Where the Frisbee First Flew

The Untold Story of the Flying Disc's Origin 50 Years Ago in SLO BY JEFF McMAHON Two men held a circle of plastic over a heater in a San Luis Obispo garage in 1948, trying to mold a lip onto the disc's down-turned edge. One of those men would be hailed as the inventor of the Frisbee. The other would die unknown, just as he began to fight for a share of the credit and millions in royalties the Frisbee generated. The First to Fly Walter Frederick Morrison came to Warren Franscioni in 1947, looking for work. Both men had been Army Air Corps pilots in World War II. Maj. Franscioni served with the Air Transport Service in India and China; Lt. Morrison flew a fighter in 58 missions over Italy before being shot down and held in Stalag 13, Germany's infamous prison camp. Franscioni's parents lived in Paso Robles, where his father had been mayor, so he settled after the war in San Luis Obispo. He founded a butane company as his father had done in Paso. He built a home on Conejo Avenue, in a neighborhood developing near San Luis High School, and he opened the Franscioni and Davis Butane Co. office at 884 Broad St., across Broad from Mission College Prep. "I first met Fred Morrison in late 1947," Franscioni wrote in a 1973 letter. "He was a struggling World War II veteran trying to build a home for his family at Baywood Park, a developing residential area just outside San Luis Obispo, California. "At that time, I was attempting to establish a bottle gas business with a partner, George Davis, in San Luis Obispo. We needed someone to assist in the installation of home heating appliances, and Fred went to work for us." The bottled gas business moved too slowly in postwar SLO to sustain three men and their families. So Franscioni and Morrison dreamed up an enterprise on the side. For decades kids had played catch with metal pie tins. The sport grew in popularity during the Depression, and soldiers spread it across the country during the war. The game had a few drawbacks. The tins made a shrill noise, and if you didn't catch them just right, they stung. After a few crash landings they could crack or develop sharp edges that cut fingers. Morrison and Franscioni thought of casting them in plastic, a material proliferated by wartime industry. Morrison took credit for the idea in later interviews, but Franscioni said they thought of it together. "I do know that when we compared some of our past experiences at sailing things, it came out plastics," Franscioni wrote.

It seems like a simple idea today, but Morrison and Franscioni broke new ground. And after 49 years of improvements, the Frisbee has diverged little from their first plastic interpretation of a pie tin. "People were throwing paint can lids and paper plates and pie pans throughout history, since they were invented," said Victor Malafronte, a Frisbee historian in Alameda. "The first plastic disc was that Flyin' Saucer in 1948." Morrison and Franscioni used a lathe to carve their first model out of Tenite, a hard cellulose material now used in toothbrush handles and eyeglass frames. That disc confirmed the aerodynamics of the toy, but it shattered on landing. "I tackled the job of working up a design that would transform the pie-tin shape into what we believed would be the best configuration of an injectionmolded Flyin' Saucer," Franscioni wrote. Franscioni's daughter, Coszette Eneix, remembers her father and Morrison working in the basement of their Conejo Avenue home. "I remember one time--I was like 5--I remember standing in the basement downstairs, and I remember over the water heater they were trying to mold this plastic thing to try to get a lip on it," Eneix said. Newspapers had coined the term "flying saucer" less than a year earlier when a pilot reported seeing disc-shaped objects skipping through the air above the Cascade Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. The Roswell incident in June 1947 fueled the flying saucer craze. Witnesses in Roswell, N.M., reported seeing the bodies of aliens at a UFO crash site. Franscioni and Morrison named the new toy to capitalize on the publicity. "Hundreds of flying saucers are scheduled to invade San Luis Obispo in the near future," the Telegram-Tribune reported in 1948. "Two local men, pooling resources after the words 'flying saucers' shocked the world a year ago, have invented a new, patented plastic toy shaped like the originally reported saucer." The Saucer Crash People have purchased more than 200 million Frisbees in the last 50 years, Malafronte estimates, more than baseballs, footballs, and basketballs combined. Those booming sales, however, began with a whimper. In 1948, people didn't know what to make of the Flyin' Saucer. Morrison and Franscioni formed a company called Partners in Plastic, or Pipco, based in SLO. They contracted with Southern California Plastic Co. in Glendale to manufacture Flyin' Saucers for about 25 cents each. They sold them for $1 through outlets like Woolworth and Disneyland. "We soon found the item was a dead issue on the counter," Franscioni wrote, "which prompted our offer to demonstrate in the store. Woolworth put Fred and me in a cage to protect the customers. It worked, but not for long. We soon realized the only place to demonstrate was outdoors." Morrison and his wife traveled to county fairs to hawk the flying disc. Franscioni sometimes joined them, Eneix said, but he usually remained in

