BY WENDY SODERBURG
UCLA Today Staff
It’s been only six months, and already
Athletic Director Dan Guerrero has had to step up to the plate.
When he took the reins of the UCLA Athletic
Department on July 1, replacing the retiring Pete Dalis, Guerrero
was well aware of the pressure to excel at a university like
UCLA, which leads the nation with 87 national championships
and 108 conference titles.
So he watched closely as UCLA’s football
team finished the 2002 season with another stinging loss to
USC — its fourth in a row — and a lopsided defeat
by Washington State. He knew he’d have to make a change,
and he responded by firing seven-year Head Football Coach Bob
Toledo.
Guerrero’s hiring of former Bruin wide
receiver Karl Dorrell, who previously served as wide receivers
coach for the Denver Broncos, was applauded as a bold move.
“I believe that Karl is the man who can build UCLA football
to the elite level,” Guerrero said. “The fact that
he enjoyed an outstanding career as a Bruin player gives him
an appreciation for what a special place UCLA is.”
An alumnus himself, Guerrero understands that
feeling. Born in Tucson, Ariz., he was 4 when his family moved
to the blue-collar town of Wilmington, Calif. He became an All-City
baseball player at Banning High School and played second base
for UCLA for four years, from 1969-1973. His Pac-8 batting average
was a sizzling .343, and he was inducted into the UCLA Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1996.
A torn hamstring at the end of his senior year
prevented Guerrero from being drafted into the major leagues,
so he embarked on an unusually diverse career path. He played
baseball in the Italian major leagues; worked for John S. Gibson
Jr., councilman for the 15th District where Guerrero grew up;
started a successful development corporation that solicited
grants from the state and federal governments to provide services
to residents of the Los Angeles Harbor area; and earned a master’s
degree in public administration at Cal State University, Dominguez
Hills (CSUDH).
Guerrero taught classes in CSUDH’s School
of Management and also served as associate athletic director
until 1992, when he became UC Irvine’s athletic director.
He guided the athletic department through difficult financial
times, convincing UC Irvine’s students to pass a referendum
that provided scholarship funding for all sports and rallying
record-setting financial support from the campus administration
and external community.
Here at UCLA, Guerrero said he wants to continue
the push that Dalis made toward improving facilities, including
completing the Acosta Athletic Training Center, upgrading Drake
and Easton stadiums and improving Pauley Pavilion’s spectator
amenities.
“UCLA is where I belong,” Guerrero
said firmly. “I can remember when I wore those four letters
across my chest, there was a bond that I had with Jackie Robinson
and Rafer Johnson and all those people who were great Bruins.
They were my great Bruins, and I feel once again that I am a
part of that.”
