Hall of Fame: John O'Brien

How It Started

John O’Brien spent most of his youth in the pool whether it was competitively swimming or playing water polo. He transitioned into playing with the ball when he was 12 or 13 years old when his brother reached high school and started competing in the sport. O’Brien, who was a good swimmer growing up, did not necessarily care for the sport. Once he was part of a team environment, he fell in love with it.

“It (swimming) was one minute of excitement crammed into a four hour ordeal, but water polo was a team sport and there was an objective. Swimming was just an ancillary part of the game.”

The Obvious Choice

Coming to UC Irvine was one of the easiest decisions for O’Brien to make. His older brother attended UCI, so John was exposed to the program and the culture that Ted Newland created while he was only a sophomore in high school. 

At UCI, Newland created a culture not just about winning, but one that built character in young men. That was what truly attracted John to the program. 

Rival coach Peter Catino of California tried to sneak into O’Brien’s ear to convince him to go play in Berkeley, but John stayed committed to Newland.

Looking back on his time at UC Irvine, all John feels is the love he had for. He admires how great of an academic institution and diverse environment that UCI was, truly appreciating everything that the school taught him outside of the pool.

One Big Family

Playing for UC Irvine was a comfortable feeling for John. A stellar player, the goalkeeper knew a bunch of Anteaters prior to his arrival on campus as he played with them on the Junior National Team. 

“I was already friendly with them, but it was great to get together and play with them again.”

Newland tried to make it feel like more than just a team and instilled a real sense of family into the boys. Playing under Ted made you invest in him and his teams. O’Brien recalls that Newland’s former players who either played at UCI or other institutions would come back to check on the program and even play with the current players over the summer. These invested members of the water polo community kept coming back year after year not only to see how the team was doing, but to help pass down knowledge and experience to these young athletes. The transfer of information became an institution of the program and part of the foundation the late head coach built the culture on.

Melting Pot Of Talent

When speaking about the 1982 championship squad, O’Brien kept lamenting on how special and unique the team dynamic was. The members of the team came from a broad breath of talent, where there were guys who were exceptional at sprinting or playing at 2-meter just blended together so well. There were times where there were a couple of guys out for injury, but somehow the team would fill the gap to allow the team to stay undefeated.

“There were a couple of times where I didn’t think we were going to win and then someone just stepped up and that is just how the team was.”

O’Brien also noted that the team was just truly committed to the outcome of the game. There was nobody on that team who was seeking the glory and the recognition.

Deep Seeded Rivalry

While not in the same conference as the ‘Eaters, the California Golden Bears were always UC Irvine’s unspoken rivals. Earlier on in the championship season, UCI played Cal to a 2-1 victory in Berkeley. Despite how tight and defensive the match-up was, O’Brien was never worried about his team’s fight to win that game. 

When it came to the NCAA tournament, the Anteaters had never beaten California, losing to them all four times they were pitted against each other. Catino was an exceptional coach of the Golden Bears and he really knew how to get his players to play which proved challenging for Newland’s squad several times. Defeating Cal in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament held a different sentiment to the soon to be reigning national champions as it was one of the biggest hurdles they had to jump over all season.

Championship Mentality

The late head coach Newland drilled the “defense wins championships” principle into each one of his teams and this phrase had a different effect on John as he was the last line of defense. During practices, focus was placed a lot on defensive sets and what the help defense looked like. 

“When I make a mistake, it is pretty apparent since it ends up in the back of the cage, but it was my goal to cover the mistakes made before that.”

O’Brien reflected on those close, higher scoring one-point games and how it felt like you, as the goalkeeper, did not do enough in your job. 

The mentality during the regular season shifted ever so slightly, but the fight stayed the same. UCI felt confident in their abilities when it came to the tournament run as they had already beaten everyone once during the regular season. The Anteaters became extremely focused on playing their game, feeling like they could beat any opponent that way and it proved to be true. No one wanted to make it to the championship tournament undefeated just to lose their first game all year.

The boys pulled out gritty wins over Cal in the semifinals to defeat Stanford to in the final to not only become the national champions, but to keep their perfect season intact. Both O’Brien was selected to be a First Team All-American and was named the NCAA Tournament Co-Outstanding Player alongside the late Peter Campbell. 

After winning the title game, there was no large celebration on the pool deck because they did not want to share their win with anyone else.

"Winning the national championship is what we set out to do, so it was more about the satisfaction of accomplishment then a continued celebration.”

The squad did not play and persevere through the challenges they faced all season to be largely celebrated or acknowledged by the campus. Each member of that team wanted to play for themselves and each other. 

Life Beyond The Pool

After leaving UC Irvine, O’Brien played water polo until 1984, but immediately went into a career in the hotel business. He started to realize that the job he was working was not what he wanted to do with his life, so he started to explore his options. Following in his father’s footsteps, John decided to join the Marine Corps where he served the United States for 24 years. O’Brien credits this decision as one of the “best” in his life.

During his time in the Marine Corps, John was deployed overseas for several missions. The lessons of perseverance and taking more than you think you can handle where both learned in the pool at UC Irvine and John was able to carry that knowledge to his time in the combat field. The retired Lieutenant Colonel shared that the fourth hour of practice, swimming laps, or the weight room taught you a lot about what you can endure and helps to build the mental fortitude to complete the job. 

Through his service to his country, John was awarded several accolades, but the highest honor he achieved was the self-gratification from leading marines.

After the completion of his active-duty military career, John went into the commercial real estate profession, and he can thank his former teammates for that. While he was still in school some of the former Anteaters went into commercial brokerage, a career that always peaked O’Brien’s interest. His first job in the real estate field was in brokerage before he transitioned into the development side of real estate. 

Currently, John works for Nvidia Incorporation as the VP of Real Estate where he manages a team of almost 400 people globally. While he loves the real estate aspect of his job, it is much more than for the former goalkeeper. The joy he gets in his role comes from leading people. When asked about the reason he enjoys leading people, he said is all about personal satisfaction for him.

“I enjoy developing young people into solid leaders. I would say that it is a disappearing art in today’s society.”

 Shaping Up

Through all stages of his life there have been several people who helped shape John into who he is today. 

“Through all aspects of my life I always sought out people I respect for the ways they conduct themselves through business and seeking guidance.”

The late Newland remained a constant role model for John in his life leading up to when he had passed away. Joe Vargas, older brother to national champion and First Team All-American John Vargas, played a large role in O’Brien’s early navigation of the real estate field. Joe Vargas was an esteemed real estate expert who taught O’Brien the ins and outs of the job.

In his current position with Nvidia, COO Deb Shelquist mentored John in his quest of the corporate field and is an amazing corporate executive along with CEO Jenson Huang who John says is one of those “rarities” as a person.

Getting The Band Back Together

Although water polo has become a very distant memory for John, his former teammates are like brothers to him. The crew tries to gather at least once a year around the holidays for a reunion, but life tends to get in the way, and everyone can’t make it. Being able to reunite at this past October for the 40th anniversary of the 1982 National Championship celebration was a very special time for all because not that many of them have been together at one time and the same place in a lot of years. This can be credited not to the celebration of the milestone these former Anteaters made, but the dedication of the annual alumni game to Ted Newland truly brought everyone together.

A big shock came at this gathering as well. It was announced that John would be inducted into this year’s hall of fame in front of all his former teammates and members of the Anteater program, both past and present. O’Brien was not anticipating this announcement and was in disbelief as he was being told.

“There was a chance I would not have been able to make it down and after hearing the news I was like thank goodness I came. I got plenty of personal satisfaction out of winning it (the national championship) with those guys, fighting and suffering those wars, so this is just the icing on the top.”