SLO, handling national sales and keeping Pipco's books. The demonstrations won people's attention. They hadn't seen anything fly like the disc, which remained aloft long after gravity would have pulled a ball back to earth. Some observers thought the disc followed an invisible wire, and Morrison capitalized on that notion. He offered the disc for free if customers paid $1 for the invisible wire. Teaching people how to throw the disc became another challenge. Americans seem born to the art of Frisbee throwing today, but it required a new skill in 1948. "By running through the instructions you will see that we repeatedly point out that an easy smooth snap of the wrist is all that is necessary," Franscioni wrote. Flyin' Saucers came with directions urging people not to throw the discs too hard or hold them too tight, and to launch them "in exactly the same manner as sailing your hat onto a hook." Franscioni and Morrison's early marketing efforts occasionally backfired. A Disneyland employee demonstrating the Flyin' Saucer accidentally overshot a fence and hit a woman in the head. She sued, and Disney halted its demonstrations. Then Morrison and Franscioni struck a deal with Al Capp, who agreed to include the Flyin' Saucer in his "Li'l Abner" cartoon strip. That strip appeared in national newspapers sometime around 1950. Franscioni and Morrison printed "Li'l Abner" inserts and packaged them with their Flyin' Saucers to capitalize on the publicity. The inserts infuriated Capp, who felt they exceeded the terms of their agreement. Capp threatened to sue and demanded $5,000 in compensation. "I was really hurt. How could Li'l Abner do this to my daddy?" Eneix said. "That was a hunk of change that put them down. That was quite a bit of money back then." Franscioni and Morrison were already struggling to meet the cost of casting the original dies for the Flyin' Saucer. The Capp payoff devastated Pipco. Franscioni borrowed $2,500 from his mother and $2,500 from his mother-inlaw, Eneix said, and the demise of the Flyin' Saucer began. Eneix and her sister went door to door in SLO selling the discs for 25 cents. Today, collectors will pay $500 for an original Pipco Flyin' Saucer. The Plot Thickens The Franscioni and Davis Butane Co. crashed at about the same time as Pipco. In 1950, Walter Franscioni had to sell the Conejo Avenue home where the Frisbee was born. He moved to Greenville, worked as a trucker, and applied for reactivation in the Air Force. "I remember us losing our home and how hard that was," Eneix said. "Korea was happening then, and my father then applied for being recalled back into

the service, but he continued trying to get the Flyin' Saucer thing to go." The Air Force moved the Franscionis to South Dakota in 1952. Morrison moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a building inspector, and the inventors of the Flyin' Saucer drifted apart. Southern California Plastic Co. continued to produce the discs, and Morrison continued to sell them. Eneix keeps folders full of yellowing letters and old business records to document what happened next. Some of those records show that Morrison began manufacturing his own flying disc on the side. Morrison set up a new company, American Trends, redesigned the disc to make it look more like a flying saucer, and called it the Pluto Platter. Morrison began selling the Pluto Platter while still accepting sales commissions on the Flyin' Saucer, according to Ed Kennedy, the president of Southern California Plastic Co. "We had just found out that Fred Morrison had another die built on the Flyin' Saucer and was merchandising the product under the name of Pluto's Platter," Kennedy wrote in a 1957 letter to Franscioni. "During the time that he was having the saucer made, he was also accepting sales commissions from the company here." Kennedy accused Morrison of trying to steal Flyin' Saucer accounts by offering Pluto Platters at a lower cost. "In my opinion, Fred acted completely unfairly on this entire thing," Kennedy wrote, "and we certainly will never do business with him again." Southern California Plastic Co. severed its relationship with Morrison and contacted a patent attorney. The question of patent violations never went to court, however, and has never been resolved. The Wham-O Frisbee Morrison was demonstrating his Pluto Platter in a Los Angeles parking lot in 1955 when Rich Knerr and Spud Melin spotted the unusual flying object. Knerr and Melin had founded their own toy company back in 1948, the year Franscioni and Morrison were developing the Flyin' Saucer. Knerr and Melin had one product, a wooden slingshot. They named their company for the sound the slingshot's pellets made on impact--Wham-O. Morrison signed a contract with Wham-O, and Knerr and Melin sold the Pluto Platter with a marketing expertise Morrison and Franscioni never showed. Knerr came up with the new name for the disc. Knerr was visiting East Coast college campuses in the mid-1950s, giving away Pluto Platters to seed market demand. At Yale he encountered students tossing metal pie tins and yelling "Frisbie!" the way golfers yell "Fore!" Historians have traced that tradition to a Bridgeport, Conn., baker named William Russell Frisbie. In 1871 Frisbie moved to Bridgeport to manage the local branch of the Olds Baking Co. He eventually bought the bakery and renamed it Frisbie Pie Co. Frisbee historian Malafronte believes truck drivers for the company were the

