In 1989 the two strongest teams were again Santa Barbara and Stanford, but the unknown quantity was Berkeley. They had split games with Stanford and somehow avoided playing us all year. At Regionals, Berkeley assumed they were going to Nationals. Before the Regional tournament began they had already bought their airline tickets to Nationals, and rented a beach house in North Carolina. They lost the Regional final to Stanford and then had to play us in the back-door game to go.

The game didn’t start until very late and again it was a slow game because of windy conditions. At 8-8 the game was capped because the sun had already set and it was quickly getting dark. They scored to go up 9-8. We turned it over, and they had the disc on the goal line but couldn’t punch it in due to a spectacular block by Jared Tausig in the back of the endzone. (That play was a mixed blessing for Jared. In making that block he trashed his knee so badly that he couldn’t play the rest of Regionals).

We worked it down and scored, 9-9. They turned over their first pass on the next point, and we punched it in to send them home. Stanford took their airline tickets, and the next morning Doug the Bum called the real estate agent and took their beach house.

It re-affirms one's belief in the fundamentally ironical nature of reality when people who are so richly deserving of a kick in the head get what’s coming to them. It is a gratifying bonus to be the agent of that head-kicking.

The next year, 1990, we almost completed the West Coast trifecta. Early in the year we ordered some national champion shirts. They were supposed to say "National Champions 1988, 1989", instead they said "National Champions 1988-1990". Since this was January of 1990 we seemed to have gone down the same road as Stanford and Berkeley before us. The only thing that saved us was that we absolutely refused to wear them until the season was over, no matter what happened. I think Zippy wore his a few times underneath his playing jersey, but they never saw the light of day until we made it true.

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Eligibility:
The only eligibility requirement for playing college Ultimate this year was that you enroll in at least 8 units for either Winter or Spring quarter. The 5 year rule had not been put into effect yet. Stanford had to drop a player that was no longer enrolled in school from their roster at Nationals. Everyone on the Tide was enrolled full-time in 1989. In fact, we could have had an even better team that year since JK was eligible to play as well (getting his teaching credential), but he decided he didn't want to play since the spirit of college Ultimate was to let the younger players get the glory.
Garrett Headley

1989 UCSB Game Scores:

01/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara xx xxxxxxxxxxxx xx
01/xx/89
01/xx/89
01/xx/89
01/xx/89
01/xx/89
01/xx/89
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02/xx/89 ??????
02/xx/89
02/xx/89
02/xx/89
02/xx/89
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03/xx/89 ??????
03/xx/89
03/xx/89
03/xx/89
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SECTIONALS:
04/xx/89 ??????
04/xx/89
04/xx/89
04/xx/89
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REGIONALS:
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara ?? Humboldt ??
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara ??
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara ??
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara ?? - Quarters
05/xx/89 Stanford 15 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 - (Semis)
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 SLO 14 - (BD Semis)
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara 10 Berkeley 9 - (BD Finals)
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NATIONALS:
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Tufts 11
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Texas 9
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 U Penn 8
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Kansas 10
05/xx/89 Columbia 17 U.C.Santa Barbara 9
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara 18 Carnegie Mellon 15 - (Semis)
05/xx/89 U.C.Santa Barbara 23 Stanford 21 – (Finals)