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A Brief History

Ten Simple Rules

A Brief History of the Game

(from www.upa.org):

In 1967, Joel Silver introduced his idea of Ultimate Frisbee to the Columbia High School student council in Maplewood New Jersey, USA. The next year, the first game was played between two groups of students. They used a Wham-O Master disc.

A team, formed at the school in 1969, played in a parking lot. The only lines that existed were the goal lines, usually marked by the piles of the players' coats.

The first and second set of rules were written in 1970 by Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jon Hines. On Nov 7th, CHS played the first interscholastic game. They won over Millburn High School by a score of 43 to 10.

The first college Ultimate game was played between Rutgers and Princeton on November 6, 1972. Rutgers won the game 29-27. The two universities had played the first intercollegiate football game on the same ground exactly 103 years earlier. Rutgers also won that game by 2.

The first organized tournament was played on April 25th in 1975. Eight teams took part in a tournament at Yale. Rutgers University won the final against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with 28-24. In 1976, the Yale tournament was expanded and renamed as the National Ultimate Frisbee Championship. Rutgers won again.

Ultimate was also introduced into the World Frisbee Championships in 1975. In 1983, the first true World Ultimate Championship was held in Gothenburg, Sweden. Two club teams, representing USA, won open and women's divisions. The European countries were represented by national teams.

In 1989, Ultimate was shown as an exhibition sport during the World Games in Karlsruhe, West Germany. That year also saw the first World Club Ultimate Championship in Cologne, West Germany. In 2001, Ultimate was included as a medal sport in the World Games in Akita, Japan, along with disc golf. Six countries were invited to compete based on their finishes in the WFDF 2000 World Ultimate Championship in Germany. Canada won the World Games gold medal against the United States in overtime.

Ultimate Frisbee is now played by an estimated 100,000 players in over 30 countries, with the Ultimate Players Association in the U.S. consisting of over 13,000 members. The 2002 WUCC in Hawaii is the largest Ultimate meet to date with over 2,300 players and 120 teams from 24 countries who participated.

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The Ten Simple Rules of Ultimate

  1. The Field -- A rectangular shape with endzones at each end. A regulation field is 70 yards by 40 yards, with endzones 25 yards deep.

  2. Initiate Play -- Each point begins with both teams lining up on the front of their respective endzone line. The defense throws ("pulls") the disc to the offense. A regulation game has seven players per team.

  3. Scoring -- Each time the offense completes a pass in the defense's endzone, the offense scores a point. Play is initiated after each score.

  4. Movement of the Disc -- The disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. Players may not run with the disc. The person with the disc ("thrower") has ten seconds to throw the disc. The defender guarding the thrower ("marker") counts out the stall count.

  5. Change of Possession -- When a pass in not completed (e.g. out of bounds, drop, block, interception), the defense immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes the offense.

  6. Substitutions -- Players not in the game may replace players in the game after a score and during an injury timeout.

  7. Non-contact -- No physical contact is allowed between players. Picks and screens are also prohibited. A foul occurs when contact is made.

  8. Fouls -- When a player initiates contact on another player a foul occurs. When a foul disrupts possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player committing the foul disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.

  9. Self-Refereeing -- Players are responsible for their own foul and line calls. Players resolve their own disputes.

  10. Spirit of the Game -- Ultimate stresses sportsmanship and fair play. Competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of respect between players, adherence to the rules, and the basic joy of play.

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Created by: Christina Chang & Kris Man
Date created: April 25, 2003