first to toss Frisbie Pie tins on the loading docks during idle times. The tins bore the words "Frisbie's Pies" and had six small holes in the center, in a star pattern, that hummed when the tin flew. The sport moved to Eastern colleges, where students shouted "Frisbie!" to warn people of incoming pie tins. A sport developed and took on the name "Frisbie-ing." Knerr took the word home to Wham-O, misspelled it "Frisbee," and registered it as a trademark. In 1958, Morrison's Pluto Platter became the Wham-O Frisbee. Southern California Plastic Co. continued to make Flyin' Saucers for Disneyland and a few other outlets. It handled sales and mailed royalty checks to Franscioni until the mid-1960s, when he headed to Vietnam. The Bitter Toy Many American homes have housed a Frisbee, but Coszette Eneix's home is not among them. "Every time I see a Frisbee I just want to cringe," she said. "I get angry inside. It shouldn't be called Frisbee. It isn't Frisbee. How come they're calling it Frisbee? That's not right. It's Flyin' Saucer." Eneix hasn't decided whether to use her files of yellowing papers in a lawsuit or in a book, but she wants justice for her father. "I want it in the history books, as it comes down, that my father was there, not Fred Morrison alone," she said. "When you read about the history of the Frisbee, you always hear Fred Morrison. Fred Morrison did this. Fred Morrison did that. Bullshit. Excuse my language. Bullshit. It was Warren Franscioni and Fred Morrison. It was a partnership. I think they should have equal billing." The International Frisbee Hall of Fame in Lake Linden, Mich., reserves its primary listing for Morrison. "Fred Morrison, Inventor of the Frisbee," it says. "Walter F. (Fred) Morrison has provided pleasure to millions of people throughout the world. He was the first person to envision the creation of a plastic disc to be used as a substitute for a ball in a game of catch." Wham-O went on to market the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball, the Water Wiggle, and other toys, but Frisbee remained its most profitable product. In 1977, 20 years after Wham-O began selling Frisbees, it generated up to 50 percent of the company's annual sales. At the time, Wham-O estimated it had sold 100 million flying discs. Morrison told the Los Angeles Times in 1977 he had made about $1 million in royalties. Nearly all written histories of the Frisbee attribute its invention to Morrison. Stancil E.D. Johnson, a Pacific Grove psychiatrist, may have been the first to mention Warren Franscioni in a footnote in his 1975 book, "Frisbee." Johnson heard about Franscioni from Ed Kennedy, the president of the Southern California Plastic Co. In 1973, Johnson contacted Franscioni, who

