Since starting in 1968 Ultimate Frisbee has become the leading sport when it comes to gender equity, player increase, and popularity.
I’ve always been into sports, and I’ve always considered myself pretty athletic. But, something that always hindered me was my lack of competitiveness. In high school, I played soccer for the team, and I was a decent player. While the sport was great, the culture surrounding the sport was off-putting. My team was competitive, to the point that if I made one mistake, they made sure I knew about it. Winning was everything to them. Soccer slowly became something I despised, and practices were hell. I quit my sophomore year.
After that, I didn’t get back into team sports until college, when I was at the University’s Annual Ice Cream Social for the freshman class, and I was carrying a frisbee. One of the people there, Sophia Hamdan, saw the disc, and excitedly exclaimed that there was a girl’s frisbee club that I should join. It took me awhile to get the hang of the sport, and to get to the know the team. Freshman year I was so busy with other activities that I didn’t have time to bond, and then that spring semester I broke my ankle so I was out.
It wasn’t until my sophomore year that things clicked, and I loved the sport from then on. I got to know the team, and with hang out them over parties and game nights. But I also noticed that Ultimate Frisbee was different from other team sports that I’d played in the past. The sport is competitive, but not so aggressive that it’s unfun. I noticed this when I saw that people were continuously supporting me even when I made a mistake.
While I’ve never felt better about a sport, I didn’t understand why I felt that way until more recently. Why? Frisbee is a counter culture sport with a counter culture attitude that draws in the alternative and nontraditional athlete. It’s gender inclusive, for everybody. Women were trailblazers for the sport, and still are today. Frisbee has been making history since it’s conception back in the late 1960s. So basically, it’s the best sport there is.
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For a long time it was common to see college students passing a frisbee around, but it wasn’t until 1966 that the term “Ultimate Frisbee” was coined, and in 1967, students at Columbia High School in New Jersey created the what eventually became the game that I love today. Ultimate is a combination of different sports, such as football, soccer, and basketball. In the beginning the group of high schoolers played in the parking lot, using the light poles as boundaries, with only a sketch of what the rules should be. After revisions of the rule book, the group brought their new sport to the Student Council, and the next year, in 1968, the first known game was played. However it would take more than one high school to propel the sport forward. In 1971 the first conference of Ultimate teams was created, with Columbia High School and four others participating in matches between each other throughout the school year. When the players graduated and headed to college, they created their own teams.
Part of the reason ultimate took off in college atmospheres was due to the fact that Ultimate back then was taken as somewhat of a hippy sport to that of traditional sports like football or soccer. Completely self-officiated, the sport offered what many alienated college students wanted from a sport, camaraderie and a sense of self-control. The rigidity of the rules was up to the players when calling fouls or penalties. And as the sport increased in popularity, it started to attract traditional athletes as well. The only thing it was missing was women, but that came sooner rather than later, and from Canada no less.
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It’s difficult to talk about the rise of Ultimate in the USA without discussing the rise of the sport in Canada as well. Just as Ultimate Frisbee rose to popularity in the United States, that rise was paralleled in Canada. In the 1970s three notable people propelled the sport of Disc Golf onto the frisbee scene.
Slightly different from Ultimate, the object of disc golf is pretty much the same as regular golf. Aim for a target, and the less throws it takes to hit the target, the less points. Players like Jim Kenner, Ken Westerfield, Mary Kathron and Gail McColl were influential in spreading the news of Disc Golf as well as several other frisbee related sports and activities. Activities like freestyle and distance were new to the frisbee scene, and while probably played casually, the more prominent players helped bring it into the mainstream frisbee world.
The most prominent female figure is Gail McColl. Kenner and McColl made history, when in 1978 they launched their own company out of London Ontario and created the disc that most Ultimate Leagues use today. Gail McColl not only created the best frisbee used today, but was crucial in turning the frisbee from a toy that flew on a somewhat straight angle, into a real athletic piece of equipment.
