Harvard Helping Spur Growth of Ultimate

Under the lights and rain, the two teams battled for each point. There was blood, definitely sweat, and even a ripped jersey or two. Players were jumping and sprinting and fighting back any exhaustion that may have started to creep up in the nearly two-hour long game. The sidelines were roaring with each dodge and dive, and the occasional layout catch through the end-zone.

This was not a football game. Nor was it rugby. This was ultimate frisbee, and to most first-time watchers, the electric atmosphere of these games and the intensity on the field may come as a surprise.

For most students at Harvard, it may also be a surprise to learn that there is a team on campus, the nationally ranked Harvard Red Line.

The scene described above was that from the scrimmage last Wednesday night, when Harvard hosted the new professional team, the Boston Whitecaps. The latter is a member of the new Major League Ultimate (MLU), which has its inaugural season starting up this Saturday. Being very competitive, and conveniently local, the Red Line were open to host the pros in what would be their first exposure to game play since their franchise was born

After the worst of the storm passed through, the captains met in the middle. The first “pull” (similar to a kick-off in football) was determined by a coin flip and the teams took their start at each respective end line. With the throw, the action immediately commenced.

“It is a lot like seven on seven football,” said senior Misha Herscu, one of the captains for the Red Line. “Except that everyone is a wide receiver and a quarterback.”

The game was neck-and-neck. Points were shared, going back and forth until finally the Whitecaps pulled ahead to make it 8-6, and didn’t look back. A highlight of the game, which showed just one aspect of the incredible skill that this sport entails, came when a member of the visiting team dove through the end zone for an impressive, “layout” catch. The crowd went wild. After the time for three quarters ran out, the final score was 14-10, Boston.

“Whenever someone who hasn’t seen ultimate before watches a high level college or club team playing, they are always surprised by the speed and general high level of athleticism,” Herscu said. “It is an extremely exciting sport to watch.”

For a first time visitor to an Ultimate game, there is a lot to learn.  Teams will often have cheers that they perform from their sidelines as a tradition of the game. Additionally, the referee system involves observers to step in when the players cannot make the honest call themselves. This reflects the unique nature of the sport, which highlights the integrity that is upheld on the field.  Competitive ultimate is a new phenomenon, and Harvard is ahead of the game.

Starting in the 70s, the Red Line has grown to national acclaim, currently on the road to the final tournament, sitting as No. 12 in USA Ultimate Rankings. The 24 , crimson-clad players are led by coach Michael MacKenzie, and have upset top-ranked teams like Tufts, Arizona and Michigan this season.

The dream to start a new professional league came from a club team owner in Philadelphia, Jeff Snader. As the founder of MLU, he pulled together enough interest to get two divisions and one league for professional Ultimate.

“Those of us who gathered together to start this league know that ultimate is played by too many amazing athletes, features too many dramatic moments and produces too many incredible highlights to find itself on the sideline of spectator sports,” according to its website.

Jeff Graham is the captain for Boston Whitecaps and former coach for the Harvard Red Line. He started playing Ultimate his senior year in high school, when a few friends who just finished their first year in college showed him the popular, new sport that was spreading on their respective campuses.

After four competitive years of Ultimate at UMass Amherst, Graham went on to start a high school program with a friend in Hillsboro, ME, before coaching at Harvard. He returned the favor of spreading the sport to younger ages, as it was given to him, years later.

After dabbling in the amateur club level and devoting his weekends in the summer to tournaments, the opportunity for professionalism presented itself.

“Since I have been around for so long, [I] was trying to figure out in another construct if it [were] worth all the time and money to be dedicating to ultimate, but this professional activity was something that was new and exciting,” he said. “And it fit into my lifestyle, so I’m excited to be a part of it.”

The MLU front offices provide all the logistical work that Graham and other players once had to do themselves when they played at the club level. Players on the Whitecaps practice a few nights a week and receive a small stipend for their games.

“We’re not kidding ourselves, we aren’t the NFL,” he adds. “Some of the players on the team put in 40, 50, maybe 60 hours a week [to their careers], and then play professional Ultimate on the side.”

Despite now being a professional sport, the teams and players know that there is not a large preexisting fan base. Reaching down to youth Ultimate will be a major focus of the new Boston Franchise.

“There is a lot of action within the sport, and the people who started it were just looking for the best way to capture it,” he said. “How to make it marketable, make it thrill and get it out to more people. We are reaching out in sort of a grassroots effort to a lot to local high school teams, and local leagues that have been around here to make sure we make our team known to the ultimate community which is strong in not just the Boston area, but MA and New England as well.”

One high school that doesn’t need much outreach about ultimate is Amherst Regional High School, in Amherst, MA.

In 1989, English teacher Tiina Booth, gathered a couple students who lingered after class and she simply asked them if they wanted to play Frisbee. The rest is history.

Booth’s group of students soon evolved one of the best teams in the nation. Her creation of the Amherst Invitational Tournament in 1992, the oldest and largest high school ultimate tournament to date, brought the sport to a national level for high school students.

Booth was Herscu’s coach at ARHS, and she also has a former player on the Whitecaps.

“In the past six months, I’ve see more growth and more interesting operations taking hold than I’ve ever seen before,” Booth said. “There are new companies making gear, professional leagues forming, and two new online ultimate magazines just last year. It seems like it is just getting some kind of critical mass that I have not felt ever before."

Much of this growth is due to her efforts in raising youth participation in the sport. With a partner, she transformed her daily Ultimate camps in Amherst into the first national over-night camp for Ultimate, which now is serving students who come from overseas

“I think about ultimate a lot and how we can make it bigger and better,” she added. “And by bigger I don’t mean having all these bells and whistles, but bigger in having Frisbee in every kid’s hand who wants it.

Other efforts have come from a Harvard Alum, Nathan Salwen, who created ultimate day camps for elementary students in Amherst, which indirectly is how Herscu learned about the sport, in the second grade.

Ultimate has been receiving more visibility in the younger age groups thanks to the Internet. For example, Booth has had some of her high school players appear on ESPN’s daily Top-Ten Countdown.

This spread is also greatly due to Booth’s work as an author. In 2008 she wrote a book titled, Essential Ultimate: Teaching, Coaching, Playing.

“I used to be able to keep track of everything that was going on in the Ultimate World in the US pretty easily, just because we were small,” she said. “Now we’re just bigger, which is great. The sport is growing, at a tremendous pace, and I think that pro leagues will only help that.”

Besides being a rather new sport, Ultimate has no doubt struggled to gain the same acceptance that traditional sports hold based on its origins.

“I think because the sport was developed in the late 60s and first associated with the counter-community, it was branded as not a real sport,” Booth said. “But I think that has changed radically in the last 10 years.”

“Especially when I started 14 years ago before, the sport was not even growing at all, it was like, “Oh that's something you do with your dog,” Graham added. “People just really didn’t have an idea even if it was an individual sport, or a team sport. There is certainly a percentage of the population that doesn’t even know what it is.”

From youth camps to professionals, the recent efforts to spread this sport with hopefully change this going forward.

Between late-night practices and full-weekend tournaments, the Red Line represents Harvard in the Ultimate world, and does it well.

When the final whistle blew last week, the professional and amateurs shook hands. After a brief team meeting, the members of the home squad lined up, arm and arm facing the crowd of fans who came out to watch. In unison, the Red Line sang “10,000 Men of Harvard” as a ceremonial finish to the night.

In that moment, the crowd was reminded of a very important thing. No matter what marketing mechanics are used to spread the ultimate craze, it is the players themselves that make it all happen.