Long Beach State Drops Ailing Football Program

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Long Beach State's financially strapped football program, plagued by a lack of fan support, is being dropped immediately, the university announced yesterday.

The 49ers fielded their first football team in 1955 and became a Division I team in the early 1970s.

The school may bring back the program, which was Division I-A, on a lesser scale - Division I-AA - in 1993.

Long Beach State president Curtis L. McCray said Long Beach State, a member of the Big West Conference, simply could not raise the funds to keep its football team competitive at the I-A level.

The 49ers, coached by Hall of Famer Willie Brown, had a 2-9 record this season and an average home attendance of just 3,893 this season.

They had shown a brief resurgence the previous year, posting their first winning season (6-5) in four years under George Allen. But even then, their home games at 12,500-seat Veterans Stadium drew an average of just 4,900.

Allen died last Dec. 31 and was succeeded by Brown, who had been an assistant on his staff.

"It has not been an easy decision and by no means one we wanted to make," McCray said in a statement. "However, given the current state of the economy and the projections we have heard from state officials, the recommendation presented to me by acting athletic director Dave O'Brien to drop football and look to bring the program back as early as 1993 is the only realistic choice."

Howard on probation

-- WASHINGTON - The NCAA has placed Howard University's football program on probation for two years and barred it from postseason competition next year.

But the NCAA said the sanctions could have been worse if the school hadn't triggered the probe that prompted the penalties.

The penalties stem from player eligibility and student-aid violations under former coach Willis Jeffries, the NCAA said.

In addition to the bowl game ban, the school also will lose two football scholarships each of the next two years and the program will give up 10 of its 70 paid recruiting visits for a year, the NCAA's Committee on Infractions ruled.

McNeely at Idaho St.

-- POCATELLO, Idaho - Brian McNeely has said for three years how much he loves playing football at Idaho State University's Holt Arena, and now it is his home field as the new head football coach.

McNeely, 34, the Garden City Community College, Kansas, coach who became acquainted with the arena by participating in the Real Dairy-Centennial Bowl there, was introduced yesterday as the Bengals' 21st football coach.

Idaho State officials announced Nov. 25 that Garth Hall's contract as Bengal coach would not be renewed.

Bogan to attend UW

-- Curtis Bogan, a 6-foot-5, 208-pound senior at Renton High School, yesterday said he would accept a football scholarship from the University of Washington.

Bogan, recruited as a defensive end, is the first player to announce his intention to enroll at Washington next year.

Bogan said he made his decision after his official recruiting visit to Washington last week.

Notes

-- Vanderbilt's Gerry Dinardo and Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer will coach the South, while George Perles of Michigan State and Jim Sweeney of Fresno State were named to direct the North in the Blue-Gray all star game in Montgomery, Ala., on Christmas Day. -- Florida State junior Eric Turral has been reinstated to the team for the Cotton Bowl against Texas A&M under conditions described as "last chance" by coach Bobby Bowden.

However, under terms of his reinstatement, Turral will go to the bottom of the depth chart at receiver. -- A football player given a second chance at Missouri Southern State College after serving a four-year prison sentence for drug dealing has been charged with burglary.

Marques Rodgers, 24, was charged in Newton County Associate Circuit Court with attempting to steal a safe from a Joplin motel Saturday.