1974-1975
Jeff Magnes ’75 Letter
Dear Charley and Jason,
I was a member of the [vaunted?] 1974-75 team (referenced in the Archives section of the Website), which won the NCAA Eastern Regional Tournament in the Spring of 1975, thereby qualifying us as one of only four teams eligible to compete in the NCAA Championships at UCLA in May (I think) of 1975. Although we lost both our matches in LA (actually got our asses kicked, as I recall!), simply realizing the opportunity to play in legendary Pauley Pavilion in front of 10,000 screaming fans (as compared to the 50 or so semi-loyal fans we typically entertained in our home matches at Yale!) remains to this day one of my most stirring memories of my Yale experience.
As I recall, we were a Club sport in those days, with a yearly budget of around $500–which was supposed to cover volleyballs, equipment, uniforms, and transportation (but, even in those ‘good old days,’ didn’t come close). We had only nine or ten members on the team (so we couldn’t even scrimmage six-on-six in practice), no official Coach (our Captain, Peter Krentz, ran practices and served as Coach and team representative at our matches), and grossly inferior practice facilities (two hours of court-time, three days a week, on one of the intramural basketball courts on the fifth floor of PWG).
What we did have, however, was a couple of decent athletes, an incredible love for the game, and an even stronger team spirit, spearheaded by our ingrained underdog status, some veteran senior leadership, and a couple of sophomore ‘ringers’–in the form of Floridian Mike Scholtz and Californian Andy Fishburn–interspersed amongst our otherwise pale and mostly Northeastern roster.
We ran a 6-0 offense, and played only seven players in most matches (substitution rules–as well as scoring rules–were very different than they are today). Our line-up was as follows:
Peter Krentz (Senior)* Setter
John Wren (Senior) Outside Hitter
Tom Zito (Senior) Middle Hitter
Jeff Magnes (Senior) Setter
Jim (‘Dink’) Patrick (Junior) Back-court Specialist
Andy Fishburn (Sophomore) Outside Hitter
Mike Scholtz (Sophomore) Middle Hitter
*Captain and Game Coach
I don’t believe we played a fall season in those days, so our match play didn’t begin until late winter of 1975. We played in the Eastern Volleyball League, a loose affiliation of teams including some Ivies (Harvard, Princeton, and [I think] Columbia), some Varsity Volleyball powerhouses (Penn State, Delaware, Army, Springfield), and a couple of random teams (I particularly remember our matches against New Paltz). Though the details are somewhat fuzzy almost thirty-five years later, I do remember that we had an unbelievable season, compiling a cumulative record of something like 32-2, and winning three major tournaments, including the end-of-year Eastern Championships, which propelled us to Los Angeles for the 1975 NCAA Championships.
As you might have expected, and despite our early success, we received precious little ‘official’ coverage in the Sports Section of the Yale Daily News (too many other ‘important’ winter and spring sports to cover at Yale… like basketball, hockey, and baseball–each of which teams lost 20+ games that year, I believe!). About midway through our season, however, we realized that something special was happening with this team, and we wanted to share our experience with the rest of the Yale Community. I contacted someone on the Yalie Daily and received approval to write and submit (as a temporary, unofficial reporter) several articles for the paper, chronicling the final month of our season.
Aside from the incredible experience of playing in Pauley Pavilion in UCLA–the volleyball ‘mecca’ of America–what stood out most about the NCAA Championship Tournament was the sudden, unexpected recognition we received… and (oh, yes!) the money! Seemingly instantaneously, we were transformed from an insignificant waif of a Club team with virtually no funding and even less official Yale Athletic Department support (or even acknowledgment) into the darlings of the Yale athletic community, with–at least for five days–a full athletic budget.
Per NCAA regulations, we were granted NCAA monies for fifteen people to make the trip out to LA–including airfare, hotel accommodations, and $15-a-day meal money per person!! Since there were only nine players on the team, we had several ‘open’ spots; as you might imagine, several previously indifferent and invisible Yale Athletic Officials (at least one of whom had never even see us play) immediately jumped onto that bandwagon!! In addition, two recent Yale Volleyball alums (Gary Mullin and Mike Palm), as well as our unofficial team ‘mascot’ (Amy Strage–a Barnard student, our most loyal fan, and my girlfriend at the time) accompanied us to LA, serving in the newly created capacities of Coach, Manager, and Trainer, respectively.
As Gary Mullin correctly points out in his archived letter, based on our incredible achievements in the spring of 1975, the Yale Athletic Department did indeed recognize us (although retroactively) as a Varsity Team for the ‘74 -‘75 season; we all got Varsity ‘Y’ Letters, and, I believe, the team’s Varsity status was preserved for at least several additional years, before being relegated back to its current Club status.
Jeff Magnes
‘75