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UCSB LACROSSE - The Early Years

By Tom Hollen, 1975

THIS STREAM OF CONSCIOUS RAMBLING HISTORY IS INSPIRED BY THE 2001 UCSB GAUCHOS, WHO RE-KINDLED MY LOVE OF THE SPORT AND THOSE WHO PLAY IT.

I began playing lacrosse at Santa Barbara in the spring of 1972 - the year the school dropped football as an intercollegiate sport (I played on the freshmen team, didn’t make varsity the next year). I had messed with the game through high school, as my brother played college lacrosse at a small eastern private school, but had never played competitively.

It turns out I wasn’t alone. My first year we had a weird mix of first time players along with some upper-classmen who had migrated from the East Coast, as well as several faculty members who never lost their youth. Larry Badash, a Professor of History, who went, I believe to become a historian at the Smithsonian Institute, was a small, quick attackman (the last man to wear high-top black cleats in the world because he needed to, not because they looked cool). By the way, all-wooden sticks were still used - heavy as hell.

Several others are remembered from my first year, including Jack McGarrity and Jim Otis (who I played with also in 1973), and my first coach, Jim Airey (volunteer, who was in the Army).

1973 really began the renaissance of UCSB Lacrosse, with three members of the team (Rob Almy, who came to us from UCSB Crew, Gary Pakele and me) named to the All-Star team. Gary scored 4 goals and an assist in that game, I had 1 goal, and Rob was fortunate (?) enough to have to guard Jimmy Lewis (who, if I’m not mistaken, was a former Navy  All-American).

Standouts on that team included Rick Stanley (our mainstay at goalie for several years, who probably whacked more opposing attackmen than any defenseman), Jim Otis, a fabulous middie, Steve Niel and Bob Pennaro. Chris Vaughn, a transplant from Amherst, added a lot of stability. We also had a gentlemen named Alex Webb (a fine middie) on our team, who tragically lost his life during Spring Break 1973 in an auto accident. By the way, we finally got to use the new plastic headed sticks.

1973 was also a politically charged year in IV. It wasn’t uncommon to rush out of our rat-hole apartments to join a street march against the continued bombing of Cambodia during the early afternoon, ant then join our fellow peace-niks whacking each other at lacrosse practice later that day. We did have our priorities.

1974 was our breakthrough year - we won the Southern California Lacrosse League (college division). Players included Ron Buck, Chris Koch, John Morehouse, Dave Borrie, Victor Nahmias, "Buffalo" Bill Denny, Paul "The California Kid" Gavin, as well as veterans from the 1973 team. Our coach, Thom Giambattista, who had a real job as pilot for United Airlines, also occasionally played defense.

Back in the day (perhaps different from today), the league was a mix of college and Southern California club teams- teams like the LA Lacrosse Club, Orange County Lacrosse Club, etc., as well as UCLA (of course our rival), Claremont, and out of town teams like Stanford, Cal Beserk-ly, Arizona, and Northern Arizona.

Our games were reasonably well-played, and win or lose, were followed by keggers with members of both teams joining in the us-against-the-world party.

This may sound like a "wish I could do it all again" story, but no, it belonged to crazy 20 year old guys, who liked to play and party in uncertain times.

I hope the team today still likes to play and party.