was then an Air Force colonel stationed in Oslo, Norway. He asked Franscioni to write down his memories of the flying disc's origin. Franscioni sent Johnson one letter in August 1973. "I have had time to evaluate my initial concern about whether your book might interfere in any future legal proceedings about the subject," Franscioni wrote. "I have come to the conclusion that your book, if based upon the facts, would not." Franscioni argues that he designed the first Flyin' Saucer, not Morrison, that he paid for the initial mold with his own money, and that the two men jointly developed the idea of casting it in plastic. Franscioni began a second letter to Johnson in 1974, but he never completed it. He died of a heart attack at age 57. "Fred Morrison never wanted to admit this," Johnson said. "Franscioni died and never was able to come back and get his share of the profits." Franscioni might have acted earlier. Ed Kennedy urged him to take legal action against Morrison as early as 1957. "Other people were asking my father to do something--stop him, sue him, stop him," Eneix said, "but we were in South Dakota. My father was getting his career going again as an officer in the Air Force, and that was taking a lot of his time. And I think my mom was leery of putting more money into this thing." In 1957, the Frisbee had not yet made its millions. The rights to the toy hardly seemed worth the cost of a lawsuit. "There was a lot of disappointment in the '50s, and they were hurt, really hurt," Eneix said. "So we all started quieting down and not talking about it. That's what we do in my family. We don't talk about it. Then we didn't fly the Flyin' Saucer much anymore on picnics. It was too painful to keep remembering it because we were losing it." The Silent Inventor Morrison, 77, now calls himself "Walt" and lives near Monroe, Utah, a town of 1,700 people in the Sevier River valley. He owned a motel there and operated it with his third wife until he retired three years ago. Morrison has an old pickup truck, but he rarely drives it into town. "He lives in a house in the country and seems to enjoy life," said Mark Fullenbaugh, publisher of the Richfield Reaper. "I haven't seen him in person in about six months. You don't see him out much, so I can't tell you much more than that about him." Morrison declined to be interviewed for this story. "Well, I'd like to be a nice guy and say yes, but I'm so tired of this shit," Morrison said.

"It's been done so many times, so many ways, that I just don't do it anymore. I'm an old man now and I just haven't got time for this. I want to just sit back in my chair and sleep." Morrison has always been "cagey" about the facts of the Frisbee's birth, according to Malafronte, who met Morrison at Frisbee tournaments. "I had asked Fred about his partner, and he owns up to it," Malafronte said. "The problem is, I think Fred has a lot of stuff he can lose and nothing to gain by talking." Meanwhile, Mattel Corp. is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Frisbee this year, even though the plastic flying disc turns 50 next year. Mattel, the world's largest toy company, bought Wham-O in 1994. It dates the Frisbee's official birth as 1957, when Wham-O first marketed Morrison's Pluto Platter. Mattel has no knowledge of plastic flying discs that may have existed before 1957, said Mattel spokeswoman Sara Rosales, nor of their inventors. Jeff McMahon hurls amazing whirling adjectives for New Times.

Flying disc
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Frisbee" redirects here. For the amusement ride, see Frisbee (ride). For the type of UFO, see Flying saucer. For the sport, sometimes called Ultimate Frisbee, see Ultimate (sport).

A Frisbee made by Wham-O

Flying discs[1] are disc-shaped gliders which are generally plastic and roughly 20 to 25 centimeters (810 inches) in diameter, with a lip. The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to fly by generating lift as it moves through the air while rotating.

The term Frisbee, often used uncapitalized generically to describe all flying discs (as Kleenex may be used to describe all types of tissues) is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company. Such use is not encouraged by the company, whose concern is that the use of the name in generic fashion may put the trademark in jeopardy.[citation needed] Flying discs are thrown and caught for free-form recreation and as part of many different flying disc games. A wide range of flying disc variants are available commercially. Disc golf discs are usually smaller but denser and are tailored for particular flight profiles to increase/decrease stability and distance. Disc dog sports use relatively slow flying discs made of more pliable material to better resist a dog's bite and prevent injury to the dog. Flying rings are also available which typically fly significantly farther than any traditional flying disc. There are illuminated discs meant for night time play that use phosphorescent plastic, or battery powered light emitting diodes. There are also discs that whistle when they reach a certain velocity in flight.
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Flying disc games 3 Physics 4 See also 5 References

