Goodbye, Mr. Dalis

MARIAM KIRKORIAN/Daily Bruin UCLA Athletic Director Pete
Dalis has plenty of stories to tell about his 19-year
tenure, which will come to an end with his retirement this
month.

By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
[email protected]

“Fire Lavin.”

“Fire Toledo.”

“Fire yourself.”

As of the end of June, Pete Dalis will no longer have to concern
himself with the banter from irate Bruin fans.

UCLA’s athletic director for 19 years will retire in less
than a month to make way for Dan Guerrero, the new target for a
barrage of critics. Maybe Guerrero can steal Dalis’ oft-used
cliché, one he admits to employ almost on instinct: “I
have one of the easiest jobs in the world because everyone I meet
tells me how to do it.”

Then, after the listener smiles, Dalis adds, “It never
fails to get a laugh.”

After nearly two decades as athletic director, Dalis definitely
has enough stories to tell ““ most of which few will ever
hear. That is the nature of the beast ““ fans are suckers for
scandals.

There is the story about the television football rights. When
Dalis took over in 1983, the NCAA owned the rights. Georgia and
Oklahoma sued in the Supreme Court and won the right to negotiate
their own fees.

This was uncharted territory. So the Pac-10 joined forces with
the Big 10 and contract negotiations began in New York.

“We didn’t know what the hell we were doing, quite
honestly,” Dalis said.

The results were not nearly as profitable as everyone had
expected. A flooded marketplace drove prices down as advertisers
had a variety of games from which to choose. UCLA received $1.1
million after conference revenue sharing for a 1983 game at
Georgia. The following year, UCLA hosted Nebraska, a game that was
worth $400,000.

Financially, it was a major setback. Prior to the Supreme Court
ruling, 30 percent of revenue came from football and basketball
broadcasts. That quickly dwindled to 14 percent.

There is the story about how letters evolved to e-mails, which
can inundate the athletic department. They can be rather biting and
can come at odd times, like 3:30 a.m. At first, Dalis responded to
the e-mails. However, once the replies were posted, it just led to
another wave of e-mails.

So now he just passes on the phone number to his office and
offers the chance to discuss any disagreements.

“Now, what I would say is 99 percent of them are unwilling
to really put themselves as an individual publicly into the arena
to debate whatever the issue,” Dalis said.
“There’s a lot of pathology there and some people feel
better when they make you feel bad.”

Dalis recalled a particularly tough time, when he and
men’s basketball head coach Steve Lavin each received a death
threat. According to Dalis, the police tracked down the individual
and he served a small amount of time in jail.

“It was pretty ugly stuff,” Dalis said. “It
wasn’t fun to be part of.”

There is also the story behind the Rick Pitino fiasco last
spring. What Dalis tabbed as “innocent discussions”
with the then-Boston Celtics head coach were reported on ESPN,
which led to quite a bit of speculation regarding Lavin’s job
security.

The whole thing began when a friend of Dalis’, who knew
Pitino’s agent, suggested the two should talk. It is quite
common for athletic directors to randomly speak with coaches, with
no agendas in mind.

The first phone call was cut short after the phone connection
broke off. Pitino was right about to play the New York Knicks.
Dalis did not call back until a few months later, when the friend
suggested he try again. Unbeknownst to Dalis throughout the entire
ordeal, Pitino was about to quit.

Later on, Pitino’s son mentioned the phone conversations
to a sports information director at Providence, where Pitino used
to work. The SID in turn passed the info on to ESPN, Dalis said.
And that’s how the innocent discussions turned into huge
controversy in Westwood.

“¢bull; “¢bull; “¢bull;

It is impossible to tell all there is to tell about Dalis, 64,
in a defined amount of space. After all, Dalis leaves UCLA with 39
NCAA titles, though none came in his final year. His story just
involves too much history to do it justice in approximately 1500
words.

History spent at UCLA and … well … at UCLA.

Back in 1955, Dalis came to Westwood as an undergraduate
student. Forty-seven years later, there are enough stories about
him to write a novel, let alone a retrospective.

“UCLA is such a part of him,” said Rick Purdy,
associate athletic director in charge of development.

Purdy has worked with Dalis since 1980, when Dalis was the
director of UCLA’s Cultural and Recreational Affairs
Department. Purdy served as chief fund-raiser for the John R.
Wooden Center campaign, a project Dalis headed.

Now their offices are just across the hall from each other, and
though Dalis is in the process of packing his things, Purdy does
not expect his good friend will disappear.

“You don’t just spend 40 years at UCLA and then walk
away from it,” Purdy said. “It’s too much a part
of you. It’s too much a special place to just up and
leave.”

It is rare in this day and age of free agency in sports to see
someone who has dedicated their entire life to one institution.
While earning a B.S. degree at UCLA, Dalis served as football
manager for legendary coach Red Sanders. He then turned down a
position in the sports department to earn an M.S. in education in
1963, also at UCLA.

When Dalis came to Westwood, tuition was $48 a semester, there
was no student union, no Pauley Pavilion, traffic went through
campus and it was easy to find a parking space.

