60 Years of Anteater Athletics: 1976-1997
May 13, 2026 | General
As we continue our journey through the years, UCI Athletics makes a bold step into Division I athletics and the success doesn't waver.
1976 – Head coach Len Miller’s team won the 1976 NCAA Division II Men's Cross Country Championship with a team score of 50 points. Eric Hulst, Steve Scott, Ralph Serna and John Koningh earned All-American honors.
May 1977 – The men’s tennis team won the program’s sixth national title in eight years under head coach Myron McNamara, beating SIU Edwardsville in the final for UCI’s last NCAA Division II title.
July 1977 – UCI becomes a member of NCAA Division I and joins the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now the Big West Conference). Linda Dempsay becomes the first female athletic director at an NCAA Division I institution.
1977-78 – Men’s cross country, men’s tennis and men’s track & field become the first UCI teams to win Division I conference (PCAA) titles.
June 1978 – Track & field’s Steve Scott (1500 meters) and Mauricio Bardales (decathlon) become UCI’s first NCAA Division I individual champions.
June 1978 – Women’s tennis player Lindsay Morse becomes UCI’s first female individual national champion, winning the AIAW singles title.
March 1981 – Kevin Magee scored a school record 46 points in a 91-80 win over Loyola Marymount at Crawford Hall. Magee earned the first of his two NCAA Division I Associated Press First Team All-American honors that season, joining players such as Isaiah Thomas, Ralph Sampson and Danny Ainge on the ’81 team. Magee averaged 26.3 points and 12.5 rebounds in two seasons with the Anteaters.
November 1982 – Men’s water polo, guided by Coach Ted Newland, wins the NCAA championship with a 7-4 win over Stanford in the final at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach to complete a perfect 30-0 season.
November 1983 – Cross country becomes the first UCI women’s team to win a conference (PCAA) title. Lisa Gonzales wins the individual title in the league meet at Santa Barbara.
December 1983 – Cheri Graham scored a UC Irvine women's basketball single-game record 41 points at Nevada. She went on to average 20.5 ppg during the 1983-84 season and became the program's first All-American.
February/March 1986 – Men's basketball defeated perennial national power UNLV twice in 12 days and topped UCLA in the NIT First Round at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA was defending NIT champion.
January 8, 1987 – Scott Brooks scores 43 points as the men’s basketball team defeats Utah State, 118-96, on opening night of the Bren Events Center.
December 1988 – The women’s volleyball team earns its first-ever at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Kris Roberts set a school record with 12 block assists in the postseason match.
June 1988 – UCI won both the dinghy and team-racing championships at the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association Championships in Richmond, Calif. Jon Pinckney, Nick Scandone, Jamie Malm and Mike Sturman were named All-Americans.
November 1989 – UCI defeated California, 9-8 to capture its third NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Chris Duplanty, Julian Harvey, Tom Warde and Dan Smoot garnered NCAA all-tournament and All-American honors. Warde was named NCAA Player of the Year, while head coach Ted Newland was named NCAA Coach of the Year.
May 1989 – Head coach Greg Patton’s men’s tennis team defeated No. 1 ranked UCLA, 5-4, before 1,200 fans at Anteater Stadium. The Anteaters who were ranked as high as No. 3, finished the year ranked No. 4 behind All-Americans Mark Kaplan, Trevor Kronoemann, Mike Briggs and Richard Lubner. Kaplan was Region 8 Player of the Year and ended his senior year ranked No. 5 nationally with a 35-8 singles mark.
November 1990 – The women’s cross country team finished fourth at the NCAA Championships behind All-American Buffy Rabbitt’s fourth-place finish.
September 1992 – UCI alumnus John Morgan, a blind swimmer, won 10 medals at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona, Spain. He set six world records and two Paralympic records in winning eight gold medals and two silver. He would be inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in 2008.
May 1993 – Jade Preato was named Big West Women’s Track & Field Athlete of the Year after winning the 10,000 and 5,000 meters, plus finishing second in the 3,000 meters.
March 1995 – Women’s basketball defeats Pacific, 65-53, to win the Big West Conference Tournament title in Las Vegas and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. Allah-mi Basheer is named Big West Tournament MVP.
November 1997 – The women’s soccer team won the Big West Tournament with a 3-2 victory over Cal Poly in four overtimes at Anteater Stadium.