5.1 Further reading

6 External links

[edit]History

A person throwing a flying disc;Mackinaw City, Michigan

The clay target used in trapshooting, almost identical to a flying disc in shape, was designed in the 19th century. Walter Frederick Morrison discovered a market for the modern day flying disc [2] in 1938 when he and his future wife Lucile were offered 25 for a cake pan that they were tossing back and forth to each other on the beach in Santa Monica, California. "That got the wheels turning, because you could buy a cake pan for 5 cents, and if people on the beach were willing to pay a quarter for it, well, there was a business", Morrison told the Virginian-Pilot in 2007.[cite this quote] They continued their business until World War II when he served in the army Air Forces flying P-47s and spent time as a prisoner of war. Upon his return from the war, Morrison sketched a design for anaerodynamically-improved flying disc he dubbed the Whirlo-Way. By 1948 after design

modifications and experimentation with several prototypes, Morrison and his business partner Warren Franscioni began producing the first plastic discs. They re-named their invention Flyin-Saucer in the wake of reported UFO sightings. "We worked fairs, demonstrating it", Morrison told the Virginian-Pilot. "That's where we learned we could sell these things, because people ate them up." Morrison and Franscioni ended their partnership in 1950. After further design refinements in 1955, Morrison began producing a new disc, which he called the Pluto Platter. He sold the rights to Wham-O in 1957, the company named the disc the Frisbee and the following year, Morrison was awarded US Design Patent 183,626 for his flying disc. "I thought the name was a horror. Terrible", he told the Press-Enterprise of Riverside[cite this quote] in 2007. In 1982 Morrison told Forbesmagazine[cite this quote] he had received about $2 million in royalty payments and said "I wouldn't change the name of it for the world".[3] In 1957,[4] Wham-O co-founder Richard Knerr decided to stimulate sales by giving the discs the additional brand name "Frisbee" (pronounced "FRIZ'-bee") after hearing that East Coast college students were calling the Pluto Platter by that name, the term "Frisbee" coming from the name of the New England pie manufacturer Frisbie Pie Company[5]. The man who was behind the Frisbee's phenomenal success however was "Steady" Ed Headrick, hired in 1964 as Wham-O's new General Manager and Vice President in charge of marketing. Headrick soon redesigned the Pluto Platter by reworking the rim thickness, and top design, creating a more controllable disc that could be thrown accurately. [6] Sales soared for the toy, which was marketed as a new sport. In 1964, the first "professional" model went on sale. Headrick patented the new design as the Frisbee patent, highlighting the Rings of Headrick and marketed and pushed the professional model Frisbee and "Frisbee" as a sport. (US Patent 3,359,678).[7] Headrick, commonly known as the "Father of Disc Sports",[8] later founded "The International Frisbee Association (IFA)" and began establishing standards for various sports using the Frisbee such as Distance, Freestyle and Guts. Upon his death Headrick was crematedand, in accordance with his final requests, his ashes were molded into memorial Frisbees and given to family and close friends.[9] [edit]Flying

disc games

Main article: Flying disc games

Crosbee Disc dog Disc golf Dodge disc Durango boot Double disc court

Flutterguts Freestyle Fricket (a.k.a. disc cricket, cups, Suzy sticks, crispy wickets) Friskee Goaltimate

Guts Hot box Kan-jam Polish horseshoes Schtick Ultimate

[edit]Physics

Main article: Physics of flying discs

A person catching a flying disc

Lift is generated in primarily the same way as a traditional asymmetric airfoil, that is, by accelerating upper airflow such that a pressure difference gives rise to a lifting force. Small ridges near the leading edge act as turbulators, reducing flow separation by forcing the airflow to becometurbulent after it passes over the ridges. The rotating flying disc has a vertical angular momentum vector, stabilizing its attitudegyroscopically. Depending on the crosssectional shape of the airfoil, the amount of lift generated by the front and back parts of the disc may be unequal. If the disc were not spinning, this would tend to make it pitch. When the disc is spinning, however, such a torque would cause it toprecess about the roll axis, causing its trajectory to curve to the left or the right. Most discs are designed to be aerodynamically stable, so that this roll is self-correcting for a fairly broad range of velocities and rates of spin. However, many disc golf discs are intentionally designed to be unstable. Higher rates of spin lead to better stability, and for a given rate of spin, there is generally a range of velocities that are stable. Even a slight deformation in a disc (called a "Taco," as extreme cases look like a taco shell) can cause adverse affects when throwing long range. It can be observed by holding the disc horizontally at eye level and looking at the rim while slowly rotating the disc.

