Bruin Star Raising Questions : Softball: MVP Harding leaves after short stay and NCAA title. She will skip final exams.

As UCLA celebrated its unprecedented eighth NCAA women’s softball title, others in the sport’s close-knit world were quietly fuming.

The object of their anger was Tanya Harding, UCLA’s star player, who didn’t arrive from Australia until the 21st game of a 56-game season, led the Bruins (50-6) to the championship, then said she would return home next week to join her national team. Her departure would be two weeks before the quarter ended.

Although UCLA presumably did not violate NCAA rules by admitting Harding, 23, last March, some coaches are upset over what they perceive to be a breach of sportsmanship and fair play. To them, she was little more than a hired gun.

Harding’s situation, however legal, illustrates the often-unstable marriage between academics and athletics. She is not the first foreign athlete to arrive on a campus, only to leave shortly after helping a school to a successful season. Andrew Gaze, a former Australian Olympian, stayed at Seton Hall for six months and led the school to the NCAA basketball final in 1989 before returning to his club team in Melbourne after the Final Four.

David Price, associate commissioner of the Pacific 10 Conference, addressed the question rhetorically: “Is it a flaw in the system? Probably.

“Is it legal? Yes.”

Some Pac-10 coaches were so concerned that they complained to conference administrators when Harding arrived March 22 at the end of the winter quarter. She played her first game March 27, against Washington. Harding said she was registered for two history classes and a biology class, taking the NCAA-mandated minimum of 12 hours of credit to be eligible. Now, she will depart for Brisbane, Australia, before even taking final exams in those classes.

As UCLA advanced toward the NCAA title, won with a 4-2 victory over Arizona in the final Monday, Harding was the focus of behind-the-scenes talk at the recently concluded Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

“I don’t know what we’d do in the same situation if we had an awesome person come here,” said assistant coach Pam Lee of Iowa, which was eliminated by UCLA in the semifinals. “I thought that women’s athletics wasn’t like the men’s win-at-all-costs. But I guess it is.”

Harding was a prize U.S. coaches pursued in 1991 when she graduated from high school. She initially signed a letter of intent to attend UCLA in ‘92, but, according to Judith Holland, the Bruins’ associate athletic director, kept the school on hold for two years.

Harding, already a star on the junior world circuit, opted immediately after high school in Australia to spend a season in New Zealand, rather than come to America. She then was hired as a teller for ANZ Bank in her hometown of Brisbane and worked and played softball, all the while fending off offers to play in America.

Harding arrived in Westwood in time for barely half of the softball season and wound up as the most valuable player in the College World Series. Her pitching record was 17-1, including 4-0 and a 0.50 earned-run average during the series. She batted .500 in Oklahoma City.

“We were trying to recruit her, but to come as a student,” said Judi Garman, Cal State Fullerton’s coach. “But she wasn’t willing to come for the whole year.”

Holland said UCLA followed the rules in bringing Harding here.

But Harding’s priority was clear: She was using U.S. intercollegiate competition as preparation for the Australian team that will play in the first Olympic softball tournament at Atlanta next summer. That meant returning home as soon as possible after UCLA’s season, because the Olympic team will be selected on the basis of play in this summer’s international events.

And it also seemed to mean that academics had a low priority, although Co-Coach Sue Enquist said Harding would make up her final exams in the summer, when she is in Los Angeles with the Australian National team.

“We want her home now,” said Bob Crudgington, national team coach, also contacted in Brisbane. “She is too valuable a player.”

Crudgington, who also coached Harding on the Queensland state team, said Softball Australia arranged the booking for her flight to Los Angeles, and planned to have her return in early June to begin training for the Olympics. UCLA officials said they weren’t clear on exactly how Harding paid for the expensive airfare from Australia, but said they assumed she paid for the trip herself.

Enquist, who shares UCLA’s coaching duties with Sharron Backus, said she knew Harding had commitments with the national team and that she might leave school early. But Enquist would not say when Harding told her she had no intention of staying for the entire quarter.

Further complicating the issue is Harding’s future status. UCLA listed her as a junior, but because of NCAA age rules, she had only one season of eligibility available. The NCAA takes away a year’s eligibility for every year an athlete older than 20 participates in a season of organized competition.

Holland said UCLA will appeal for an extra year of eligibility this summer, should Harding wish to return. The appeal will be based on a rule change that starts the process at 21 instead of 20.

Whether the appeal is necessary remains to be seen. After first agreeing to an interview Tuesday evening at her Westwood apartment, Harding recanted.

“I called the school to make sure it was all right for me to talk to you and they told me it was against the rules,” Harding said.

Saying she did not want Harding to be bothered hours after her triumphant return from Oklahoma City, Holland said: “With the current furor, I think she has lost her taste for all this. I think she is being run out.”

Even though she was not planning to stay for the entire quarter?

“So what?” Holland said. “It’s not unusual for people who need to be off for something to leave school early . . . as long as we make proper arrangements for them.”

Times staff writer Paige A. Leech contributed to this story.