 conference titles.