Ultimate Frisbee Tournament

by John Baird Tech News Staff

Two groups faced each other from across the football field. They knew what was at stake. One would win; the other would lose. Both were determined not to let the chance at glory escape them. With the flash of a disc flying across the field, the game began. The two teams in question were the Apathetics, with Captain Nicholas Paquette, and the APO

Squad, with Captain Max Pistilli. The latter consisted entirely of Alpha Phi Omega brothers and pledges and represented the community service fraternity in the Third Annual Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. Robert Redden, who began the competition in his freshman year with the help of Zaheer Kapadia and David Emery, runs the tournament. Games are held every weeknight after 10 p.m. on the football field, with two games Friday and make-up games on Sunday nights. Each team referees themselves and can play in any kind of weather, including snow. Everyone who participates receives a Frisbee. The tournament is supported by many of the campus departments, including Residential Services, Student Life, and SAO with the remaining money in the SOAP fund. There's also been a lot of help from the staff, such as Jeff Tanona, the field groundskeeper who lets students in to use the field at night. According to Redden: "He's fought a lot of battles within the Athletics Department for us." The tournament is also very popular with students. "A lot of people say it's one of the most organized events on campus," said Redden; "Ultimate Frisbee has always been huge oncampus." Even though the games are held after 10 p.m., this year boasts 17 teams and over 160 people. The event has been held in D Term for three years, each time with a steadily growing number of participants. "The first year, it was 8 teams and 82 people," said Redden, "the second it was 12 teams and 120 people." Some teams have participated since the beginning. "The older teams have their own cheering sections," according to Redden. The Ultimate Frisbee Club has sent teams to two of the three tournaments, even though they are not directly affiliated with the event. Who does Redden expect to win the tournament this year? "Team 5, the Ultimate Frisbee Team with Matt Stanley as captain is expected to win this year." The last game is scheduled for April 25. One reason Redden cites as a source of popularity for the tournament is that none of the players takes the competition too seriously. "I don't want it to be a hard competition. I want it to be fun for everyone. The one thing that is unique is that the rules [for the tournament] don't follow exactly the rules for Ultimate Frisbee. I adapted them for the competition." However, this year will mark Redden's final year as head of the tournament. He will be going to Tufts next year through the pre-veterinary program, leaving Emery and Kapadia to run it in his place. Peace had settled on the field. The two sides had left. All that was left were a few footprints on the muddy ground. The conflict was over, and the winner had been decided. The score was 10 - 7 with the APO Squad emerging victorious.

Ultimate Frisbee Tournament Rules

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

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. Team Seven players per team; each team must have at least two females. Scoring Each time the offense completes a pass in the defenses endzone, the offense scores a point. Play is initiated after each score. Movement of the Disc The disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate (a female player should be involved in every other try for a point). Players may not run with the disc. The person with the disc (thrower) has 10 seconds to release the disc. The defender guarding the disc (marker) counts out the stall count aloud. Change of Possession When a pass is not completed (ie out-of-bounds, drop, block, interception), the defense immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes the offense. Substitutions Players not in the game may replace players in the game after a score and during an injury timeout. Male must sub for males, and females for females. Non-contact NO PHYSICAL CONTACT MAY BE MADE BETWEEN PLAYERS! PICKS AND SCREENS ARE ALSO PROHIBBITED! THESE ACTIVITIES CONSTITUTE A FOUL. 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. Self-Refereeing Players are responsible for their own foul and line calls. Players should resolve their own disputes, even when an official is present. 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.

History UltimateMalaysia.com

ULTIMATE HISTORY
In 1968 the student staff of the school paper at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey USA started the game as a gag looking for something to do to occupy their free evenings. In those early days they would have 20 or 30 players on a team. Over time they developed the rules to eliminate running with the disc, limit team sizes, and set rules for defensive plays. As it turns out, they loved the game so much that they referred to it as the ultimate game. The game of Ultimate was born. As those students moved on to different universities they brought their love and passion for the game with them. For more information check out this site: www.whatisultimate.com

