SI ranks UCLA’s Guerrero No. 28
By Hannah Gordon
May 5, 2003 9:00 p.m.
UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero never expected to land on
the cover of Sports Illustrated next to LeBron James.
“When I heard that I started laughing,” Guerrero
said. “I couldn’t see the correlation.”
The connection is both Guerrero and James were both among the
magazine’s “101 Most Influential Minorities in
Sports.”
And while James and his Hummer may get more time on television,
Guerrero actually beat out James, No. 101 on the list, by quite a
bit. One of only four Latino athletic directors in Division I-A,
Guerrero was named the No. 28 most influential minority in
sports.
“Where you are placed relates to perception, and this
shines a really positive light on UCLA,” Guerrero said.
“It reflects that UCLA is an institution of opportunity. That
has been true for me and (head football coach) Karl
(Dorrell).”
It was Karl Dorrell’s hiring, in part, that may have
landed Guerrero on the list. SI wrote, “How do you let
everyone know there’s a new sheriff in town? Hire a black
football coach after less than eight months on the job.”
Dorrell is currently one of only four black head coaches of 117
head coaches in Division I-A football.
“I wish they would have looked at the whole body of work,
but it is a sound bite,” Guerrero said.
That body of work includes nine years as the athletic director
at UC Irvine where he was named the 2001-2002 Division I-AA West
region National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics
Athletic Director of the Year. During his tenure, Guerrero also
served for several years on the NCAA’s minority opportunities
and interests committee.
A Bruin alum, Guerrero returned to UCLA as athletic director in
July 2002. Since then, he has spent more time in the spotlight than
most athletic directors in his first nine months because he has
fired both the head football and head basketball coaches.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,”
Guerrero joked with the media before introducing new basketball
coach Ben Howland at a press conference in April. Between December
and April, his press conferences became regular programming on
ESPNews.
“It’s not like he’s hiring because of race or
color. I just think he’s finding and hiring the qualified
people,” sophomore quarterback Drew Olson said. “I
think that’s pretty cool (that he is on the cover).
He’s obviously an influential man.”
Guerrero made waves both with the hiring of Dorrell and Howland.
After satisfying the fans with the firing of the much maligned
Steve Lavin, Guerrero then snatched the 2002 National Coach of the
Year, Ben Howland, from Pittsburgh.
In doing so, Guerrero hired a man with enough credentials to
appease Bruin fans looking to reclaim the glory of the John Wooden
era. Dorrell, meanwhile, who brought both a UCLA background and NFL
experience, has infused new energy in the football program.
“I think it is a great tribute to him and to this
university to have a guy like Dan represent us,” football
defensive coordinator Steve Kerr said.
“Coach Dorrell will be on there next year by himself,
maybe Jan. 3, after the national championship,” he added.
Guerrero was the highest-ranked athletic director on the list
and one of two Latino athletic directors on the list. The other
athletic directors were Virginia’s Craig Littlepage (No. 46),
USC’s Mike Garret (No. 49), Arizona State’s Gene Smith
(No. 57), Hawaii’s Herman Frazier (No. 59), Tennessee
State’s Teresa Phillips (No. 91) and New Mexico’s Rudy
Davalos (No. 94). There are only 25 minority athletic directors at
the 944 nonhistorically black colleges.
“I’m glad that Sport Illustrated took the
opportunity to write this issue. It is important to recognize who
the players are from that standpoint,” Guerrero said.
And Guerrero learned something from the experience as well.
“I didn’t realize so many of my friends have Sports
Illustrated subscriptions,” he said.
