58
OCTOBER 2013
•
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
“Those are the plays the fans
really appreciate,” says Josh Moore, 33, an
accountant responsible for the pairing of
the words “professional” and “ultimate.”
Moore’s vision was realized in April of
last year, when theAmericanUltimateDisc
League (AUDL) played its first match. Like
all new professional sports leagues, the
AUDL faced challenges, including a con-
tentious lawsuit, failing franchises and the
departure of its inaugural championship
team, which le a er the close of the 2012
season to start a rival league called Major
League Ultimate (MLU). Today, a sport
that just two and a half years agowas only
played for fun has two pro leagues, 20 pro
teams and millions of dollars riding on its
success. While detractors argue that the
gamewas nevermeant to go beyond shirt-
less college students passing time between
classes, the most ardent believers say it’s
poised to become America’s next great
spectator sport. And the key, saysMoore, is
having theuninitiatedwitness spectacular
plays likeCarpenter’s. “It’s the equivalent of
a slam dunk,” he says.
Like many sports, ultimate has fuzzy
origins. What’s certain is that a group of
enterprising New Jersey high school kids
first wrote down the rules in 1968—just 10
years a er Wham-O introduced the Fris-
bee to the world. The game’s objective was
familiar (score by ge ing the disc into the
end zone) and the techniques involved ele-
ments of football (throwing), soccer (team
movement) andbasketball (abanon travel-
ing). For all that, the game’s prestige didn’t
rise much higher than that of hopscotch.
That changed in 1972, when Rutgers
and Princeton squared off in the first
intercollegiate game on a patch of black-
top at Rutgers’ New Brunswick campus.
Today, there are roughly 7 million people
worldwide who play the game, including
television’s Bill Nye the Science Guy.
But until the AUDL launched last year,
no one watched. The first step for Moore
was showing the potential of the sport to
prospective owners, whopaidup to $20,000
for a team, according to one observer.
“Some people thought it was a scam,”
says Moore, adding that even those who
didn’t were skeptical. “They had images in
their mind of econ majors throwing the
Frisbee around the quad. Until they saw
it, they didn’t really knowwhat it was.”
Actually watching a game is what con-
vinced AlleyCats president Thom Held
to join the league. He first learned of the
AUDL fromhis brother, who read an ad for
prospective owners online. “The first thing
I asked him is if he had bumped his head,”
Held says. “Then I went to a tournament.
I saw some athletic plays and said, ‘This
will work.’ If it can excite me, a 53-year-old
who grew up watching baseball, football,
basketball and hockey, it should be much
easier to convince younger people.”
Along with Held, seven other owners
got in on the ground floor of the AUDL,
and Moore began concentrating on rule
changes thatwouldmake the free-flowing
game more fan-friendly. Rather than play-
ing toa set score, AUDL teams arebeholden
toa clock.Moorealsowidened thefieldand,
most significantly, added referees.
It matters who you see
210-354-2020
SA.MANRIQUEEYE.COM
15900 LA CANTERA PARKWAY, SUITE 20215
SAN ANTONIO, TX 78256
2518 W. TRENTON ROAD, EDINBURG, TX 78539
956.661.9000
Your vision has a huge impact
of your efficiency on the job!
• Glasses can become
damaged or unusable.
• Working long hours while wearing
contacts can blur your vision.
• Carrying an extra pair of glasses
or all the cleaning supplies for
contacts can be a hassle while
working to get the job done.
without your
glasses and contacts
SEE
NOW!
Tracy Lawrence could have gone anywhere
on this planet to get his Lasik procedure
done, but he chose Manrique Custom Vision
Text
LASIK
to
45384
to redeem your
$1500
zlasik discount
“Some [prospective
team owners]
thought it was a
scam. They had
images of econ
majors throwing
the Frisbee
around the quad.”
