Far From Finished : Despite Rocky Days With Titans, Shumard Gets Chance at Long Beach

LONG BEACH —  The term “comeback” seems intended for just this situation, tailor-made for this man. It sums up the story concisely to this point, while leaving room for battles to come.

But Bill Shumard, athletic director at Long Beach State, doesn’t appreciate that term being attached anywhere to his 25-year career, and bristles at the very suggestion he had something to come back from. Most people don’t reach the finish line of their professional lives without some adversity, Shumard quickly offers, and he’s only human.

Admittedly, though, his turbulent three-year reign as athletic director at Cal State Fullerton featured big valleys and few peaks. Still, that label won’t do for Shumard. To him, itconnotes too much . . . and not enough.

“There wasn’t a burning desire for me to get to sit [in an athletic director’s chair] again,” Shumard said. “I know what I’ve been able to accomplish in my career, and I think the record will show I’ve been pretty good at it.”

The record also shows this: On Aug. 12, Long Beach State President Robert Maxson appointed Shumard the 49ers’ 11th athletic director, removing the interim tag Shumard had carried since March.

With much support from the 49er athletic community, Shumard took the permanent helm of another athletic department a little more than two years after resigning under fire at Fullerton. Yet, Shumard refuses to view these two events as some symbolic closing of a circle that proves he is back. Shumard never felt he was gone.

However, his return to a job similar to the one that provided the worst professional experience of his life begs a question: Who is Bill Shumard? Is he, as he claims, the consensus-builder who embraces input from colleagues and who, those who know him well say, was in an unwinnable situation at Fullerton? Is he the leader who fired a former Fullerton coach with “callous disregard” to his First Amendment rights while acting with “fraud, malice and oppression,” as a jury declared? Or is he both?

Maxson believes he knows.

He hired Shumard after a national search to replace Dave O’Brien, who became athletic director at Temple in May. A 10-member committee presented Maxson with three recommendations--Shumard among them. However, a Long Beach source close to a member of the selection committee said Shumard was Maxson’s top choice all along.

On arriving at Long Beach, Maxson quickly identified Shumard as one of the people he wanted to have help him lead the university, many sources said. Shumard’s standing with Maxson was buttressed when the Pyramid exceeded the athletic department’s attendance and financial expectations in its inaugural season. Shumard was chiefly credited for creating the marketing strategy for the on-campus arena.

Since last July, Maxson had twice promoted Shumard, first from assistant athletic director to senior director of marketing and donor relations, then to assistant vice president for Long Beach university relations and development. Maxson wanted someone with a strong marketing background to fill the interim and, eventually, the permanent athletic director’s position. Shumard, 45, who learned the business during his 13 years (1975-88) as director of community services and special events for the Dodgers, was a natural fit, most assumed. Shumard wasn’t so sure.

“My career was headed in another direction,” Shumard said, “which, frankly, I was pretty excited about.”

But a groundswell of support from many 49er coaches helped persuade Shumard to accept the interim job. From there, the permanent job was a stone’s throw away.

“This university had a choice and [it] selected me,” Shumard said. “But I also had a choice whether to throw my hat in the ring. I would not just take any opportunity. I felt this was the right one. I feel like I have an opportunity to reach my potential professionally here.”

And Maxson also believed the timing was right for Shumard. He was comfortable with Shumard’s perspective on what occurred at Fullerton. He also did some checking on his own--and was convinced Shumard was right for the job.

“I’m comfortable with Bill’s explanation,” Maxson said. “The people I talked to everywhere about Bill had nothing but good comments.”

Shumard resigned at Fullerton on May 31, 1994. His troubled three-year tenure was marked by unrest among student-athletes, the termination of the football program and a losing court battle in a wrongful termination suit brought by fired women’s volleyball coach Jim Huffman.

It was the Superior Court jury in the wrongful termination suit that strongly rebuked Shumard for the firing of Huffman. The 2 1/2-year legal battle between Huffman and the Cal State University system ended July 26, 1994, when attorneys reached an out-of-court settlement. The CSU system agreed to pay Huffman $1.35 million and an additional $300,000 in attorney fees.

At the time, Shumard said he was extremely hurt by people’s perceptions of him. Although Shumard won’t say it directly, his words imply he felt abandoned by some at Fullerton.

