It thawed the national coolness toward volleyball as a viable women's collegiate sport, turning all regions of the country into greenhouses for blossoming programs.
When Hawaii met Texas for the 1988 NCAA title, it was the first time that California schools had been shut out of the championship match. When the Longhorns dethroned the defending champion Wahine, ironically in 88 minutes, it "validated volleyball as a national sport," said Texas coach Mick Haley, whose team plays Hawaii in the second semifinal of tonight's Mountain Regional at the Special Events Arena.
"I thought that win made volleyball a real sport in the United States," the Longhorns' coach said of the 15-4, 16-14, 15-13 victory over the Wahine.
"Before that, it was a regional sport. That win in 1988 showed that anybody could win."
It also showed the NCAA that seeding the postseason tournament strictly by region should be roofed. From 1986-91, the tournament was set up to guarantee two entries from outside the West Coast Region. Since then, the format has loosened to include seeding the top 16 teams and creating a truly national tourney.
Still, it took until last year before another final without a California school would be played. Nebraska toppled Texas for the Cornhuskers' first championship.
"I think it would have happened even sooner if the NCAA had not gone to the regional format," said Haley. "It created regional scheduling for five, six years for a lot of teams. They didn't want to play outside their region because those weren't the teams they were going to have to beat to get to the final four. There were a limited number of schools, like ourselves, that went searching for competition outside the region.
"In the end, the regional format might have limited the number of teams who were good at the time from getting to the final four. But certainly, in 1988, Illinois deserved to be there. UCLA came in undefeated and was the hands-down favorite. And Dave (Hawaii coach Shoji) did a masterful job getting his team back there after rebuilding quite a bit. His win over Illinois (in the semifinals) was pretty significant, also."
The significance is not lost when noting that 1988 was the last time Hawaii reached the final four. Shoji, who is 4-2 when getting to the championship match, had expected to have at least one more banner hanging from the arena rafters by now.
Instead, the gap between titles for Texas and Nebraska was again dominated by California schools. Long Beach State, UCLA, and Stanford all picked up a pair of titles between 1989 and '94.
"What happened during that time was a drought of elite women coming out of the junior program," Haley said. "UCLA and Stanford all had a couple of years in a row where they each got all of the top kids. It made for an uneven playing field for a short time.
"My observation is that the talent level goes in cycles, and now the level is back up. Look at it now. Out of the 16 teams left in the tournament, there are maybe 14 who have the tremendous talent to make it to the final four."
Certainly, this Mountain Regional has it. Hawaii, Pacific, Brigham Young and Texas all are capable of making it to Cleveland next week ... and winning it all.
Haley's sights are on doing just that. He'll leave Texas next month to take over as U.S. women's national team coach, replacing Terry Liskevych, who has retired.
His vision is to bring the U.S. back to prominence at the international level. He wants to do it by building strong junior programs that will compete at a young age against world powers.
"I like where the juniors are going but it needs to have another level," Haley said. "We need to make more of an international commitment, create an elite level for a national elite circuit that will play against international competition.
"I think it's unreasonable to take our top eight to 10 club teams overseas but it's feasible to bring the top juniors internationally over to the U.S. to play our top eight to 10 juniors."
Haley believes there need to be several routes for players to take to the national team, not just going through the collegiate system. A junior elite program would be one alternative.
USA Volleyball is in such disarray that Haley isn't sure what awaits him when he takes over the women's coaching position. The association's directors meeting this weekend should answer some questions regarding funding and long-term commitment.
"There's no question that it's a frustrating situation," Haley said. "We've called a timeout on the whole job discussion until after our season is over. It's to the point where you have to evaluate if you have a chance to win."
Haley is one of the most successful coaches in the women's collegiate game, ranking among the top seven in career wins (773) and winning percentage (.805). He also knows the frustration of not being able to compete against the best.
In 1981, when the AIAW and NCAA were fighting for control of women's college sports, Texas won the AIAW women's volleyball title by beating Portland State. The rest of the top teams, including Hawaii, were competing in the NCAA tournament.
"All of our coaches wanted to go to the NCAAs but our athletic director (Donna Lopiano) was president of the AIAW," Haley said. "We had no choice. We won what we were allowed to play in.
"There were good teams at the AIAW tournament but not the best teams. I still have fun with (for mer Southern Cal, now current Michigan State coach) Chuck Erbe, saying Texas was the mythical national champs that year because we beat SC at the UCLA Invitational."
Women's volleyball has come a very long way since that cold Minneapolis night in 1988. Many doubted when Haley said, "What we accomplished was letting every little girl in America who plays volleyball know that she can go anywhere in the country and win it all."
They believe now.
What Women's volleyball
Hawaii (32-2) vs. Texas (23-6), 7:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.