UW Wants To Know Who Pays Don James Extra $100,000 -- Gerberding Tightens Rules On Coach's Outside Income

University of Washington football coach Don James has been told to stop taking $100,000 a year from an unidentified group of business people and boosters until he shows the university president a copy of his contract with the group.

UW president William Gerberding said he was changing a policy to make it a requirement that athletic coaches obtain his prior written approval for any outside work, even under contracts that have been in place for years.

Past policy had been to notify the president orally but not seek his written approval.

"All of his outside income is going to be put down on a piece of paper and approved by me in advance for 1993 and subsequent years," Gerberding said yesterday.

The change comes in response to a year-old NCAA policy that requires coaches to get prior written approval from university presidents for outside income. The NCAA policy also says the pay must be for work actually performed and at the going rate for such work.

The university released records late Monday that show James made $309,000 from outside dealings last year, including the $100,000 from a group he has identified only as "endorsers," in addition to his $161,004 university salary. Release of the documents, first sought in mid-December, came only after The Times told the university it would file suit Tuesday if the records were not made public.

Gerberding said he hasn't asked James who is paying him the $100,000 a year. Gerberding said he believes it is "a group of local businessmen and Husky supporters" who wanted to add to the coach's salary, but he is not sure.

"That's right, I don't know who they are, and I'm relying on Don James' integrity to believe that it's not the Mafia or something," Gerberding said.

Gerberding also doesn't know what James does for the money, although he believes the coach makes appearances and endorses products.

"It's been in place a long time," Gerberding said of the financial arrangement. He added that the practice is common with prominent football coaches.

James refused comment. "I'm not going to say a word," he said yesterday. "I've had it pretty much to the chin line with the press."

Gerberding said James has reported previous earnings to him but not sought his approval or provided him with details. The change is part of a nationwide move by college administrators to gain more control over athletics programs and avoid conflicts of interest in business dealings by coaches.

Norm Arkans, associate vice president for university relations, said the change in university policy, requiring coaches to submit older contracts for approval, was made late last month, in the midst of a wide-ranging investigation of the university's athletic department, as the university gathered information to comply with the NCAA requirements.

James's total pay last year was $470,000, according to the records released. His outside income included $100,000 from the unidentified endorsers, $98,000 from KCPQ, $60,000 from KOMO, $25,000 from a shoe company, $8,250 from a cap company, $8,000 from an office-supply company, and $10,000 for various talks and clinics.

In a memo to athletic director Barbara Hedges, James predicted he will make as much or more outside income this year, including another $100,000 from the endorsers.

An NCAA rules expert at the UW, associate dean Richard Dunn, said yesterday he needs more information on James' pay before he can tell whether any rules are being violated.

Contracts signed and executed before Nov. 15, 1991 are exempt from the part of the NCAA rule requiring prior written approval, said Steve Mallonee, director of NCAA legislative services. Gerberding said most of James's outside earning contracts were executed before that, but said that under the new university policy James will have to submit them for approval anyway.

The closer scrutiny may raise questions about some of James' income last year. From discussions with NCAA rules experts, three possible problem areas emerged:

-- The $100,000 from the endorsers had to be for actual work performed, and if any part of that deal was not signed and executed before Nov. 15, 1991, it required Gerberding's approval. Gerberding and UW vice president Jim Collier said they didn't know if James had a written contract from the endorsers. They said James has promised to provide them with details.

-- The $10,000 from clinics and speeches last year should have been submitted for Gerberding's approval unless it all came from written contracts signed before Nov. 15, 1991. Failure to do so would violate NCAA rules, said Dunn, who is chairman of the Pac-10 Compliance Committee and member of the NCAA Committee on Infractions.

NCAA rules allow the college president to issue a blanket approval of coaches' appearance fees if they do not exceed $500, but James' usual fee is $800, and Gerberding was never asked to give his approval.

The NCAA rule also requires a coach to provide a detailed accounting of all such income at the end of the year. James has not provided an accounting. Collier said one is forthcoming.

