Two of the longest-serving members of the UCLA athletic
department shifted roles last week as part of a series of changes
that are reshuffling different sections of the department.
Ed Kezirian was named the associate director of athletics for
academic and student services last week. Kezirian, who is in his
27th year at UCLA and his 14th in academics for the department,
will work in accordance with the director of student-athletic
counseling, Mike Casillas, to oversee all operations of the
athletic department’s academic standards.
Kezirian is best known in the UCLA community as “Coach
K,” the man rumbling up and down the sideline of football
games, waving his towel as the program’s symbolic good luck
charm. He worked on the Bruin football coaching staff for 13
seasons (1976-77; 1982-1992) under then-coach Terry Donahue before
serving as an academic administrator for football players.
Kezirian’s imprint on the program is a personal one. He
has been known to stand outside classes in which several football
players are enrolled and take an unofficial head count to make sure
they are fulfilling their academic duties. His towel waving has
also become a UCLA football ritual.
Kezirian, who turned 54 on Aug. 4, earned his B.A. in sociology
at UCLA in 1975. Neither he nor Casillas could be reached for
comment.
Bill Bennett, who served on the UCLA sports information staff
for 32 years, has been named the assistant director of the Wooden
Athletic Fund, an extension of the program’s fundraising
department.
“It is an opportunity to stay at UCLA and try something
different with a new set of goals,” Bennett said.
After working as a media liaison to the UCLA basketball team for
the past 22 years, Bennett will now be focusing his efforts on
extending the fundraising events for the school’s Olympic
sports.
Bennett applied for the job during the 2005-2006 academic year
and was hired primarily because of his knowledge of UCLA’s
sports programs as well as his strong relationship with many
alumni, according to Sharon Takeda, the director of the Wooden
Athletic Fund.
According to Takeda, Bennett’s departmental change is part
of associate athletic director Ross Bjork’s attempt to
specialize various jobs in the athletic department.
“Bill’s new duties were being handled by a number of
different people in the past,” Takeda said. “Now
it’s a matter of having everybody know exactly how they can
succeed in their roles and have things done efficiently.”