Bruins Have a New No. 1 Fan

Dan Guerrero put the soul back into UCLA athletics Friday. He added a little color to the bloodless cheeks of a corporate athletic program.

Guerrero is a jock, a baseball player who loves the feel of a tight game and admires the athlete who has learned to play hard all the time. Guerrero is a Bruin who is not embarrassed to express love for his school and get all mushy and emotional when talking about his dream job.

Guerrero was introduced as UCLA’s new athletic director. He brought to the news conference his mother, Esther, and his father, Gene. Also his sister, Nancy, and his brother, Johnny. Of course his wife, Anne Marie, was there and smiling. His youngest daughter, Katie, came too. Jenna, his oldest, couldn’t afford to cut her Westmont College classes.

It was sweet that Esther and Gene had tears of pride in their eyes. It was sweeter that Guerrero wasn’t embarrassed to have his parents, his sister, his brother, their kids, his kids, sitting right up at the front of the room.

This is what UCLA athletics needs. A man of passion and pride, of high ideals. A man who will be as much a fan of UCLA athletics as its boss, who will be as interested in floor burns acquired as budget surpluses on the ledger.

Guerrero grew up as the son of working class parents in Wilmington. His father worked for the oil companies. His mother was a bilingual aide in the grade school system. Guerrero had to be in bed by 7 every night but he would sneak a little radio under his covers so he could listen to Dodger games. That took discipline and creativity. Those are good qualifies for an athletic director.

A thick skin will help too.

While Guerrero was being introduced inside the J.D. Morgan Center, two young men were outside the building. They wore T-shirts that said, “Lose Lavin,” and handed out sheets of paper promoting their Web site, “www.loselavin.com” that included a collection of reasons why Steve Lavin shouldn’t be UCLA basketball coach anymore.

Just in case Guerrero didn’t know, there are some UCLA fans who are unhappy with the men’s basketball coach. And a few more who aren’t thrilled with Bob Toledo, the football coach.

And maybe the basketball coach and the football coach should worry a little.

Guerrero made it clear what he expects from his teams. “I want student athletes who, on the playing field, have strong fundamentals, who fire out every night, who never take a night off.”

That would not describe the UCLA basketball team that Guerrero saw struggle the last two years to eke out narrow victories over UC Irvine. Or the football team that collapsed at the end of the 2001 season.

Asked specifically for his opinion of Lavin’s team, Guerrero was diplomatic--but pointedly so.

“I need to talk to Steve,” Guerrero said. “I need to see how he builds his program, what his plan is from the first day of school until the last day. I need to evaluate an entire year, through the summer. There’s a process that needs to occur. Are we taking advantage of all the opportunities that exist for improvement here?

“I want to see, how does this team fire out on Oct. 15. I want to see if there’s a sense of purpose every game. The teams that consistently do well, get to the Final Four, always play with a sense of purpose.”

It would be unfair to think Guerrero would come in and immediately dismiss Lavin or Toledo. It would be wrong. But he’s looking for the right things. Sense of purpose. Playing hard.

Guerrero’s father said that his eldest son “took such pride in wearing a UCLA uniform. It was such an important thing to Danny that he did the UCLA uniform proud.”

That has seemed missing in some UCLA athletes as well, pride in that uniform. The football players who used handicap parking placards or drove drunk or accepted the illegal use of vehicles from hangers-on, the basketball player who threw a vicious elbow in frustration and knocked out an opposing guard who was 10 inches shorter, the players and coaches wearing Bruin colors who didn’t think twice about losing to Ball State or Cal State Northridge.

As much as he loves UCLA and as much as this was his dream job, Guerrero said he would not have left Irvine if, as he said, “I would not have the ability to run this program.” There has been the thought that UCLA’s athletic director is a powerless person, that Chancellor Albert Carnesale will decide whether Lavin and Toledo stay or go.

Gene Guerrero raised boys who are independent thinkers, stubborn men who know what they want. He did not raise sons who will easily accept another’s vision of excellence.

When Dan Guerrero, the former UCLA baseball player, arrived at UC Irvine, he made it no secret that he wanted a baseball program reinstated. It was. He wanted a basketball program the university could be proud of. It has one. The student body was cajoled by Guerrero into voting to spend its own money, via increased student fees, to make sports better.

At the school he loves more than anything, deposited now into his dream job, it is hard to imagine Guerrero will be convinced to accept UCLA teams that are haphazardly coached, unconvincingly disciplined, or uncaring in the way they play or behave. Steeped in the tradition of UCLA, Guerrero feels the place. Just like so many Bruin fans.

*

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com