ULTIMATE IN MALAYSIA
Ultimate has been played in Malaysia for a number of years, but mostly among some of the foreigners living in Kuala Lumpur who had learned the sport in their home countries. Some of the locals who joined in had learned the sport while studying overseas. This began to change in 2003 when a number of students at UiTM Dungun (Terengganu) were introduced to the sport while participating in a cultural exchange programme with visiting American students. They had so much fun playing Ultimate that they asked the programme organizers, Global Sports Partners (GSP), to find some more discs in KL so that they could introduce the sport during a special camp for orphans that they were planning. After discovering that discs were hard to find locally, GSP decided to manufacture discs here in Malaysia in late 2003. The first MyDiscTM was produced in 2004. This proved to be the breakthrough for Ultimate in Malaysia as for the first time, a decent, affordable disc was available to help fuel the development of the sport. In May of 2004, a series of workshops for teachers was organized by GSP under the Selangor Department of Education. Teachers from more than 100 schools enjoyed learning to play and returned to their schools with discs, a demo video and instruction materials. While a few schools in Selangor began to play, the sport really began to grow in colleges and universities. The Star newspaper played a pivotal role in this growth. Following the Selangor schools initiative, a front page article with plenty of pictures got the attention of many local players who had enjoyed the sport while studying abroad, but did not realize the sport was taking off here in Malaysia. Several of these local players not only began to play, but began to encourage and support efforts to continue to grow the sport, especially in the colleges and universities. In each college or university, the sports officers were looking for new ideas but faced budget limitations. MyDisc and Ultimate Frisbee always received a warm response. A few months later, En Mustaza Ahmad, head of the UiTM sport unit recognized the potential of the sport and so introduced it to each of UiTM branch sports heads in every state. The first tournament was held in July of 2004, a triangular tournament organized by GSP and hosted by UiTM Shah Alam with UKM and UM also participating. A second tournament was held in September at UiTM, with Hitz.fm sponsoring the event. The Star continued to provide coverage with a series of articles, fanning the flame of the sport in a widening circle of colleges and universities. A second critical supporting element was the development of website, www.ultimatemalaysia.com that became a place not only for news to be reported but players to plan ongoing events and discuss aspects of the game. Unlike many sports that depend on pricey sponsorships or advertising, Ultimate has grown in Malaysia primarily by word of mouth and the efforts of those who catch the Ultimate bug to share the sport with their friends wherever they go. Still, the corporates have recognized the potential of Ultimate. In 2006, DIGI sponsored Ultimate in a National Service Programme (PLKN) pilot project. While wildly successful, NS budget cuts prevented the sport from becoming a permanent fixture. In July of that year, a tournament at UM saw 28 teams and more than 300 players taking part, again with support from DIGI. As the sport was growing in the colleges and universities, a growing number of teams were being formed in the community as well. Flying Naan and Satu Lagi are two of the more established teams whose players are a mixture of locals and foreigners and primarily working age adults. A number of students who have graduated have joined their ranks. These teams along with others (including student teams from UiTM) have represented Malaysia in international competitions held within the region. League play in Malaysia was kicked off in 2007 with four teams taking part in a round robin event held over three months. In November of 2008, the Malaysia Ultimate League (MUL) kicked off with six teams with matches scheduled to run into 2009. While more organized

play evolved in the Klang Valley, hubs for Ultimate began to grow in a number of other locations as well, including Melaka, Sabah, Sarawak, Negeri Sembilan and most recently, Penang. Two new websites,www.malaysiaultimate.com and www.sabahultimate.com have helped fuel some of this growth. Perhaps most significant has been a generation of university Ultimate players who have wrapped up their studies but not their love for Ultimate. These Ultimate enthusiasts have taken the sports to new states, schools and colleges and communities. The growth of Ultimate also began to catch the eye of a number of government ministries. While the Ministry of Youth and Sports had dabbled with Ultimate on several different occasions, it was the Department of National Unity and Integration (JPNIN) which began to take greater initiative in 2007, hosting several events and making plans for a national initiative. The Ministry of Education also began to take initiative in 2008, taking initiative in 2009 to invite school representatives from every state for a an Ultimate Clinic which was held in Melaka. It is expected that 2010 will witness even greater attention to the sport with growing support from educational leadership for developing a greater sports culture in the nation with every student taking part. The growth in Malaysia has parallel the growth of the sport in the region. International tournaments are held almost on a monthly basis; Singapore has long been a leader in the region, always hosting a tournament in late August or early September. Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines all host tournaments throughout the year. The first Malaysian Open was held in 2007; in 2008 Soidawgz of Thailand defeated Freakshow of Singapore in the finals held at Padang Merbok in KL. In 2009 and upcoming in May of 2010, the Malaysian Ultimate Open will once again be held at Alice Smith International School in Serdang. A full slate of teams from throughout Asia Pacific including Australia are expected to participate. The best is certainly yet to come as the sport continues to grow not only in Malaysia, but in the region and around the world. The sport is sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee and now features regularly in the World Games, held every four years. It is estimated that there are more than 200,000 active players worldwide as the growth of the sport continues to accelerate. The Worldwide Flying Disc Federation (www.wfdf.org) is the umbrella body for clubs and associations around the world. An online search will quickly reveal the reach of the sport into every corner of the globe. A few minutes on www.youtube.com will let you see Ultimate played by men and women of various racial, cultural and religious backgrounds. Perhaps it can be best said that for Ultimate Frisbee in Malaysia and around the world that, the sky is the limit! At the end of the day, it is not the excitement of a fast-paced match, it is not the love of throwing or catching a disc, it is not the thrill of victory or other intricacies of the sport but rather the Spirit of the Game that wins hearts and bodies to Ultimate and keeps them captive. The Spirit of the Game reminds all that the most important thing are the relationships we develop whether on or off the pitch and in the end, our world will be a better place because of it.

