Major League Volleyball 1987-89

[Wolfgang]

I was lucky enough to get one match (San Jose Golddiggers vs. Los Angeles Starlites) on tape. I found several interesting tidbits:

1. All the girls seemed smallish (5'7") because Laurie Corbelli and Jayne McHugh towered over everybody. They were like giraffes compared to all the gazelles on the court. I never thought of Corbelli and McHugh as being THAT tall.
2. Jayne McHugh had a wicked serve. It was a standing serve but the ball just zipped right above the net (at something like 100 MPH, it seemed) and exploded when it made contact with a passer. And she had this whole big hair thing going on back then.
3. Laurie Corbelli had a quick release in the middle. Much more athletic than I expected given that I know her mostly as a coach. She was MVP of the entire league one year.
4. Anna Vorwerk of Hawaii was a cutie. And a good volleyball player.
5. Where the hell is the San Jose Civic Auditorium? I never heard of such a place. And I live in the Bay Area!!
6. How much did those girls get paid?
7. Kathy Gregory does a good job with the color commentating. Insightful and funny. At one point, she poked fun at Brian Gimmillaro by calling him a "tyrant."
8. Even then (circa 1988), they talked about how the players were changing, as in "coaching is a tough profession. The girls are a lot different now than they used to be. Difficult to handle..." and the like. I'm sure girls of today (2007) are a lot different from the girls of 1988.

Thanks, in advance.

[Pirate VB Fan]

Civic Auditorium
135 West San Carlos Street
San José, CA 95113


"Built in 1936, the Civic Auditorium is a Spanish Mission-style, dual-level auditorium that hosts a variety of events including concerts, performing arts, general assembly, community and sporting events. Located directly across the street from the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, the auditorium features 3,001 seats in concert form and four meeting rooms. The auditorium provides additional exhibit and general assembly space in conjunction with the convention center and Parkside Hall."

[bigfan]

The Starlites home was the Bren Center at UCI.....they were fun to watch.

[Gorf]

I was a season ticket holder for the Minnesota Monarchs.

The "league" actually continued into the 1990s with the Monarchs going it alone playing matches against international teams and getting players from around the country to play for their own team. Mostly recent graduates.

Some that come to mind quickly were Ann Boyer and Daiva Tompkus (sp?) of UCLA and Keba Phipps.


They had matches against teams like Arie Selinger's Japanese corporate / club team from back then, at least one of the soviet club teams.

I remember one weekend there Gorbachev was in town for some sort of meetings and people were lining up in droves to stand around just to get a glimpse of him. Seeing that stuff in the news had me thinking that many of those same people could probably have made it to the weekend's matches being able to actually talk to the players / coaches from the soviet union rather than standing around with thousands of other people with a minimal chance of even being able to see Gorbachev.


I actually got to go out for dinner with the team and talk to Arie Selinger for a while when the Monarchs were playing his club team from Japan.

It was sad seeing the league take a nosedive like it did, however, it was fun being able to meet and talk to some of the international players and coaches of that era.

[Deleted]

I'm trying to remember where the Monarchs played. I haven't been there since. Was it Augsburg? I know they had an exhibition at Hamline, too.

[rogero1]

I thought that the Monarchs played at Augsburg.

I remember that the Chicago Breeze played their matches at the old DePaul Alumni Hall.

[Gorf]

They played at various places.

First was the Edina community center (or some such name).

Then they played at Augsburg for at least a couple of years - including the final year of the entire league.

Playoff matches and some (if not most) of their matches after the rest of the league folded were played at William's Arena. During that period there were at least a few matches played at alternate facilities.

I seem to remember a couple of matches at Concordia of St. Paul, but those could have been somewhere else - it was a long time ago.

I know they had some sort of event that included some of the Vikings players and a plethora of courts set up on the Metrodome turf. I think it was a one day pickup tournament of some sort sponsored by the Monarchs.

[Deleted]

Augsburg. Amazing. If someone were to ask me if I'd ever stepped foot on that campus I would have said nope. But that's where they were. So I did.

I am so old...

[Gorf]

Didn't you also some coach some JO matches after that at Augsburg?

Or perhaps those were some of the matches where you had things familial to do instead of coaching.

[Deleted]

I coached JOs??

[Gorf]

Your favorite JO player (RR) played at Augsburg in at least one JO tournament.

[Wolfgang]

gorf said:

Your favorite JO player (RR) played at Augsburg in at least one JO tournament.

Rachel Ray? Raquel Relch? Ray Romano?

[Gorf]

No, No, No.