Ultimate frisbee who invented it

Over recent years what have been variously termed alternative or lifestyle sports Wheaton, have increasingly become the focus of academic study.

Examples of such activities and related papers include skateboarding Beal, , snowboarding Humphreys, , windsurfing Wheaton, and surfing Butts, These sports are considered alternative as they have sought to challenge accepted concepts of modern Western achievement sport Eichberg, ; Rhinehart and Sydnor, and typically have evolved from North America, having later been imported to Europe Bourdieu, Another lesser- known example that has made the transatlantic jump is that of Ultimate Frisbee.

Ultimate Frisbee known simply as Ultimate to participants is a fast paced, non-contact, mixed team sport played with a flying disc or Frisbee , which marries features of a number of invasion games, such as American Football and netball, into a simple yet, demanding game UKU, To date, little has been written about Ultimate or indeed the developmental process which has given rise to the creation and establishment of alternative sport.

What this paper seeks to do is to examine the evolution of Ultimate Frisbee and illustrate the key stages of its development. Ultimate, as with all disc sports, would not exist without the invention of the flying disc, or Frisbee, as it is commonly known.

Flying discs have of course been thrown in numerous cultures for centuries for a variety of reasons, including sport Malafronte, The origins of Ultimate can be argued to have gone through distinct and crucial stages and each will be discussed in turn.

Firstly, the origin of the name Frisbee will be examined followed by the subsequent development of the plastic flying disc.

The idea of Frisbee football will then be explained and then attention will be drawn to locating the development of Ultimate amidst the American counter culture. Finally the creation of Ultimate and the first game will be detailed.

The original bakery was situated close to the college which later became Yale in Scotland, Not surprisingly, perhaps, there are strong links between Yale and the origination of the Frisbee. The popular theory — perhaps it is a myth — is that Yale students frequently bought Frisbie Pies and after eating them, would toss the empty pie tins around the Yale campus Johnson, ; Malafronte, Not surprisingly, in the absence of definitive evidence, modified or alternative stories abound. One particular point of contention is whether the projectile was indeed a pie tin or whether, in fact, it was a cookie tin lid.

Support for the cookie argument can be found in ih a study by Johnson , who conducted interviews with former Yale students. An example of one such account is credited to Charles O.

Gregory who recalled:. So I assumed that the name came from these sugar cookies and the boxes in which they were sold…. As a semi-professional player and respected writer on Ultimate, Malafronte considers that cookie tins were more likely to be used for throwing games.

Johnson considers that both cases probably have some truth and merit but that additional research conducted, including conversations with the widow of Joseph P.

Frisbie son and heir of the late W. Frisbie and former plant manager Mr. Vaughn, leads to the conclusion that the earlier prototype was most likely to have been the pie tin. For instance, at Middlebury College in Vermont, a statue of a dog caught in mid-Frisbee-snatching-flight has been erected to celebrate the claim that a group of Middlebury boys discovered pie-pan tossing while on a road trip to a fraternity convention in Nebraska in Weiss, Such claims are perhaps not surprising when one considers that, according to Malafronte , workers of the Frisbie Pie Company travelled around many of the Ivy League institutions of New England and were apparently renowned for tossing pie tins around during their breaks.

Capturing the prevailing public mood, one budding American inventor, Fred Morrison, took an idea to the Southern Californian Plastics Company and, in conjunction with Warren Francioni, produced a crude prototype plastic flying disc, known as the Arcuate Vane model in Johnson, ; Mc Mahon, ; Malafronte In Morrison went on to produce his second model called the Pluto Platter, which he sold at fairs with moderate success Scotland, Though the importance of the Pluto Platter cannot be underestimated, as it became the blueprint for all subsequent Frisbees Johnson, , it was not, in fact, initially mass produced.

According to Johnson , the story goes that Rich Knerr and A. It is alleged that it was Knerr who picked up the catchy term whilst on a trip around the campuses of the Ivy League colleges.

Frisbee football a version of American football played with a flying disc is recorded as the origin of many games similar to Ultimate Johnson, ; Malafronte, ; Zagoria, Accounts of such games are recorded at institutions such as Kenyon College, Ohio as early as A version of such a game, referred to as Aceball, was later captured by Life magazine in Malafronte, In a letter to the editor, published in the January Amherst Alumni News, Peter Schrag alumni from describes this game, stating that:.

Rules have sprung up and although they vary, the game as now played is something like touch football , each team trying to score goals by passing the tray down field. There are interceptions and I believe passing is unlimited. Thus, a man may throw the Frisbee to a receiver who passes it to still another man. The key individual among the group in devising Ultimate was probably a student called Joel Silver who had played Frisbee Football at a camp in Mount Herman, Massachusetts in the summer of Johnson, ; Malafronte, ; Iocovella, ; Leonardo and Zagoria, Ultimate was conceived in the U.

The forms of escape and resistance were manifest in a multitude of ways including political activism and protest, the creation of alternative lifestyles, experimental and communal living and through dress, drugs and music Heale, The values and behaviours that came to represent the counter culture, which was at its height in during what was termed the Summer of Love Farrell, were that of democracy, perceived alternative and superior lifestyle choices, communal caring and sharing, an appreciation of beauty and nature, having a relaxed and laid back attitude, rejecting regulation and technology and encouraging self expression and personal growth Heale, ; Anderson, These values and behaviours were based upon humanistic psychology Farrell, where in a supportive environment people would work towards self actualization Maslow, Those espousing such values they viewed the time and the counter culture as an instrument of change.

They hoped that through spreading their cultural values and changing the consciousness of their fellow citizens, a structural transformation of society could in turn be effected Heale, Many of the guns manufactured by companies whose names evoke the history of the American West—Winchester, Colt, Remington, and Savage—were actually based on The singer, actor, athlete and activist Paul Robeson dies at the age of 79 on January 23, On January 23, , an earthquake in Shaanxi, China, kills an estimated , people.

Counting casualties is often imprecise after large-scale disasters, especially prior to the 20th century, but this disaster is still considered the deadliest of all time.

The quake struck in Darrell Lunsford, a county constable in Garrison, Texas, is killed after pulling over a traffic violator. The videotape evidence led to the conviction of the three men who beat, On January 23, , the Dutch government refuses demands by the Allies for the extradition of Wilhelm II, the former kaiser of Germany, who has been living in exile in the Netherlands since November By early November , things were looking dismal for the Central Charles A.

Lindbergh, a national hero since his nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic, testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Lend-Lease policy-and suggests that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Hitler. Lindbergh was born in in Live TV.

This Day In History. Eight teams took part in a tournament in Yale. Rutgers University won the final against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with In the Yale tournament was expanded and renamed into the National Ultimate Frisbee Championship.

Rutgers won again. Two club teams, representing USA, won open and womens divisions. The European countries were represented by National teams. In , ultimate was shown as an exhibition sport during the World Games in Karlsruhe, West Germany. In , ultimate was included as a medal sport in the World Games in Akita, Japan along with disc golf. Canada won the World Games gold medal with an overtime victory over the United States.

In the World Games in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei and Ultimate outdrew all other sports with more than 50, paid attendance. Ultimate is now played by an estimated , players in over 50 countries, with USA Ultimate having over 31, members.