WHO PLAYS/WHERE TO PLAY

Sat @ Varsity Green @ University of Malaya (UM) 9am-12.00 noon Sun @ UiTM, SA - Shah Alam campus, 9.00am-12.00 noon Mon @ ISKL - Ampang campus, 5.30-7.00pm Tues @ Inti College - Nilai campus, 6.00pm Tues @ KUTKM - Melaka, 5.30pm Wed @ KBU - Bandar Utama College, 5.30-7.00pm Thurs @ Inti College - Nilai campus, 6.00pm Thurs @ KUTKM - Melaka, 5.30pm

The best way to learn Ultimate is to play Ultimate. I have trained large groups of people many of whom have never touched a disc before. At the end of a session they will inevitably ask when are we going to play again? Malaysia is beginning to see Ultimate take root. As clubs form they will be able to post when and where they play so that others can join in the fun. We do not know where all the games in Malaysia so we have set up this space so everyone can find out. If you have a club (a group who regularly meets to play Ultimate) please register so others can join in. If you would like to play and there is not a club listed nearby try the message boards.

If you know where a game is being played but it is not posted yet here please send that information to us. ate is a fast-paced, non-contact sports played by both women and men of all ages, though you find that due to the high level exertion it is mostly played by those under 50. I have known some very good players over that age however so dont let this article dissuade you if you are interested in joining in the fun. The object is to score points by throwing the disc to your teammates until one of them catches it in the opponents endzone. The playing area is like a football pitch except the scoring is done in endzones (like American football) instead of goals. The Defense is doing all it can to keep the Offense from catching the disc. Any time a throw is not caught inbounds, whether it goes out of bounds, hits the ground, is knocked down, or is intercepted a change of possession takes place (called a turnover). Beware it is not that easy, a player cannot run with the disc. All progress must be made in the air. The sport combines great features from many traditional sports. Running and scoring drives like soccer; pivoting, turnovers, and defense like basketball; passing like netball (in that you cannot run after the catch); diving like volleyball. While a tournament format will spot teams of seven against each other on a large field of grass, the game is extremely flexible and can be played with fewer or greater numbers, on the beach or a small field (I have played indoors as well as on basketball courts). The key is to get some friends together, get a disc and some goal markers (an extra shirt will do) and get out and play. One important element that is unique to Ultimate is the Spirit of the Game. Ultimate is born out of friends playing a great game together. That is the essence of the Spirit of the Game. Even at the World Championships there are no referees. Players are expected to play fairly and respect their opponents. As strange as it may sound this camaraderie helps move the sport from good to Ultimate. For more information about how to play check out the 10 simple rules.

ULES 2 VERSIONS
10 Simple Rules (from http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/ferguson/ultimate/ultimate-simple.html) Originally written by Steve Courlang and Neal Dambra Copyright (c) Ultimate Players Association, 1993

1. 2. 3. 4.

The Field -- A rectangular shape with endzones at each end. A regulation field is 70 yards by 40 yards, with endzones 25 yards deep. 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. Scoring -- Each time the offense completes a pass in the defense's endzone, the offense scores a point. Play is initiated after each score. 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.