What makes the dics they created so fantastic, was that not only could it take more hits to the ground than the plastic ones that Wham-O created, but it flew straighter, farther, and was more easy to handle. Before the creation of their McColl and Jenner’s frisbee, known today as the Ultrastar, Wham-O Toy Company continued to produce discs that were routinely flawed in their abilities. Other frisbee companies such as the MLU produce their own frisbees, but the top company, where every other frisbee company takes ideas from, is Discraft.
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Though independent leagues had become prominent in the late 70s, organizations such as the Ultimate Players Association, now known as USA Ultimate or USAU, World Flying Disc Federation, and the International Frisbee Association all made great strides in pushing the sport on a national to global scale. The first organization, the IFA, was created by Wham-O, the company that created the first patented frisbee. The IFA was the first organization to host a real tournament, bringing the sport of Ultimate from obscurity into the light of the public. And all over the world organizations were growing. Wham-O Toy Company had branches in Europe and all over, which in turn had their own smaller organizations that continued to increase the scope of Ultimate.
Since the late 70s they have changed, adapting the rules, enhancing the game, and working to make the sport of Ultimate frisbee accessible to all. USAU is the most important Ultimate frisbee organization in the United States today. The USAU’s vision is “To advance the sport of Ultimate in the United States by enhancing and promoting Character, Community, and Competition.” And not only has the organization been continuously pushing the sport forward, it has also advocated for gender equity and inclusiveness.
Ultimate frisbee would be nothing without the players, coaches, and fans who support them. It is a community for so many people, young and old across the country, around the world. Anybody can play, and everybody is encouraged to play. It doesn’t matter what age somebody is, or what they identify as. In 2008, USAU created the Girl’s Ultimate Movement, a program that aims to increase the number of girls and women playing, as well as provide just as much coverage for women leagues as men leagues. GUM works with players, young and old as well as coaches, to give them the necessary tools to play, coach, and publicize the sport in their communities.
The people involved in the sport are a community. And the USAU nor WFDF are a for profit organization. Even club teams aren’t paid well. People play the sport out of the love for the game. It’s the reason I play it. The men and women who participate do it because they love the sport and want everybody who can play to play. I have never seen anybody be turned away from a game of Ultimate. Some of the best players today are making strides to make the sport inclusive. There has never been a sport that has strived to be as equal as Ultimate Frisbee, and no amount of popularity can change that. Even the men’s leagues push for equal opportunity and equal play for women. No other sport can boast that.
I would not have the friends I have today if I hadn’t joined the Ultimate Team at UMW. But, with the popularity, there’s the concern among some that the sport will become mainstream, and be tossed to the wayside. Already, frisbee is projected to be in the 2024 Olympics. What’s to stop it from becoming a regular team sport like soccer, lacrosse, or football? There’s apprehension among some that the sport will lose some of it’s best qualities. As seen with other sports such as basketball or soccer, the difference in treatment and salary between men and women’s divisions is great. What’s stopping Ultimate from devolving into any other average sport?
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Ever since playing, and watching the tournaments, I have seen one thing prevail over all else: Spirit of the Game. Spirit of the Game, of SOTG, is the undying sportsmanship that every team exhibits on and off the field. It’s the inherent respect that every player and fan must have when competing. The motto “win at all costs” is looked down upon by the Ultimate community as it doesn’t adhere to the rules of sportsmanship and SOTG that everybody plays by. Whether it’s picking an opposing player up off the field when they slip, or giving a cheer for other other team if if they beat us, or just telling another player that they made a good play, spirit of the game is what influences us to be good players, but more so good people. No matter the league, women’s, men’s, or mixed, spirit of the game is what keeps Ultimate together.
So yes, frisbee is changing, a lot. It’s growing, but it’s growing in a positive direction. While it’s slowly moving into the spotlight of pop culture and sports, the meaning and heart of Ultimate Frisbee, I hope, will never change. And even when it’s become mainstream, and there will be another out-there sport popping up, frisbee will be just as great. Before college, I hardly even knew frisbee existed. Now, I can firmly say that the sport has changed my life. It’s given me the confidence to stand up for what I believe, and what I want. The frisbee community is always open, inviting anybody who is looking for something new, and once somebody’s in, its like family.