When then-Chancellor Charles Young named him the athletic
director, on top of the aforementioned TV and e-mail scenarios,
there was no drug testing and Title IX did not receive the focus it
does today.

It is important to know all of this background to put
Dalis’ accomplishments into proper perspective.

“History is very important to me,” Dalis said.
“I think you have to take it in the context of all of what
has happened at UCLA and not take a short, snapshot
view.”

“¢bull; “¢bull; “¢bull;

One impossible task for Dalis was the creation of an on-campus
football stadium. During his first football season, head coach
Terry Donahue started 0-3-1 before finishing with a Rose Bowl
victory over Illinois. Leaving Pasadena, Dalis’ first thought
revolved around how he could parlay the win into increased ticket
sales.

Attendance has dwindled while at the Rose Bowl, bottoming out a
couple of years ago when around 800 students showed up for a UCLA
vs. Oregon State football game.

Dalis inherited an $800,000 operating deficit that accumulated
to $3.2 million through the ’80s and early ’90s.
Finances could have been better with an on-campus stadium, but
students voted down a referendum in 1966 for such a facility.
People had to be laid off and the men’s gymnastics and
swimming squads were dropped. The gymnastics program was
responsible for two NCAA championships in the first four years of
Dalis’ tenure.

Needless to say, the decision to let coaches go and make orphans
out of athletes was tough. Unfortunately, there was no other way to
fix the budget.

Today the deficit has been retired and there are even enough
funds to renovate some facilities, such as the recent work done on
the J.D. Morgan Center and the new athletics Hall of Fame. Still,
financial stability came at a heavy price.

“¢bull; “¢bull; “¢bull;

Tom Hansen became the Pac-10 commissioner in February 1983, just
a few months before Dalis took over for Bob Fischer.

Dalis and Fischer faced a lose-lose proposition. The pair
followed J.D. Morgan, one of the most well-regarded athletic
directors in all of collegiate athletics, and Wilbur Johns, the man
who hired Sanders and Wooden, a basketball icon.

Dalis has not matched Morgan in terms of sheer persona and it
will be hard for Lavin and football head coach Bob Toledo to match
the achievements of Wooden and Sanders, respectively.

But Hansen speaks only in praise of Dalis, his partner in crime
for 19 years. Dalis has chaired the Pac-10 TV committee and has
been a member of the Rose Bowl management committee. “Because
he’s been there 18 years, he has a wonderful sense of history
of the conference,” Hansen said, “and that’s
invaluable to the discussions, particularly of the athletics
directors.”

Purdy called Hansen close to a month ago and requested his
presence as a speaker for Dalis’ retirement ceremony on June
23. Without hesitation, Hansen dropped a dinner commitment with the
Bay Area athletic directors and commissioners to be held that same
evening.

“I did have to cancel on that, but for Peter I certainly
would do it,” Hansen said.

A rather distinct group of people will make time to join Hansen
to pay homage to Dalis two Sundays from today. The list includes
NCAA executive director Cedric Dempsey, UCLA Chancellor Albert
Carnesale, Young and Donahue.

“¢bull; “¢bull; “¢bull;

After his June retirement, expect Dalis to show up at sporting
events just like Wooden’s basketball game appearances. Dalis
will be present at football, basketball, tennis, softball,
volleyball ““ you name it, he will be there.

And he’ll be received with open arms.

“Well, I hope so,” Toledo said. “He’s
lived and died at UCLA. I think his loyalty, his hard work and all
the things that he stands for should provide him with that
opportunity to be close to the program.”

While the plan calls for much needed time with his wife, his
golf game and travelling, Dalis will still be around in case he is
needed.

The contract with the Rose Bowl runs out soon, along with the TV
agreement with Fox Sports, so Guerrero is likely to consult
Dalis.

But at least there will be no more voice mail or a set schedule.
Gone will be the seven-day work weeks and NCAA investigations.

“I’m going to go to the games and enjoy the
experience without worrying about the outcome,” Dalis
said.

Or the e-mails, or the finances ““ Dalis will soon be just
another UCLA fan.

Championships won under Dalis 1983-84
Men’s Gymnastics Men’s Tennis Men’s Volleyball
Softball 1984-85 Women’s Volleyball Softball
1985-86 Men’s Soccer
1986-87 Men’s Gymnastics Men’s Track
& Field Men’s Volleyball 1988-89
Men’s Volleyball Softball 1989-90 Softball
1990-91 Men’s Soccer Women’s
Volleyball Women’s Golf 1991-92
Women’s Volleyball Softball 1992-93
Men’s Volleyball 1994-95 Men’s
Basketball Men’s Volleyball 1995-96
Men’s Water Polo Men’s Volleyball
1996-97 Men’s Water Polo Women’s
Gymnastics 1997-98 Men’s Soccer Men’s
Volleyball 1998-99 Softball
1999-2000 Men’s Water Polo Women’s
Indoor Track & Field Women’s Gymnastics Men’s
Volleyball 2000-2001 Men’s Water Polo
Women’s Indoor Track & Field Women’s Gymnastics
Women’s Water Polo