Mark Patton: A Thunderdome By Any Other Name Wouldn’t Sound as Sweet

The first contest at UC Santa Barbara’s sports arena was the one that chose its name.

A creative student body gave its typical, old-college try during the autumn of 1979.

One wise guy took note of the arena’s metallic façade while suggesting “The Corrugated Fortress.”

Another submitted the name “The Box That Learning Resources Came In.”

I thought my entry of “The Snuff Box” should’ve gotten more of a sniff.

Humorless officials, however, settled on “Campus Events Center” — a dullish mouthful for a place that was, well … never full.

The 6,000-seat gym remained so quiet during its first seven losing basketball seasons that the few students who wandered in probably mistook it for the campus library.

The name “Thunderdome” didn’t come to mind until the arena — and one of its backboards in particular — began to rock one night near the end of the 1986-1987 season.

The bizarre finish to that name-inspiring, 53-52 victory over San José State was replayed in last Thursday’s game against Cal State Bakersfield.

Injuries and inexperience had led to a shaky start in Big West Conference play this year for UCSB’s defending championship team.

Even returning Player of the Year Ajay Mitchell wasn’t immune to an egregious error.

Just one second after his clutch shot put the Gauchos ahead of Bakersfield by a point, he fouled Roadrunner star Kaleb Higgins 70 feet from the basket with 0.4 seconds remaining.

But before Higgins could step to the foul line, a flash mob rode to the rescue like the U.S. Cavalry. It surged out of the student section and headed him off at the pass behind the Bakersfield basket.

Their harassment was enough to get Higgins to miss the second of two free throws, giving UCSB the chance to win the game in overtime, 66-64.

Jerry Pimm, who turned the Gauchos’ program around as their coach during the 1980s and ’90s, had a wry explanation for the miss while providing color commentary for Thursday’s ESPN+ broadcast:

“I think the court tilted when all the students ran to that end of the Thunderdome,” he said.

Mitchell had a more emotional response to the student support: “They saved us … They saved us today.”

It was déjà boo from the night the Thunderdome was born.

Name of the Game

A throng of students had come on the evening of Feb. 19, 1987, to check out a UCSB team that was about to snap a string of 10 losing seasons — the longest streak of futility in the nation at that time.

Future NBA point guard Brian Shaw, a junior transfer from St. Mary’s, had the Gauchos pointed in the right direction.

Carrick DeHart, the league’s freshman of the year that season, was well on his way to setting the school’s career scoring record.

But their schoolmates did not yet know Brian or Carrick from Adam.

San José State’s blue-clad players were astonished when they received a standing ovation as they took the Thunderdome court for pregame warmups: UCSB’s student section had mistaken them for Gauchos.

The students made up for that blunder with some thunder by game’s end.

San José’s Gerald Thomas, much like Bakersfield’s Higgins, got the chance to beat the Gauchos when he was fouled with no time on the clock.

Bill Mahoney, who was in just his third year with UCSB’s sports information department, recalled how the Events Center turned into a madhouse during the next few, chaotic minutes.

“Coach Pimm called a timeout, and that gave the students enough time to stream out of their section and head behind the basket,” he said.

“They started screaming and shaking the basket’s stanchion, which had a couple of towel kids standing on it.”

Mahoney wasn’t sure if the ringing in his ears was from the crowd noise or the press row phone. He picked up the receiver, just in case.

“Mitch Massey from Channel 6 (KSBY-TV) called to get a score, but it was so loud that I could barely hear him,” he said.

“It was the year after the movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome came out, and I told Mitch, ‘I can’t hear you — it’s like the Thunderdome in here.’”

Thomas, visibly rattled, missed both free throws, and the Gauchos had their 53-52 victory.

Massey had stayed on the line to get the final result. The noise that came through his earpiece told him all he needed to know.

“The Thunderdome!” he shouted back to Mahoney. “Can I use that?”

The name made its debut on his evening sportscast.

“That was really when the seeds were planted,” Mahoney said.

It’s Shaw Time

Thunderdome became the arena’s official name by the time the Gauchos were securing their first NCAA Division I tournament bid the following year.

