"…and pride goeth before a fall."

The Tide was witness to the two greatest acts of hubris in all of college Ultimate, perhaps all of Ultimate. In 1988 we hosted Nationals in Santa Barbara. The teams from the West were us and Stanford. All year Stanford had beaten us, the games were close but they always pulled them out. At Nationals we each thought it would come down to our two teams. We both steamrolled through pool play, and it certainly seemed we were headed for a finals match-up.

Having seen the level of competition in their own pool, and what we had done to our pool, and knowing that they had beaten us all year, Stanford assumed that they had won. They went so far as to have a national championship party on Saturday night, before semis on Sunday. They gave out their individual gifts and celebrated their national championship, the night before it was played.

Sunday was extremely windy, and Texas, who made it to semis with two losses, outplayed Stanford and beat them by two points. Stanford never even made it to the final game that they had already celebrated winning.

by Doug ‘Texas’ Howie

1988 UCSB Game Scores:

10/xx/87 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 U.C.San Diego 2
10/xx/87 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Mesa College 7
10/xx/87 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Pomona-Pitzer 6
10/xx/87 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 USC 7
10/xx/87 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 U.C. Berkeley 8
10/xx/87 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Stanford 8
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02/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 U.C.Santa Cruz 4
02/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Mesa College 5
02/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 San Diego State 2
02/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Occidental 3
02/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 U.C. Irvine 8
02/xx/88 Stanford 13 U.C.Santa Barbara 5
02/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 SLO 13 Semis
02/xx/88 Stanford 15 U.C.Santa Barbara 11 Finals
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03/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 U.C. Davis 13
03/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 U.C. Berkeley 13
03/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 San Jose State 5
03/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 Chabot 6
03/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 U.C.Santa Cruz 8 Semis
03/xx/88 Stanford 21 U.C.Santa Barbara 19 Finals
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SECTIONALS:
04/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 11 Cal Tech 0
04/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 11 U.C.San Diego 1
04/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 11 San Diego State 6
04/xx/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 UCLA 9
04/xx/88 SLO 15 U.C.Santa Barbara 9
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REGIONALS:
05/14/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 San Jose State 3
05/14/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Oholone 4
05/14/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Oregon 6
05/14/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Humboldt State 9 - (Quarters)
05/15/88 Stanford 15 U.C.Santa Barbara 11 - (Semis)
05/15/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 15 U.C.Santa Cruz 10 - (BD-quarters)
05/15/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 13 Chabot 11 - (BD-semis)
05/15/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 14 SLO 10 - (BD-finals)
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NATIONALS:
05/23/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Winona State 6
05/23/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Texas 10
05/23/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Kansas 10
05/24/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Carnegie Melon 10
05/24/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Weslleyan 9
05/25/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 17 Columbia 16 - (Semis)
05/25/88 U.C.Santa Barbara 19 Texas 10 – (Finals)