Columnist Ron Kantowski: Wunder where Charlie is?

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2001 | 10:12 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column usually appears Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

It's too bad Charlie Cavagnaro, UNLV's lame duck athletic director, isn't taking calls from the media these days. I wanted to tell him to have a bratwurst and a Beck's on me.

Or at least on the taxpayers and private donors who are footing the bill for the UNLV women's basketball team's 12-day tour of Germany and selected other European destinations that commenced on Saturday.

Several UNLV sources have told the Sun that when the Lady Rebels loaded up for their trip to Bavaria, Cavagnaro and his wife, Pat, were along for the ride. Er flight. I don't know what kind of deal UNLV got from Lufthansa, but a 14-day advance, roundtrip flight from Las Vegas to Frankfurt for one adult was going for $598 on Travelocity.com Monday.

When I asked a UNLV official if it were possible that Cavagnaro was paying for the trip with his own deutsche marks, said official could hardly suppress his laughter.

If that were the case, we both surmised, why would you choose to spend 12 days traveling abroad with a bunch of women's basketball players? Not that German nationals Linda Frohlic and Petra Glaser couldn't direct you to the best place for streusel, but there are other things to do in Rhineland than watch a bunch of tall girls attempt to throw a ball through a hoop.

It should be noted that Cavagnaro isn't the first athletic administrator to take a vacation on the company nickel. It happens all the time, or at least whenever Hawaii, Tulane (situated in New Orleans) or the University of the Bahamas are on the schedule.

And sometimes, it's not the company nickels that get spent. The University of Washington president and athletic director, for instance, have been accused of violating Washington state law by using Rose Bowl funds to attend the football classic and to invite friends, family and other school employees, au gratis.

U-Dub president Richard McCormick's box at the Rose Bowl must have looked like a Volkswagen minus the clowns, in that 89 people, including his in-laws, university regents and employees; four state legislators and Washington Gov. Gary Locke and his family reportedly were on McCormick's pass list.

It can be assumed, then, that the only person not in McCormick's suite at kickoff was the Pasadena fire marshal.

Perhaps if all the Big Shots on Campus made more road trips to Laramie instead of Honolulu -- or better yet, just sent the coach and players -- maybe a lot of the athletic departments they were responsible for wouldn't be trying to offset $750,000 budgetary deficits, like UNLV is.

In this instance, about the most Cavagnaro can be accused of is faulty judgment. It just plain looks bad for an athletic department official who is on his way out to be spending money that, quite frankly, the department doesn't have, on a frivolous thing like a European vacation for two.

The irony, say sources within the department, is that Cavagnaro had to be convinced to walk across the street to watch the Lady Rebels when they were playing at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Bottom line: If National Lampoon ever decides to do "European Vacation II" it can forget the parts of Clark and Ellen Griswold and write Charlie and Pat Cavagnaro into the script instead.