„The Dynamics of the Disc:‟ Ultimate (Frisbee), Community, & Memory
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„The Dynamics of the Disc:‟ Ultimate (Frisbee), Community, & Memory, 1968-2011 Lindsay Pattison A Thesis In the Department Of History Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada August 2011 ©Lindsay Pattison, 2011 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Lindsay Pattison Entitled: ‘The Dynamics of the Disc:’ Ultimate (Frisbee), Community, & Memory, 1968-2011 and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Dr. Marco Bertola Chair Dr. Don Morrow External Examiner Dr. Gavin Foster External to Program Dr. Elena Razlogova Examiner Dr. Alison Rowley Examiner Dr. Steven High Thesis Supervisor Approved by Dr. Norman Ingram Chair, History Department Dr. Nora Jaffary Graduate Program Director Dr. Brian Lewis Dean of Arts & Science ii ABSTRACT ‘The Dynamics of the Disc:’ Ultimate (Frisbee), Community, & Memory, 1968-2011 Lindsay Pattison, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2011 „The Dynamics of the Disc‟ is an oral history project that makes an important contribution to an under-researched area of Canadian sport history. Using a variety of analytical approaches this study traces the growth and development of the sport of Ultimate in Canada. And by examining the thematic links between and across stories told by Ultimate players, it provides a nuanced understanding of what Ultimate means to the people who play. Ultimate has rapidly evolved into a worldwide competitive amateur sport, and enjoyed exponential growth as a popular recreational game that is currently played in organized leagues in most major urban centres across North America by men, women, and youth. Often described as an alternative sport, Ultimate also prides itself on a (real or imagined) difference from mainstream sporting conventions. Ultimate is, therefore, subject to two over-arching, and sometimes conflicting, narratives -- a postmodern narrative of difference, and a liberal narrative of growth and progress – that players struggle to reconcile. Yet to many of the people who play, Ultimate is more than a sport, it is a community. Ultimate players form strong attachments to the game, but also to its spaces and places, ideas and practices, and to the people with whom they share their experiences. Through the use of narrative, myth, ritual, symbol, performance and commemoration, this community articulates its difference and celebrates its accomplishments while simultaneously policing its boundaries and disciplining its members. Looking at sport through the lens of community reveals that sport is not just about the human body at play but can also be a site where powerful feelings of belonging converge. iii Acknowledgements When everyone else was skeptical, Dr. Steven High saw the potential in a thesis project about Ultimate and generously agreed to be its supervisor. Without him, this dissertation would never have become more than a crazy idea, and for this I am truly grateful. I would also like to thank the other members of my thesis committee, Dr. Elena Razlogova, Dr. Alison Rowley, Dr. Gavin Foster and Dr. Don Morrow for giving of their time and considerable expertise. Many people offered encouragement along the way, including members of the Concordia University History department, Dr. Shannon McSheffrey, Dr. Mary Vipond, Dr. Rosemarie Schade, Dr. Graham Carr, Dr. Fred Bode, Dr. Norman Ingram, and Dr. Ronald Rudin. Many potential disasters were averted thanks to Darleen Robertson and Donna Whittaker. And I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable contributions from people outside of the department who took the time to talk with me about the project and offer up useful suggestions, particularly Dr. Susan Cahn, Dr. Malcolm MacLean, and Dr. Sean Metzger. My friends and colleagues at Concordia were unflagging in their support for this project. Many thanks are extended to those who set the bar high and helped keep everything in perspective: Ceri Allen, Matthew Barlow, Paul Hébert, Eugene Henry, Simon Jolivet, Stephanie Jowett, Sylvia Marques, Evan May, Heather McNabb, Jessica Mills, Julie Perrone, Richard Pilkington, Scott Selders, Sara Spike, Sarah Steinbock-Pratt, Suki Wellman, and Andrew Welsch. I also benefitted enormously from the support of the staff at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, most especially, Sandra Gasana and Neal Santamaria. Of course, the biggest shout out goes to those who shared their stories with me. iv Dedication To the Ultimate Community, especially: Idle Butt Deadly Karma Nixon All-Stars BFM Hard the Lazy Shiftless Bastards Punch the Flamin‟ Moes El Santo Hip-Hop-Pop-o-tamus Astroturf v Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Ultimate, Community, and Memory, 1968-2011............................1 CHAPTER 1 „The Dynamics of the Disc‟ ...........................................................39 CHAPTER 2 Performing Difference: Myths, Rituals, and the Symbolic Construction of a Sport ..........77 Origin Stories ................................................................................78 Spirit of the Game ..........................................................................87 Rituals ............................................................................................93 Prescribing Difference? ..............................................................110 CHAPTER 3 Making Progress? The Struggle for Canadian Ultimate .............115 DisCanada (1985-) ......................................................................115 UltimateCanada (1989-1992) .......................................................123 The Canadian Ultimate Players‟ Association (CUPA, 1993-2010) .....................................................................135 CHAPTER 4 Squatter to Stewards: Finding Space, Making Place, and the Ottawa Land Purchase ...154 Finding Space ..............................................................................155 The Douglas Hospital ..................................................................160 Dedicated Ultimate Fields? ..........................................................166 The Sod Farm ..............................................................................171 Ultimate Parks, Inc. (UPI) ..........................................................175 CHAPTER 5 Language at Play?: Ultimate, Bilingualism, and Montreal .........198 McGill University ........................................................................206 L‟Association de Ultimate de Montréal (AUM) ..........................214 CHAPTER 6 Acts of Memory ...........................................................................232 CONCLUSION The Ultimate Community ............................................................265 Bibliography ......................................................................................................271 Appendix A Consent Forms and Interview Guide ...........................................288 vi INTRODUCTION Ultimate, Community, and Memory, 1968-2011 Sport historians examine the stories told by the human body at play. “At its most basic level,” claims Colin Howell, “sport is about the body: how it is used, how it is imagined, how it is watched, and how it is disciplined to meet the requirements of living or to conform to social expectations.”1 Additionally, many scholars understand sport as a cultural text.2 They see links between what goes on in sport and what goes on in society and they use sport as an avenue to explore and to better understand social relationships. In such analyses sport is a reflection of dominant gender, class, race, and social organization. Moreover, as a site of tension between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses, sport is an important context for the examination of historical processes of continuity and change. The sport of Ultimate, similarly, absorbs and produces competing social discourses, narratives, and ideas about bodies, sport, culture, and community. According to the accepted story, Ultimate originated in the United States where, ostensibly since the 1920s, students at New England colleges played variations of the game of catch by tossing metal pie tins around their campuses. The Frisbie Pie Company (est.1871) had been unknowingly providing their pie plates for this collegiate recreational activity for many years when, in 1948 the first flying discs made out of plastic were designed by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Francioni. Inspired by sightings of 1 Colin D. Howell, Blood, Sweat and Cheers: Sport and the Making of Modern Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001), 106. 2 Richard Gruneau, Class, Sports and Social Development, (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1983; 1999). 1 2 unidentified flying objects at Roswell, New Mexico, these two former World War II Air Corps pilots named their invention the “Pluto Platter.” When Morrison negotiated a deal with the founders of the Wham-O toy company, the flying disc then became a successfully mass-marketed commercial item. Soon, a connection between the pie tins and the plastic discs was made and Wham-O changed the name of the Pluto Platter to the “Frisbee.” By the 1960s sales of the Frisbee boomed and plastic flying discs became ubiquitous on beaches, in schoolyards, and popular with dog-owners. The first