Scott Bair sbair@media.ucla.edu
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After 19 years on the job, Peter Dalis is retiring from his
position as UCLA’s athletic director. When he looks in the
rear view mirror, he will see a legacy of 39 national championships
and 102 conference titles. He will point to the construction of the
Wooden Center and the renovation of Acosta Training Center as
lasting symbols of his legacy.
I won’t.
As I look back on the legacy that Peter Dalis left behind, I see
only two events: Dalis’ removal of UCLA’s name from
2002 Humanitarian Bowl consideration and his unwillingness to
accept an NIT Tournament bid following the 1987-88 season.
The arrogance with which he has run this program has blinded me
to all of his other accomplishments. Dalis announced his decision
to retire before the end of UCLA football’s 7-4 campaign and
therefore faced no ramifications for his decision to keep UCLA out
of the postseason.
“When you combine those totals with other costs associated
with a bowl … We projected a loss of about $300,000,” Dalis
said in December. At the press conference when Dalis announced that
UCLA would not accept any bowl bid offered them, he said that the
$300,000 would be better spent on the $10 million Acosta renovation
project.
The football players wanted to play in a bowl game.
“I wish we could have played in a bowl game,” senior
linebacker Ryan Nece said shortly after the season. “You
can’t predict the future. UCLA may not get to a bowl game for
the next four years. This may have been the only chance for these
freshmen to play in a bowl game.”
Now come on, Pete, you’re telling me that you can’t
spare $300,000 out of a $36 million budget to reward the students
who create most of the revenue for this department?
Dalis showed his true colors when he rejected the possibility of
attending a bowl game. He told the entire UCLA community that he
was more interested in his own legacy than the well-being of the
student-athletes that he is supposed to serve.
He also told the world that mighty UCLA, despite a 1-4 landslide
to end the season, was too good for the Humanitarian Bowl. Dalis
arrogantly told the NIT the same thing by rejecting their
postseason invitation in 1987-88. The men’s baseball team
struggled to a 16-14 record, which was nothing short of
disappointment for a program with 10 national championships (at the
time). But to say that you’re better than the NIT when your
record shows that the NIT is where you belong … you go and
compete.
Bringing up these examples of arrogance and mismanagement of
power does not erase the many good things Dalis has done for this
university. But his aristocratic, distant and often arrogant way of
running the athletic department no longer fits the needs of the
UCLA community.
It seems fitting that the Dalis administration will end without
a national championship in its final year. It is evidence that this
athletic department needs a revolution, a changing of the
guard.
I have faith that Dan Guerrero will lead us back to the promised
land.
Dan, we welcome a new regime with open arms, and Pete,
don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.