Coach Jim Valvano took note of the arena’s curious nickname in December of that season when he brought his ninth-ranked North Carolina State team into the arena for a nonconference game.

Tim Vom Steeg, UCSB’s current men’s soccer coach, was a student worker at the Thunderdome when he opened the gym doors for the Wolfpack.

He was irked when Valvano’s rap on the door was followed by a knock on the arena.

“He was sitting there and just bagging on the fact that we had pull-out bleachers,” Vom Steeg recalled. “He was making fun of UCSB and making fun of the Events Center.”

But it was no joke when Shaw’s triple-double of 22 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists led to the Gauchos’ 96-78 upset.

It also won over Valvano.

“It was louder than thunder in there tonight,” he said afterward.

The Gauchos were soon beating the eardrums of major college coaches from all over the country.

Tom Penders found the trip to Santa Barbara to be a mixed bag after he brought his Texas team to town in 1991:

“Nice weather and a beautiful part of the country,” he said. “But, boy, that Thunderdome — what a place to play!”

Former Michigan basketball coach Bill Frieder likened it to “being back in the Big Ten” after his Arizona State team visited the raucous arena in 1992.

Two seasons later, Ohio State coach Randy Ayers called it “one of the noisiest” arenas he’d ever experienced.

“The coaches of the opposing teams used to tell me that they couldn’t hear themselves in the huddle, that it was so noisy,” Pimm said.

Tom Odjakjian, ESPN’s program manager at the time, heard the ruckus all the way back at his studios in Connecticut. UCSB became one of the network’s favorite stops.

“I think the Thunderdome ranks right up there with Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke as one of the great college basketball arenas in the country,” he said at the time. “We love doing games from the Thunderdome.

“The proximity of the students to the court, the loudness and the enthusiasm make the Thunderdome a fabulous college basketball showcase.

“If I had to pick the three best places in the nation in terms of noise and enthusiasm they would be Duke, UCSB and Rutgers.”

Flash-Mob Flashback

The students had perfected their flash-mob technique by the time Cal State Fullerton visited the Thunderdome for an ESPN game in January 1990.

The Gauchos, which had trailed the Titans by as many as 11 points with just over two minutes remaining, rallied to tie the score at 62-all when a dramatic blocked shot by freshman Mike Meyer led to DeHart’s two free throws with 36 seconds on the clock.

Fullerton worked the ball to future NBA star Cedric Ceballos, who was then fouled by DeHart with seven seconds to go.

But the students saved the day once again, rushing behind the basket to launch a cacophonic assault on Ceballos’ ears. He missed his free throw and the Gauchos won the game in overtime, 72-64.

It was the turning point of their season. The team made its own noise, winning nine of its last 11 regular-season games.

The flash-mob rushed the court when the Gauchos turned eventual national champion UNLV into one of those victims.

“Their crowd is what college basketball is all about,” Runnin’ Rebels coach Jerry Tarkanian said. “You don’t see it out West anywhere else.”

David Shapiro, a UCSB student at that time, was inspired by Thursday’s comeback win to post a tape of the 1990 Fullerton game on the “Gaucho Locos” fan website.

“I knew when I recorded the game 34 years ago that it would come in handy at a time like this,” he said.

Joe Pasternack knew how handy a student body could be when he took the Gaucho coaching job in the spring of 2017. He credited the crowd for inspiring a strong finish again in Saturday’s 85-76 victory over Long Beach State.

UCSB, 10-6 overall, has now reversed its 0-3 start in Big West play by winning its last three games.

“The students really showed up, and I can’t tell you how huge that is,” Pasternack said. “I can’t tell you what a huge, huge home-court advantage it is when the students are there.

“They’re cheering, they’re loud, and that’s what we want: home court dominance.”

He had arrived at UCSB much like Valvano had, with a tinge of skepticism about the arena’s name.

“I still haven’t figured out why they call this the Thunderdome,” he said during his introductory news conference in 2017. “I truly want to make this the Thunderdome and get the Thunderdome packed for every home game.

“That will give our student athletes the best chance to have a dominant home court and win home games.”

The court lived up to that on Thursday, and just in the nickname of time.