Condors on D.
Note: The UPA Womens Division did not start until 1981.
The first time there was an all womens game in California was in 1977. The only Ultimate competition at that time was between a mens Ultimate team from L.A. (Foothill) and the Santa Barbara Condors. In Santa Barbara and in L.A. women played with the men at practices. This was in fact the case around the country at that time. Any women who were playing were playing coed on mens teams. At one of the L.A./S.B. get togethers in August 1977, we decided to have just the women play each other -- we had just enough on both sides to do that. Our team had about 9 women and theirs about the same. SB won. That was really a one time event. I think we had another similar situation at a mens tournament in Northern California, maybe a States tournament, where women players from the South (SB + LA) and players from the North had an informal game. I think we did this once in Santa Cruz in 1980.
Between 1978-1980, I remember players like--Lynn Tabor, Shelly Barclay, Suzanne Bingam, Ann Avery, Laura Shepherd, Dana Lewis, Chisty Ground, Cindy Bourgie, et al. At the time we pulled together the team for the 81 Regionals, the intramural teams were pretty popular; so we had lots of interest, some good basic athletic ability, but very little experience.
By 1981, we were able to gather up almost 20 women who had played at least a little Ultimate--a handful had played fairly regularly for a couple of years. Myself and Sandy Ross had played the longest and formed the team basically by putting the word out! The Womens Division in the UPA and thus the first UPA Womens National Championship didn't come about till 1981. Dark Star beat SB in the final to be the first Western Regional Champions. At a meeting in a swimming pool at Irvine in August 1981 with me, Suzanne Fields and Louie Mahoney (a woman) we proposed a womens division to the UPA coordinators (including TK).
Michele Pezzoli
Condors on D.