"It was an us against the world type of mentality," former right side and head coach Scott "Spud" Shantz hammered home.
The all-black regalia, the marketing, and a redefined student atmosphere, with Warriors fans filling away gyms, only scratch the surface in telling the story of the underdogs who put Waterloo on national notice.
The 1985-1991 era of Warriors men's volleyball tore up the OUA. Legendary for their moniker as the "Black Plague," the team's unexpected rise to national stardom on the volleyball court defined a culture, lifestyle, and brand that still reverberates around the men's program to this day for more reasons than one.
Receiving their call to the Warriors Hall of Fame this year as members of distinction, seven former members of the "Plague" recall the sights, sounds, and stories from seven formative years for the black and gold.
1987 is where this tale begins. As the defending OUA champions, the Warriors were wearing out whatever was left of their tattered gold uniforms. To make matters worse, they were upset in the OUA West final by their arch-rival Western Mustangs.
As setter Tony "Cobra" Martins recalls, "1988 marked something of a renewal."
By this time, Martins had become the team's starting setter, and the squad was reinforced with weapons such as future All-Canadian and Olympic team outside hitter Steve "Scratch" Smith. The team's season started strongly as their golden garb continued to fray.
The midway point of the season came, and so did a brand-new set of all-black uniforms to ignite a fuse. The Warriors interprovincial prowess was a go, winning tournaments at Brock and out of province at Laval. In Laval, the Warriors had defeated nearly half of Canada's top 10 teams en route to victory.
On the way home from one of their triumphs – in the back of their team van – in comes Martins to coin the era.
"I'm a marketer for a living, and a creative person, so I kind of studied English widely. I come up with words and names and stuff, I do that for a living," he mentioned.
"We had become a deadly force, and we knew it."
The moment arrived.
"We're sweeping the nation like the Black Plague!" Martins exclaimed in the van.
It stuck immediately. With help from Smith taking the term to an athletics reporter, Martins' moniker was picked up by Imprint to compliment the hottest team on campus at the time.
Guided by a core of players including Steve "Puppy" Heck, David "Axeman" Plouffe, Fred "Turbo" Koops, Tom "Yakkie" Oxland, Dave "Boogie" Balonis, Shantz, Martins, Smith and his brother Scott – known alike as the "Twin Towers" – and led through the era by head coaches Rob Atkinson and Shantz; the team climbed to as high as third in Canada.
"They didn't get too distracted by the little things, and just gave us the ability to go play, do what we were good at, and play with our own style," Heck mentioned, when asked about Atkinson and Shantz as coaches.
On the court, the "Plague" picked up two OUA championships (1986 and 1990), while adding two CIS bronze medals (1990 and 1991).
Alongside Ambrose – as previously introduced – "Scratch" Smith was the second member of the "Plague" who was named an All-Canadian, receiving honours in 1990 and 1991.
Provincially, the Warriors didn't lose a single game in 1990, going 32-0.
Such success had to be constructed carefully, and as Oxland recalls pre-"Plague," it was the combination of senior leadership and depth pieces that sustained the program into the mid-80's.
"Our former captain was Paul Craven, he was a senior leader for us, and guys such as Brian Jackson, Owen Jones, Jim Cook, and 1986 All-Canadian Dave Ambrose, were just great teammates," Oxland said.
"Atkinson was an amazing head coach," Oxland added. "He always said the key to a program was to get a lot of good players of course, but you got to learn how to win."
"He is the coach that taught us how to win."
The core of the "Plague's" ability to turn heads on and off the court represented the backbone of their commercial appeal on campus. With the creativity of Koops, Martins, and "Scratch" Smith, the team fundraised the concept brilliantly to build their own appeal.
That same "us against the world" mentality as Shantz remembers the team possessing caught wind with the student body, the faithful filling the Physical Activities Complex (PAC) night in and night out.
Pinning posters to the walls of the Student Life Centre (SLC), the moniker caught headwind and soon, a frenzy surrounding volleyball overtook the appeal of the Waterloo Athletics scene.
"We took the initiative to promote the team ourselves," said Smith. "We had a ton of fun with it, and I think all the fans did too, which was awesome."
"I thought, if we work on this black plague concept a little bit, and 'I'll design some shirts, and maybe we can sell some,'" Koops said. "I remember asking my sister – who also went to Waterloo, and had a little money set aside – if I could borrow it to do the first run of shirts. She agreed, we sold out, I gave her a cut, and we just kept on going," he added.
Little did Koops know at the time, that the initial shirt sales for the "Plague" would supplement the early successes of a brand that all of Canadian volleyball have come to know dearly, the widely renowned apparel company Overkill.
When Koops founded Overkill during this period, on a trip to Madawaska Volleyball Camp not long after university ended where his stock sold out to beach volleyball players and caught the eye of Paul Brownstein, former development chairman for the Ontario Volleyball Association, and Canada Games coach. From there, they rebranded Brownstein's Madawaska brand, and opened their first location in the Beaches area of Toronto where Koops grew up.
Having worked with another business owner who eventually wanted to move out west, he approached Koops to see if he could take over his location. "You have all these built-in customers coming in for this lifestyle apparel, and you can fit your brand right in the middle of that," Koops recalls what he was told. "I said, no problem, that sounds like a great idea."
That business owner who passed the keys to Koops, and moved out west? Chip Wilson.
"When Chip went back out west and met with his partners, they decided to disband their existing brand, and start this other 'little' company called Lululemon," Koops said jokingly.
"I referred to Koops as the mayor of the campus center," Heck said. "He seemed to know everybody, and we also had the benefit of Fed Hall [then a student-focused social space rather than the events centre it is today] as a social scene off the court. It was as big of a thing off the court as it was on it."
Not only did the "Plague's" existence transcend the culture of Warriors volleyball on campus, but it also added a reputation that Waterloo was to be feared on the court across Canada. The contributions from every piece were flashy, daring, and greater than the sum of their parts.
The 1989 OUA Finals, in particular, encapsulated the "Plague's" ability to draw the fierce following that the likes of Koops, Martins and company, cultivated.
With the Warriors facing off against the York Yeomen (now Lions), Waterloo fans filled busses, and York's gym with all-black apparel.
"The fans filling York's gym; that was the zenith of the 'Black Plague,'" said Martins.
Although the Warriors dropped the match on that night, the damage had been done. Damage of course, being used amicably.
The pull that Warriors volleyball drew from the "Black Plague" era – in terms of memories, bonds, legacy, and recruitments – have lasted to this day.
Shantz recalled a time where he bumped into Canadian Volleyball Hall of Fame member Paul Duerden post-era. Duerden, a Pan-Am bronze medalist and winner of multiple European titles across his professional career that spanned over 20 years, kept it rather frank with Shantz.
"I would've liked to have been a part of that Black Plague," Duerden mentioned.
The strongest of forces that no one saw coming. An induction into the Warriors Hall of Fame, everyone did see coming.
