(Published in the Janesville Messenger, 4-27-2014)
I recently watched some colleges play the Ultimate sport. Literally.
"Ultimate" is now the official name for what my friends and I used to call "Frisbee football." Unlike my school days, however, Ultimate is a far cry from the fluid free-for-all we played that at times resembled Calvin and Hobbes’ Calvinball and once included an infamous tackle version played in the parking lot at Milwaukee County Stadium (ouch).
I recently watched some colleges play the Ultimate sport. Literally.
"Ultimate" is now the official name for what my friends and I used to call "Frisbee football." Unlike my school days, however, Ultimate is a far cry from the fluid free-for-all we played that at times resembled Calvin and Hobbes’ Calvinball and once included an infamous tackle version played in the parking lot at Milwaukee County Stadium (ouch).
For the uninitiated, Ultimate -- or Ultimate Frisbee, if you prefer
-- is played seven on a side on a field that has dimensions similar to
that of football. Also like football, you score points by advancing the
Frisbee (technically, a disc) into the opponent’s end zone. The football
similarities end there, as there is no tackling or running with the
disc.
You can only move the disc by passing it to a teammate -- once you have possession, you are limited to pivoting on one foot, like a basketball player who has picked up his dribble. If a pass is incomplete, intercepted or out of bounds, the other team immediately gains possession and moves in the opposite direction. On the college level, the game is generally played up to a certain number of points rather than timed.
It goes far beyond having organized rules, however. There are positions, there are different strategies on offense and defense, and similar to hockey, there are lines that take the field as a group on substitutions. One thing there is not, at least in most college tournaments, is a referee. The players self-officiate.
Ultimate has yet to become an NCAA-sanctioned sport, but it continues to grow on the college level. My son, Rob, is a member of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Ultimate team. But just because it’s not an NCAA sport doesn’t mean the team is limited to friendly get-togethers with nearby schools. The team has traveled to tournaments as far away as Georgia and Texas and played against the likes of TCU, Oklahoma, UMass and Kansas State, as well as several Big Ten schools.
As a club sport, the team has a budget that allows them to purchase jerseys and pay for transportation. Beyond that, however, cash is a bit tight. Charter buses and hotel rooms are not in the budget. So like a struggling rock band, the Ultimate players jam themselves into a van and crash wherever they can. When inclement weather recently forced the last-minute relocation of a tournament from Appleton to Fitchburg, one player’s Madison-area grandmother suddenly found herself hostess to 20 young men.
The college clubs generally choose team names separate from the school’s. For example, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee team is not the Panthers; their name is Black Cat Ultimate. Northern Michigan eschews Wildcats for Riptide. And rather than Pointers, Stevens Point is Homegrown. The fact that Homegrown’s most recent tournament was held at Stoner Prairie Park in Fitchburg gave birth to more pot jokes than a Cheech and Chong album (e.g. "How’s the grass at Stoner Prairie?").
But the athletes are anything but dazed and confused. Ultimate is a sport that involves a LOT of movement. I get tired just watching them play. Conditioning is a must. The Stevens Point team has been known to train by running flights of stairs in campus buildings at night.
The recent Fitchburg tournament was the first one I personally had witnessed. As a spectator sport, it was much more entertaining than I imagined it would be. And apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks so. You see, Ultimate has gone professional. The American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) fields 17 teams, including a franchise in Madison, the Radicals, who play at Breese Stevens Field. A second league, Major League Ultimate, fields four teams on each coast.
And I’m relatively sure none of them play on concrete prior to Brewers games.
You can only move the disc by passing it to a teammate -- once you have possession, you are limited to pivoting on one foot, like a basketball player who has picked up his dribble. If a pass is incomplete, intercepted or out of bounds, the other team immediately gains possession and moves in the opposite direction. On the college level, the game is generally played up to a certain number of points rather than timed.
It goes far beyond having organized rules, however. There are positions, there are different strategies on offense and defense, and similar to hockey, there are lines that take the field as a group on substitutions. One thing there is not, at least in most college tournaments, is a referee. The players self-officiate.
Ultimate has yet to become an NCAA-sanctioned sport, but it continues to grow on the college level. My son, Rob, is a member of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Ultimate team. But just because it’s not an NCAA sport doesn’t mean the team is limited to friendly get-togethers with nearby schools. The team has traveled to tournaments as far away as Georgia and Texas and played against the likes of TCU, Oklahoma, UMass and Kansas State, as well as several Big Ten schools.
As a club sport, the team has a budget that allows them to purchase jerseys and pay for transportation. Beyond that, however, cash is a bit tight. Charter buses and hotel rooms are not in the budget. So like a struggling rock band, the Ultimate players jam themselves into a van and crash wherever they can. When inclement weather recently forced the last-minute relocation of a tournament from Appleton to Fitchburg, one player’s Madison-area grandmother suddenly found herself hostess to 20 young men.
The college clubs generally choose team names separate from the school’s. For example, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee team is not the Panthers; their name is Black Cat Ultimate. Northern Michigan eschews Wildcats for Riptide. And rather than Pointers, Stevens Point is Homegrown. The fact that Homegrown’s most recent tournament was held at Stoner Prairie Park in Fitchburg gave birth to more pot jokes than a Cheech and Chong album (e.g. "How’s the grass at Stoner Prairie?").
But the athletes are anything but dazed and confused. Ultimate is a sport that involves a LOT of movement. I get tired just watching them play. Conditioning is a must. The Stevens Point team has been known to train by running flights of stairs in campus buildings at night.
The recent Fitchburg tournament was the first one I personally had witnessed. As a spectator sport, it was much more entertaining than I imagined it would be. And apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks so. You see, Ultimate has gone professional. The American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) fields 17 teams, including a franchise in Madison, the Radicals, who play at Breese Stevens Field. A second league, Major League Ultimate, fields four teams on each coast.
And I’m relatively sure none of them play on concrete prior to Brewers games.
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