Travails with Charlie

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Dec. 28, 2001 | 10:06 a.m.

Reviewing Cavagnaro's reign

Notable events in Charles Cavagnaro's stint as UNLV athletic director:

PRO

1. Athletic graduation rate increased from 23 percent to 46 percent.

2. Added three women's sports to bring UNLV in line with Title IX gender equity requirements.

3. Hired John Robinson as head football coach and Regina Miller as women's head basketball coach.

CON

1. "Monkeygate." School conducted an internal investigation into allegations that Cavagnaro made racial and sexist slurs about Rebel athletes. Many who say they heard him make those comments refused to speak up, fearing retribution, and wonder why the school didn't hire an independent outside counsel to handle the investigation.

2. NCAA basketball probation in 2000 that led to the dismissal of head coach Bill Bayno, and the clumsy pursuit of Rick Pitino as his possible replacement.

3. Insufficient fund-raising. "He did zero," said one UNLV coach.

New Year's Day has always held a special significance in John Robinson's life.

While head football coach at USC, he went 4-0 in Rose Bowl games played on that date. He also played -- briefly -- in the 1958 Rose Bowl as a member of the Oregon Ducks.

On Jan. 1, 2002, Robinson will officially take over a job that he already has been doing behind the scenes for several months, becoming UNLV's eighth athletic director.

Robinson, 66, takes over for Charlie Cavagnaro, who was forced into an early retirement earlier this year but will be spending the next six months as a special assistant to school president Dr. Carol Harter, collecting what remains of a base salary of $148,000 per year.

Robinson takes over an athletic program in dire need of some big-time fund-raising as well as a big boost in morale. Coaches and athletic department personnel interviewed by the Sun called Cavagnaro "aloof" and "lazy."

"Basically, he'd hand you your budget and it was up to you to do your own fund-raising," said one coach who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He did zero fund-raising. You hardly saw him around."

Robinson will also continue in his role as head football coach. He is the only man in Division I to serve in both capacities.

Robinson inherits an athletic program that has a $14.6 million budget, has doubled its graduation rate in six years under Cavagnaro and is closing in on almost 50-50 balance between men and women's student-athlete opportunities under Title IX gender equity requirements.

Even though he doesn't officially begin his dual role until Tuesday, Robinson is already off and running in his fund-raising duties, having garnered a $1 million donation from the family of the late Ernie Becker Sr. That money will be spent on a state-of-the-art artificial turf practice field that is expected to be installed at Rebel Park in time for spring football practice.

Robinson also received a $500,000 donation from Palms owner George Maloof, which was used to upgrade the strength and conditioning facility at the Lied Athletic Complex.

"The expansion of the facilities that we want to do has to come from fund-raising," Robinson said. "I have to go out and raise a lot of money because there are a lot of things that we want to do.

"Our facilities are good right now but the thing that happens in all of this is unless you are actively fund-raising and campaigning to get better, you fall behind. Then you work just to catch up. You saw that at (USC). They built Heritage Hall, which was at the top at the time. Now all of a sudden Heritage Hall is at the bottom (of Pac-10 facilities)."

Two goals on Robinson's immediate radar are to build an academic resource building on the edge of Rebel Park and to create a park-like atmosphere around UNLV's Olympic sports facilities.

"The primary thing is the academic center," Robinson said.

"I think we need to do a better job of helping our athletes succeed in school and make it so that their place to study and do research is close by. It would cost about five or six million dollars and we'd build it right here on the edge of the (Rebel Park) practice field. I want it to become more of a social place for everybody.

"Another thing I see us doing is taking over that whole area over to the new softball stadium and making it a lush, nice place. Spring sports need a big boost. I've always had this idea (but) I couldn't get anybody at SC to ever want to do it ... that you'd have something like a Saturday county fair. You'd pay $5 and you could get into any event. You could go see a softball game in the morning, a football scrimmage in the afternoon and then maybe go see a baseball game after that. A family could come down and make a day out of it."

Robinson said he also wants to give UNLV athletics a bigger role in the community, whether it's football players delivering presents to an adopted family for Christmas or putting up souvenir stands in shopping areas that specialize in selling Rebel merchandise.

"The most important thing to me is that we improve the culture, the enthusiasm and the fun in our athletic department," Robinson said. "We need to provide an atmosphere here where when an athlete comes in for a (recruiting) visit he goes home and says, 'Wow, that was nice. I had a great time. The facilities were great and the people were great.' ... If we can achieve that kind of atmosphere and environment here, we're going to succeed."

Harter is confident Robinson is the right man for the job.

"I have no doubt that John will be able to bring people together," she said. "He's very outgoing and warm and articulate. He's very driven. He sees the need to raise funds and increase community support."

But can he do it while also elevating UNLV's football program to Top 25 status?

His predecessor thinks so.

"I think time management is the issue," Cavagnaro said upon agreeing to a rare interview, in which he refused to discuss the events leading to his resignation. "If he can find about three extra hours in the day, he'll be in business. And I think he has good people around him, so that shouldn't be a problem."

"Obviously, it's going to be demanding," Robinson said. "I intend to do both jobs. I see the athletic director's job more as a leadership job. I have people who can handle the administrative tasks. What I need to do in this position is to lead, to help people. It's a people job. I can lead ... and I'm going to do that in this job."