The sport of Ultimate was invented in 1968 by a group of students from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. Modern Ultimate is played with seven players per side and players must move the disc by throwing it to a teammate. A team scores by catching the disc in the endzone, and if the disc is intercepted or hits the ground, possession instantly switches, and the other team attempts to advance toward the opposite endzone.

At the most introductory level, ultimate is very simple and still an excellent athletic outlet. Running, catching, and throwing the disc with accuracy are required to start out. As an athlete advances to higher levels, they learn strategy as well as how to sprint, change direction, jump, lay out, and throw a wider variety of throws. Spectacular plays, such as “lay outs” – diving to make a catch or block a pass, “hucks” – long throws with pinpoint accuracy to a receiver in motion – and “skys” – when one player out-jumps another for a high-floating disc – are a mainstay of the sport.

Ultimate is considered an alternative sport, meaning it has challenged accepted Western concepts of modern achievement and sport. Its initial rise in popularity during the height of American counterculture, a time when middle class, college educated students looked for ways to escape and resist culture of their parental generation, solidified Ultimate’s depiction in the public psyche as being alternative and associated with hippie culture. The rules of the sport are emblematic of this time – there are no referees, games are communally officiated, and demonstrating respect for opponents is codified into the sport’s main tenet, “Spirit of the Game.” Athletes learn, through experiencing conflict on the field, to voice their point of view and negotiate with their opponent. This fosters a community that can be more social and welcoming than traditional Western sports. “Time and time again, athletes will tell you they came for the sport and stayed for the community” (USA Ultimate, 2021).

When an Ultimate player is just picking up the sport, their first introduction to organized play is commonly in a local league that lasts for two to three months of the year, a high school team that lasts for a semester, or a college team that plays year-round except for the summer break. As players become more experienced and want to play more competitively, they can join club teams which play for four to six months of the year and compete for bids in the national club championship, considered the most elite annual tournament in the U.S. All these opportunities are amateur or pay-to-play.

There are three semi-professional leagues in the U.S., the open American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) and the women’s Premier Ultimate League (PUL) and Western Ultimate League (WUL), in which players’ expenses are paid by the teams and players earn a per-game wage, or salary in some cases. The AUDL played their first season seven years before the PUL, drawing in significant interest, viewership, and external sponsorship of Ultimate, while only showcasing and supporting men in the sport. As is the case with amateur Ultimate, the men’s side of professional competition was developed earlier than the women’s side and continues to be much larger and more resourced.