Athletic director Peter Dalis to resign after serving 19 years
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 5, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 UCLA Sports Info Athletic director Peter
Dalis has overseen 39 national and 102 conference
championships.
By Joshua Mason
Daily Bruin Staff
After almost half a century at UCLA as a student, administrator
and athletic director, Peter Dalis announced Monday his retirement,
effective June 30, 2002.
Dalis will have served as athletic director at UCLA for 19
years, having overseen one of the most successful university
athletic departments in the country.
“If people know me, they knew I was thinking about
retiring when I took the job,” Dalis said jokingly in a press
conference. “I decided for a variety of reasons that I wanted
to retire.”
Administrative vice chancellor Peter Blackman said the search
process for Dalis’ replacement will take place over the next
several months, with a successor anticipated in the spring.
Dalis talked with Chancellor Albert Carnesale over the summer
about his plans to retire and said he decided to make the
announcement two months ago.
 “I understood when he took the one-year contract
(extension), he would retire in July,” men’s volleyball
head coach Al Scates said. “So it was all according to
plan.”
Though the announcement was not a complete surprise for the
athletic staff, coaches were not officially informed of
Dalis’ decision until late Monday afternoon.
“We’ve expected this day to come for a while, but
upon actually hearing of his resignation, I’m in
shock,” women’s basketball head coach Kathy Olivier
said.
Though Dalis is not naming a favorite to succeed him, the
initial interviews will more than likely take place among
administrators already on the UCLA athletic department staff, Dalis
said. When the decision is made, Dalis said he will be around to
help train the next athletic director.
“I can’t make any recommendations because there are
a lot of good people in my department,” Dalis said.
“They just need to let the coaches do what they already do.
I’m sure they’re all very capable of doing the
job.”
During Dalis’ 19-year tenure, UCLA captured 39 NCAA
championships, including a 1995 basketball championship under
then-head coach Jim Harrick.
“He’s managed to keep us solvent in his time here,
which is a great accomplishment, considering 90 percent of the
college athletic departments are not,” Scates said.
Despite the many accolades Dalis garnered in his time as
athletic director, there were also many low points, including last
year’s Steve Lavin extortion scandal and Rick Pitino fiasco,
the football players’ parking placard scandal of 1999,
recruiting violations for the softball team in 1995 and the firing
of Harrick in 1996.
“Those types of claims bothered me a long time ago, but
they don’t anymore,” Dalis said. “One thing I
won’t miss is the media.”
Prior to becoming athletic director in 1983, Dalis was director
of UCLA’s Cultural and Recreational Affairs department, where
he was instrumental in the construction of several sports venues,
including the Los Angeles Tennis Center and Easton Softball
Stadium.
“All the UCLA students of today and of the future should
appreciate that it was due to Peter Dalis that the Sunset Canyon
Recreation Center facility was built in 1966 and the John Wooden
Center was built in the early 1980s,” said assistant provost
and Dalis’ longtime friend John Sandbrook.
“Those are two important facilities that define the
quality of life at UCLA, and the student body now directly benefits
from Pete’s hard work,” he continued.
Some of Dalis’ other major accomplishments include the
construction of and recent renovation of the J.D. Morgan Athletic
Center and the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame. The completion of that
project, as well as plans to expand the size of the student-athlete
training facility, the Acosta Center, are the two key projects
Dalis said he would like to finish before he leaves.
Then, he can spend more time with his wife and go back to being
just another Bruin fan.
“You don’t get these years back,” Dalis said.
“I’ll be 64 when I retire, and I’ll be looking
forward to doing some different things. Forty-seven years is a long
time to be in the same place.
“Someone will bring another vision and another direction.
It’s healthy to have that kind of change.”
With reports from Dylan Hernandez and Scott Schultz, Daily Bruin
Senior Staff.