“I take responsibility for every decision that was made in athletics,” Shumard said. “I headed the department, so that’s what happens when you sit in the chair. But those decisions weren’t made in a vacuum. It’s easy when things don’t go right to point at somebody.”

The ill feelings toward his Titan days are all but gone, Shumard said. But the lessons he learned endure.

“I’m pretty much past it,” he said. “As the time between then and now continues to grow, and I’ve had an opportunity now in the past five months to do a similar job and feel good about it, it’s less of a burden to me.

“I always wanted to be [an athletic director] and I had my first opportunity at Fullerton. My first experience with a lot of things happened to come at a very tough time in the university’s history. It was a huge learning experience for me. What I hopefully walked away from all of that with is some maturity, some patience and the opportunity to look back and see how I would want to do things differently.”

At Fullerton, though, the wounds are healing slower. Some coaches present during the Shumard years were reluctant to comment for this story. One coach, who requested anonymity, said many people in the Titans’ athletic department still have harsh feelings toward Shumard.

For his part, Shumard said he understands the criticism.

“I’ve heard those comments from people and I appreciate them,” he said. “Certainly I could have done things differently and I will in the future.”

Mel Franks, Titan assistant athletic director for media relations, acknowledged that Shumard did not have an easy job.

“Let’s just put it this way,” Franks said. “There were some things that happened at Fullerton that were out of his control.”

O’Brien, then athletic director at Long Beach, kept an eye on the Fullerton situation. He had long admired Shumard and hoped he would one day return to Long Beach, from which he had graduated in 1972.

Shumard joined Long Beach on June 10, 1994, less than two weeks after resigning from Fullerton. He was an immediate hit, and his plans to promote the Pyramid were popular as well.

Mike McGee wasn’t surprised. Shumard was an assistant athletic director at USC under McGee from 1988 to ’91.

“He has such high energy,” McGee said. “He’s one of the people in our business who loves the type of work we do and it shows on him.”

O’Brien said he knew Shumard could do the job as his successor.

“I think it’s a perfect fit,” O’Brien said. “You can look high and low across the nation and not find someone better than Bill Shumard, and he’s proving that.”

Not that there haven’t been a few bumps in this road too.

Shumard was criticized publicly by Cal State Bakersfield Coach Pat Douglass in April. Douglass, among six finalists who interviewed for the then-vacant 49er men’s basketball job, said he was under the impression the job was his. According to Douglass, Shumard assured him of this.

As with his situations at Fullerton, the public scrutiny wore on Shumard.

“You’re always sensitive to these things when they gain so much exposure,” he said. “But I also happen to know the truth and I’m very comfortable with it. Overall, the truth wins out.”

His ability to overcome and move on shows his growth since the Fullerton years, Shumard said. He has since gained a level of understanding that he didn’t bring to his previous athletic director’s job.

“I was an inexperienced A.D. at Fullerton and I might have been too young,” said Shumard, 45. “You find out little things about yourself as you mature. Things that you’d like to do better, that you’d like to change and that you’d like to improve. But the flip side of that is the last five months have really fortified what I think are my strengths.”

The growth is evident to others also.

“As a young person when he was with us, Bill was someone you could see who was going to grow and go to many different levels,” said Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president. “And any time you’re faced with adversity and tough situations you grow. I think that’s what Bill has been through.”

So Shumard has turned another page, but the story isn’t over. He isn’t sure how he would characterize where he’s been, but viewing it from a distance is better than his previous vantage point.

“The friends, the contacts, the hundreds and hundreds of people in the business know me for the breadth of my 25-year career, and they also know the factors that took place during the Fullerton situation,” Shumard said. “I needed that. I had great success in my career to that point, and that was a very humbling experience. That’s a character builder you would like to go through . . . once.”

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Profile

Name: Bill Shumard

Age: 45

Education: Graduated from Long Beach State, 1972

Occupation: Long Beach State athletic director

Salary: $98,800

Work history: Long Beach sports information director (1972-73); Cal State Los Angeles Athletic News Bureau director (1973-75); director of community services and special events for the Dodgers (1975-88); USC assistant athletic director (1988-91); Cal State Fullerton athletic director (1991-94); has held a variety of positions in athletic administration and university development at Long Beach since 1994.