Ultimate Frisbee Combines Skill and Fun

If you see a bunch of students throwing a Frisbee around, it might be more than just a leisurely game of toss. It could be an Ultimate Frisbee match.

The sport, commonly called Ultimate, is popular on campus, and students take it seriously—but not too seriously. There are two club teams at Rice—the men’s team, Cloud 9, and the women’s team, Miss Red. There also are college and intramural leagues for students who aren’t members of the two clubs but want to learn the sport and play competitively.

Ultimate, says men’s team captain Eric Williams, is a game anyone can play, yet it can take a lifetime to learn all the ins and outs. It combines skills and rules with a bit of irreverence—like settling issues that can’t be agreed on in the self-officiated game with “rock, paper, scissors.” The teams’ websites—which can both be reached through http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~ultimate/—offer even more evidence of the fun atmosphere of Ultimate Frisbee at Rice.

A game of Ultimate starts with two teams of seven facing off on a field 70 yards long and 40 yards wide with 25-yard end zones. One team “pulls,” or kicks off, and the team on offense passes the Frisbee back and forth until it’s caught by a player in the end zone for a point.

Turnovers occur when the offense drops the disc or when the defense catches it. There are either man or zone defenses, just like in football and basketball. Games generally are played to 15 points, with a win by two. But when time is a factor, point caps are implemented, which can lead to an Ultimate Point, the most climactic scenario in the game, Williams says. That’s when the score is tied and the next point will determine the winner.

There is a lot of skill involved in the game, Williams says, and it can been seen in plays such as layouts, where a player jumps to either catch a disc or defend a disc from an opponent. A “world’s greatest,” or simply, “greatest”—again, a bit of irreverence—is performed by jumping, usually completely horizontally, from inbounds, catching the disc in the air, and then throwing it back into the field of play before hitting the ground.

“No other sport has quite the level of bodily sacrifice as Ultimate,” Williams notes. “The level of commitment to the game—especially by extremely high-level players—is what makes the sport so fun to watch.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams practice a couple times per week during the fall and spring semesters, and they compete in tournaments throughout the academic year. Cloud 9 was the sectional champs from 1997 to 2001, the regional champions in 1997 and 2000, and a national qualifier from 1997 to 2000. The women’s team has seen success too, including qualifying for the nationals in 2000.

The biggest problem for Miss Red, says team captain Cindy Burning, is lack of participation. There were only 11 players on the 2004–05 roster, which means there weren’t enough people for a seven-on-seven scrimmage at practices. But there are benefits to having a small team, she says. The players are very close, and they socialize together for dinner and movie nights and even karaoke outings.

The men’s and women’s team have fun on their road trips throughout Texas and to Louisiana and Oklahoma, often attending parties thrown by the host teams. The teams also enjoy their practices and coed pickup games for all undergraduate and graduate students and alumni on Monday evenings.

“Both Cloud 9 and Miss Red focus on team atmosphere and enjoyment,” Williams says, “but we take the tournaments seriously. As with any sport, it is more fun to win.”

—Dana Benson