Cross-legged on Cumnock Fields at Harvard University under a breezy, sunny sky, Sara Schechner told stories of playing ultimate frisbee during her high school days in the early 1970s in Maplewood, New Jersey. Schechner was a part of the group of students who created the now internationally recognized sport. She then founded the ultimate frisbee program at Harvard in 1976.
Half a century later, Schechner returned to Harvard in a shirt printed with the original team logo. The program celebrated the 50th anniversary last weekend with a series of games and a banquet commemorating the history of the sport. Hundreds of program alumni flew to Cambridge from across the country — and one from Finland — to celebrate.
Schechner, who is curator emerita for the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard, threw the ceremonial first pull — a long throw across the field similar to a kickoff in football — midday Saturday, after mingling with current and graduated players. They played a series of themed scrimmages and field tests into late afternoon.
Ultimate – or ultimate frisbee, as it’s informally known – is similar to football, played with seven players on each side, starting behind goal lines. One team throws the disc to the other team, which tries to work the disc up the field to its goal line. When holding the disc, you cannot run or walk — you must throw to another player, while the other team tries to intercept it or knock it to the ground, either of which results in a change of possession. A goal is scored when the disc is caught behind the goal line. A hallmark of the sport is the “spirit of the game,” which holds every player responsible for engaging in good sportsmanship, as the games are self-refereed.
Schechner looked almost reverently around at the crowds of people mingling, reuniting and warming up to play.
“I feel like the mother of this whole group,” Schechner said, laughing and motioning to the fields. “I kind of gave birth to all this.”
The alumni regarded her as such, stopping to introduce themselves or their children and thank her for everything she has done for them. Now, Harvard Ultimate consists of three teams — Quasar, the women’s team, and the men’s A and B teams, called the Red Line and Bred Line — but it has not always looked the way it does today.
Eyes from the early days
“These weren’t the fields I played on, of course,” Schechner said, picking up a pinch of synthetic turf. At the height of her Harvard Ultimate career, Schechner played on the Radcliffe Quad, surrounded by her mostly male teammates.
The sport, co-ed and often associated with math and science nerds, ran counter to an otherwise sexist American culture at the time, Schechner said. She studied physics and history of science and often faced sexist remarks from classmates who questioned her academic merit in a male-dominated space.
“Back then it was a totally other world, and you were entering a domain where the old boys’ club, they didn’t want you,” Schechner said. The ultimate frisbee community, on the other hand, served “as an antidote to that.”
She did not realize how radical starting a co-ed student sports program was, she said, and it’s amazing to see what the program has inspired.
“It was always intended to be free and open, not a closed club,” Schechner said. “Frisbees were for all.”
Nathan Salwen was on the Harvard Ultimate Frisbee team in the early 1980s. By the time he left Harvard it was getting serious, with tournaments and travel to play other teams. There was no college division at the time, so the tournaments were open to club and college teams around Boston.
Salwen recalled one game where he and his teammates walked to Boston University, finding themselves on railroad tracks carrying their gear.
Salwen still plays. “It keeps me active,” he said. “Right now my knees are shot … but whenever I go on the field it doesn’t matter how slow I am, I still get to move.”
Chris Rodning, former team captain and class of 1994, learned to play ultimate frisbee at Harvard, as did most of his teammates at the time. There was no women’s team, Rodning said, and according to the Harvard Women’s Ultimate website, 1995 was when three women who had been pushed out of the men’s program founded what is today Quasar.
As a student, Rodning said ultimate frisbee was a release from academic pressure. He now plays for an ultimate team in New Orleans, and returned to Cambridge last weekend because he still keeps up with old teammates, and he likes “the flow of the game.”
At the turn of the century
Eric Boorstin, who played as a law student at Harvard in 2005 and 2006 and coached the Bred Line team in 2007, found ultimate during his undergraduate years. At first, Boorstin thought ultimate frisbee was a weird activity. “Turns out, I’m that kind of weird too,” he said.
When he arrived at Harvard, the team was established and “slightly better” than his undergraduate team, which he had to adjust to as former team captain. They had a really good coach, Josh McCarthy, and a culture that balanced competition and fun.
Jordanna Schutz said people who played ultimate frisbee were doing it “just for pure joy,” even while playing in serious tournaments.
At the reunion last weekend, Laura Dichtel, a former captain and teammate of Shutz, said ultimate frisbee has changed a lot since they were playing, becoming more popular and more formal. Ultimate frisbee was awarded full recognition from the International Olympic Committee in 2015.
When India Stubbs was a teenager touring colleges, she would ask to meet with the teams when she got to the campuses. Stubbs, who played at Harvard from 2012 to 2015 and served as captain for two years, is a part of an ultimate family — she and her two brothers were all nominated for Callahan Awards, the highest honor given to collegiate ultimate players. Her brothers both won.
Ultimately the legacy carries on
Harvard Ultimate Frisbee has a robust program, with the women’s team averaging around 20 players every year, said Aidia Steen, a Quasar team captain and Harvard senior. They meet multiple times a week for practices, and tournaments take up weekends — resulting in a year-round extracurricular commitment.
For Steen, ultimate frisbee is “a beautiful escape” from an otherwise intense academic environment. The community is what drew her in, and it’s what keeps her coming back.
“People try really hard and work really hard,” Steen said. “But they do it with a sense of play and joy.”
This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.
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