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THE FIRST YEAR - The Creation of the UCSB Lacrosse Team

By Reilly Ridgell

In the fall of 1969 I enrolled at UCSB to work on a master’s degree in political science.  I had received my bachelor’s the year before from UCLA and during my senior year I had joined the lacrosse team.  I didn’t get that much playing time but I really enjoyed it.  Once at UCSB I checked the recreation office to see if they had a lacrosse team.  Before I knew it, I had been hired on work-study at a whopping $1.60 per hour (minimum wage then) to start one.  There might have been a UCSB women’s lacrosse team earlier in the 60s because I was given about 20 or so old women’s lacrosse sticks.

Announcements in El Gaucho, the daily student newspaper at the time, and flyers posted around campus began to bear fruit in the form of a slowing growing list of interested students.  One of the first to contact me was a freshman named Rob Almy.  Rob, like several of the others who would sign up, had played lacrosse at his prep school back east.  We spent a couple of hours at my house on Del Playa trying to repair the leather pockets of the women’s sticks.  Those sticks turned out to be not good for very much other than playing catch.  One good stick check and they tended to crack.  The recreation office eventually coughed up enough money to purchase sticks, helmets, gloves, and balls.  They built goals by welding pipes together as per my instructions.  An old fishing net was cut up and draped behind the goals.

In addition to Rob, there were several players that year whose names I still remember.  Rob anchored the defense and was joined by two other big players:  Randy Coates and Doug Tomson (I’m pretty sure of these names, but I could be wrong).  They averaged 6’3” and loved to hit.  I found a hockey goalie willing to convert to lacrosse named Rick Stanley.  Rick would be UCSB’s goalie for the first four years of the program and, in my opinion, deserves induction into the Hall of Fame.  That first year, he was in double digits on saves almost every game.  Many times he broke 20.  There were lots of shots on goal.

We had three good attacks.  Jeff Shields was our leading scorer.  He wasn’t spectacular but he just had a nose for getting the ball into the goal.  Bill Miesse was a very smooth stick handler and scored his share of our meager offensive output.  An interesting character named John Parten, at least I think that was his name, rounded out our attack crew.  Parten became our player-coach.  He is the most responsible for developing Rick Stanley into the excellent goalie he became that year.  Parten had a strange style.  He didn’t seem quick or especially talented, but he was the best feeder from behind the goal that I’d ever seen.  He would be working on a defenseman, nothing fancy, then all of a sudden he’d make a quick pass right on the money to an attack or a cutting middie right in front of the goal.  He devised an extra man play that utilized a double crease attack formation.  It worked well for us.  Jeff scored many of his goals from that play.

For midfield, we had a number of players.  Dave Lord was the standout there.  He was joined by John Newberry, Dr. Larry (Not sure of his last name, but he was a faculty member in the English department), Paul, whose last name I forget and who was one of Larry’s students, myself, and a very good stick handler who quit halfway through the season because he couldn’t stand losing.  I remember his name but won’t list it here.  From time to time, Rob Almy had to play midfield since he was a better stick handler than most on the team.  There were probably five or six more players whose names I don’t remember who played a few games for us at least.  I apologize to any of them who might be reading this, and to any whose names I’ve gotten wrong here.

They gave us a practice field across Isla Vista from campus near Devereux School.  Maybe it was “The Pit” since I’m not sure where that is.  We had practice games against local prep school teams and lost to one of them.  That was sobering.

The first ever “official” UCSB men’s lacrosse game took place on March 1, 1970 at what was then used as a soccer field.  The opponent was Claremont.  It was drizzling rain all day and the field was soaked.  I was happy because it was the fourth quarter and we were tied 3-3.  With time running out, a Claremont attack, working against Rob Almy, came around the goal and fired a shot that went over Rick’s shoulder into the net.  I had seen the play developing and tried to alert John Newberry to back up Rob, but it was too late. Rob was angry at himself.  We lost 4-3. My spirits were pretty good, however, because we had been competitive.  But it was downhill from there.

We were shut out by my former teammates at UCLA 11-0 in a game we played in Harder Stadium.  We were buried in turn by the Los Angeles Lacrosse Club and shut out again by the Orange County Lacrosse Club.  We lost the rematch to UCLA 12-3.  We lost games to Temple City and San Marino lacrosse clubs.  I think we lost the rematch to Claremont but I can’t remember if the game was played.  But if we played it, we lost it.

If there was one thing we did well, it was hit.  Good, hard, clean, legal hits.  Newberry laid out a Claremont player in the first game and broke his collar bone.  Tomson, Coates, and Almy made opposing attacks pay for coming across the crease.  One of the UCLA attacks complained to me of his bruised ribs, but admitted the hits were legal.  We became known for that.

The last game that season was played at UCSB on the soccer field on May 24, 1970 against the San Fernando Valley Lacrosse Club.  It was a low-scoring, close game.  But lo and behold, we earned the first ever victory for UCSB men’s lacrosse, the final score was 8-3.  I was ecstatic.  It was sweet vindication for all my hard work and the dedication of the players who didn’t give up.  It had been a tumultuous year for UCSB and Isla Vista, with the burning of the Bank of America and three separate riots.  But the lacrosse team played on and started something that grew way beyond my expectations.

I received my master’s degree in June of 1970 and left to go back to LA.  For my efforts I received an award from the Southern California Lacrosse Association for having done most for lacrosse that year.  And, of course, I was paid in work-study somewhere around $350.  I saw one game in 1971.  It was a loss but the team had more players and Rick Stanley seemed to be assuming a stronger leadership role.  I felt the team was in good hands.  And so it was.