-- James agreed in November to sign autographs on posters developed by his son-in-law, Jim Heckman, in return for 12.5 percent of gross sales with a $2,500 minimum if the venture turns a profit. He started signing the posters Nov. 27, but Gerberding did not give written permission until Dec. 24.

Gerberding's memo says he had given oral permission on Nov. 27. The NCAA rule requires advance written permission. Dunn said there would be no violation unless James was paid prior to Gerberding's letter.

Gerberding and other university officials said they also have no paperwork on James' second-largest deal involving outside income last year - $98,000 from KCPQ-TV.

Gerberding and Collier said they agreed with the purpose of the new NCAA rule, which was to allow universities tighter control over their employees' outside work. The rule was adopted by an overwhelming vote of Division I universities. Washington voted for the measure.

James' total pay last year of $470,000 was nearly four times as high as the governor's $121,000 salary. It was at least $100,000 more than Gerberding made as university president and as a board member on several corporations. And it was $85,000 higher than the next-best-paid coach at a Pac-10 public university - and more than triple the pay of Washington State University football coach Mike Price, according to a Seattle Times survey.

Gerberding was asked if James is worth it. "Well, I think he's worth the $160,000 we pay him," he said, "and as for the rest of it, that's up to the marketplace."

The average salary for a full professor with tenure at the University of Washington was $66,197 for the 1992-93 school year. The university's three Nobel Prize winners are paid between $95,000 and $150,000 salary, and its National Book Award winner is paid $80,000.

Miceal Vaughan, chairman of the university's Faculty Senate, noted that a different standard applies to professors' outside income than to coaches'.

"Each year, I have to report who it's from and what I did that warranted the amount of money I got in return," Vaughan said.

While Washington is starting to tighten its policies, some other Pac-10 universities have done so for years.

Oregon's higher education system has required athletic coaches to get advance written permission for their outside pay for at least the past 10 years, University of Oregon sports-information director Steve Hellyer said.

Coaches at Oregon State University file a single form saying how much outside pay they expect and from whom, and the form is signed by the university president.

At the University of Arizona, coaches have had to obtain prior written permission for all outside earnings since February 1990.

------------------------------------------------------------. Pac-10 Conference. football coaches' incomes. .

University Outside pay + pay = Total. . Washington $161,004 + $309,000 = $470,004. . Arizona State $205,000 + $180,500 = $385,500 (1). . UCLA $108,000 + $255,500 = $363,500. . Stanford $350,000 + $ --- = $350,000+ (2). . USC $ --- + $ --- = $ --- (3). . Arizona $141,075 + $ 75,000 = $216,075. . Oregon $117,850 (4) + $ 96,000 = $213,850. . California $ 99,750 + $ 61,000 (5) = $160,750. . WSU $ 85,000 + $ 48,000 = $133,000 (6). . Oregon State $ 86,664 + $ 26,336 = $113,000. . Source: University contracts and reports on outside athletic-related income, required by NCAA rules, as reported to The Seattle Times in a survey of Pac-10 athletic departments. . CHART NOTES:.

(1) Arizona State salary figure includes base pay of $175,000, plus performance bonus of $15,000 for season ticket sales exceeding 43,928, plus $15,000 for running summer football camp. .

(2) Stanford, as a private university, refused to provide any pay information. Coach Bill Walsh's salary was widely reported as $350,000 last year. The San Jose Mercury News quoted two unidentified sources as saying a booster club added $500,000 a year, but Stanford strongly denied the report. .

(3) USC, as a private university, refused to provide any pay information. .

(4) Oregon coach's pay includes $97,850 salary as football coach plus $20,000 for serving as athletic director. .

(5) Cal coach's outside pay will be $61,000 per year for two years and then $75,000 per year for three years under a 1992 contract for TV, radio and booster appearances. .

(6) WSU Coach Mike Price's outside pay includes $38,000 from radio and TV, $5,000 from summer camps, and about $5,000 from clinics and speaking, according to athletic director Jim Livengood.