National Fitness Foundation

Beset by fund-raising difficulties, officials of a major U.S. Fitness Academy proposed for south Orange County have sharply scaled back plans for the facility. Former professional football coach George Allen and other officials of the nonprofit National Fitness Foundation told The Times they were abandoning a largely unsuccessful effort to raise $50 million to build a single ambitious building near Laguna Niguel.

Cal State Long Beach is expected to announce today that former Ram coach George Allen will accept the football coaching job at the university, a source said Monday night. The university has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. Allen met with 49er Athletic Director Corey Johnson over the weekend, but apparently no agreement could be reached at the time. Salary reportedly was one problem, since no 49er football coach has ever been paid more than $60,000.

The county Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to spend another $35,000 to complete paper work for the national physical fitness academy to be built in Aliso Viejo. The expenditure will boost the total spent by the county for that project to nearly $105,000. The facility is planned as a training site for coaches and physical fitness instructors of youth and senior citizens.

Former Ram Coach George Allen said Monday he turned down an offer to coach football at Cal State Long Beach, prompting university officials to scramble for an alternative candidate in time for today's scheduled 2 p.m. news conference. "I think I could have helped the school, but I have not accepted the job," Allen said from his office at the National Fitness Foundation in El Segundo. Allen met with 49er Athletic Director Corey Johnson over the weekend, but no agreement could be reached.

George Allen, who has given up locker room peptalks for speeches in corporate boardrooms, is facing his toughest challenge. Allen, former coach of NFL Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Rams, has changed his focus since becoming Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness. He is now devoting his time to making American children more physically fit.

When George Allen moved his National Fitness Foundation out of Indianapolis in 1985, he left behind the cornerstone for what he hoped would be the first national fitness academy, a unique center for the coaches who train America's young athletes. Three years and millions of dollars later, the cornerstone, still unused in Indianapolis, is all that has been built of Allen's pet project.

Former Rams football coach George Allen, who thinks young Americans don't exercise enough, is making sure that some preschool children in Hawthorne and Hermosa Beach continue their early introduction to physical fitness. The children attend Hippety Heart's Gyms in those cities, where they learn motor skills and health awareness. But last week, the truck storing their portable gym equipment was stolen.

Aliso Viejo beat out Malibu. And it came in first over Texas. After a lengthy process, a plan for a $50-million national fitness academy in Aliso Viejo cleared its last major hurdle. The California Coastal Commission voted Thursday to approve the complex of sports fields, swimming pool, tennis courts, 300-person dormitory and classrooms to be used as a training camp for coaches and physical fitness teachers. The public also will have access to some of the facilities during certain hours.

The first United States Fitness Academy, a national training headquarters and research center for coaches and physical education instructors, will be built on a 175-acre site in the Aliso Viejo area of Orange County. Former pro football coach George Allen, chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, announced the selection during a press conference Wednesday at the Century Plaza.

An ambitious plan to build a private, $30-million U.S. Fitness Academy was dealt a severe setback Friday when Orange County officials let expire a lease option on 175 acres in Laguna Niguel because the plan's backers had raised too little money for the training facility. The county had intended to lease the undeveloped land at a cost of only $1 a year. The academy, proposed as a training facility for the nation's coaches, was the idea of George Allen, former National Football League coach.