Bruin Backers Apparently Play Key Role : They’re Reportedly Behind Hazzard’s Ouster, Offer Five Candidates

The somewhat sudden firing of Walt Hazzard as UCLA’s basketball coach Wednesday afternoon wasn’t really very sudden at all, according to a number of sources who, in various interviews Wednesday night, described a scenario of hectic activity and alumni involvement in the last three weeks.

Among the events taking place behind the scenes was the formation of a group of powerful and wealthy backers whose goal it was to raise sufficient funds to buy out the final two years of Hazzard’s contract. Other sources familiar with UCLA’s fiscal operations said that no buyout would be needed, that Hazzard’s payoff would simply be a line in the budget, and that any fund raising would more likely be geared to providing contract bonuses and extras for a new coach.

This group of boosters reportedly took its money and desires to Chancellor Charles Young, but what impact this had on the decision made Wednesday by Young and Athletic Director Peter Dalis is unknown. In fact, when Dalis was asked about this very scenario earlier Wednesday, he denied it ever existed.

“It never happened,” he said.

Sources said the following did occur:

--Sometime during the last three weeks, a list of five recommended replacement candidates was made by this influential group and presented to Young.

--The names on the list were, in order of preference, Lute Olson of Arizona, Jim Valvano of North Carolina State, Larry Brown of Kansas, Paul Westhead of Loyola Marymount and Jim Harrick of Pepperdine.

--Both Valvano and Brown had contacted UCLA officials in recent weeks to inquire about the job, and one request Brown made was that, were he to be hired to return as UCLA’s coach, he would request that one of his assistants, Ed Manning, father of current Kansas All-American Danny Manning, be brought with him.

A further scenario, according to these sources, was inspired by Valvano’s current dual capacity as coach and athletic director, and his high salary for both jobs: It had Valvano coming to UCLA in both capacities, and Dalis, well regarded at UCLA, moving higher into the administrative structure at the university. Other sources said the Valvano-as-athletic-director scenario would not wash because it would alienate Terry Donahue, UCLA’s highly successful football coach.

The major speculation seemed to center on Brown and Valvano, and there were two schools of thought on Brown, who was the last to coach the Bruins into the Final Four and who has his Kansas team there right now.

One was that alumni and booster pressure is so strongly in favor of Brown that the job will eventually be his, and he will welcome an offer. The other was that Brown is not particularly liked by Young and Dalis.

“Chancellor Young is on the fence on Larry Brown,” one source said, “and everybody is waiting to see which way he leans.”

Young was chancellor at the school when Brown was the coach (1979-81) and Dalis, while not athletic director at the time, was a member of the selection committee that interviewed candidates for the basketball coaching job.

In the midst of all the rumors and swirls of contradiction, one thing was clear: At the end of this basketball season, Hazzard had little or no chance of keeping his job. According to one source, he was offered a spot as an associate athletic director but turned it down because it would have nullified the shoe contract and corresponding payment he gets as UCLA basketball coach.

“Chuck Young has said it a number of times in the last few months,” one source said, “and that was that it was his mistake to renew Walt’s contract last year.”