Hall of Fame
When the Department of Athletics was the new kid on the block in the fall of 1984, newly-appointed Director of Athletics Dr. Reg Price was a jack of all trades.
Now, the current Grand Junction, Colo., resident doesn’t admit that he ran the popcorn machine, took tickets and helped the university’s trainers in a pinch, but one of his favorite stories is a beauty.
“We’d gone through the process of working pretty hard for eight straight months on getting as organized as we could be,’’ said Price, who was handed the reins of the athletic department when the decision was made to bring intercollegiate athletics into the university’s fold. “Every day was key and it all paid off when I picked up the men’s soccer uniforms on a Friday and we opened the season at home the following day.’’
It was an inauspicious beginning to what has become a nationally-recognized Division II athletic program. For his efforts in building CSUSB athletics, Dr. Reg Price is honored among the second class of inductees into the Coyote Athletics Hall of Fame.
Price stepped onto the CSUSB campus for the first time in the fall of 1978 when he became the department chair and associate professor in the Department of Physical Education. The former professor, and wrestling and cross country coach at MacMurray College in Illinois, Price fully recalls the day when he was asked to become the university’s first athletic director.
“On January 4, 1984, I was offered the position after the VP of Academic Affairs put together a 10-person committee that fall to study the feasibility to put in athletics,’’ he said. “I was a member of the committee and when they found out I had AD and coaching experience, they offered me the position, which would be half time.
“So, I became the AD, taught classes and was the chair of the P.E. Department.’’
Price held the post through 1991, but in Year 4 of the athletic plan, the Coyotes struck gold. That year the Coyotes won 74.4 percent of their games and seven of the 14 teams received invitations to participate in NCAA Division III regional or national championships and/or were nationally ranked in NCAA polls.
That year men’s soccer reached the D3 Final Four; volleyball placed second in the regional to eventual national champion UC San Diego; men’s basketball finished the season ranked 19th in the country and led the nation in scoring and rebounding; women’s basketball finished fourth in the West Region; baseball, in just its second season of existence, ranked 9th nationally; softball finished fifth in the West Region; men’s golf placed third nationally; and men’s tennis sent Tim Streck to the national championship tournament.
All of that occurred in NCAA Division III, which does not permit athletic scholarships.
That success would take place inside four years is nothing short of amazing.
“By having nationally recognized success in a short amount of time was really quite an accomplishment, especially when you consider that we were a late bloomer,’’ he said. “To build it regionally and nationally and to chip away at what was a real tough nut to crack— having local high schools realize that we were for real – took time. The first few years were difficult, no question, but over time athletics have done very well at Cal State San Bernardino.’’
