HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
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NOVEMBER 2013
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ILLUSTRATION BY WESLEY BEDROSIAN
57
the fan
T
TO THE UNINITIATED,
ultimate is a confus-
ing sport. The flying disc is familiar, but no
one calls it aFrisbee (mostlybecauseWham-
O trademarked the name). The field is the
same surface used for soccer or football,
but themovement is sca ered, the rhythm
herky-jerky and the strategy indecipher-
able. The short, safe passes that advance
the disc downfield are tame. For the most
part, the catches look easy. In addition to
confusing, it’s tempting to call the game
boring. I almost did.
But then, earlier this year at Indiana’s
Kuntz Stadium, near downtown India-
napolis, with 90 seconds remaining in the
first half of a professional ultimate game
between the hometown AlleyCats and
Chicago’s Windy City Wildfire, Luke Brod-
erick sawsomething no one else did. Fellow
AlleyCat Travis Carpenter was streaking
toward the end zone. Broderick snapped
a pass into the air. It sailed over a scrum
of players powerless to intercept it, curled
from the middle of the field to the sideline
and looked on its way to a lonely landing.
But Carpenter continued to sprint and, a
second before the disc hit the dirt, he dove,
snatching it inches from the ground and
sliding five yards across the grass and into
the end zone. As he lay there, limbs spread
out like a skydiver’s, the crowd erupted.
That wasn’t boring at all.
The Ultimate Question
Can a sport made for amateurs make it in the pros?
BY ADAMK. RAYMOND
