Ultimate Hall of Fame Inductees Announced
Robert L. "Nob" Rauch
Five Selected to Join the Ultimate Hall of Fame
"Founders" of flying disc sport also to be inducted under the Special Merit
category
(Boulder, CO, December 21, 2005) The Ultimate Players Association (UPA),
the governing body for the flying disc sport of Ultimate, announced that it
has selected five Players and Contributors to the Ultimate Hall of Fame. In
addition, the three former Columbia High School students who are credited
with developing the game were also chosen as Special Merit inductees. The
Ultimate Hall of Fame was established in 2004 to honor the men and women
"who by their deeds as Ultimate players and/or contributors, and by the
example of their lives, merit acknowledgement by all individuals involved in
the sport of Ultimate." Although the Ultimate Hall of Fame remains a
"virtual" hall for the time being, the long-range goal is to establish a
permanent site by 2018, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the sport.
The formal induction ceremony, which is held every five years in conjunction
with the Ultimate players' alumni reunion, will next be held in 2008. In
the meantime, the inductees will be honored with a plaque at the UPA
headquarters building in Boulder, CO and on the UPA web site at www.upa.org.
The two Contributors, three Players, and Special Merit honorees to be
inducted into the Ultimate Hall of Fame in the 2005 Class are, respectively:
Kathy Pufahl, now deceased, who played a crucial role in the 1980s and early
1990s in organizing and overseeing the administrative responsibilities of
the UPA, and set up and ran the first official UPA headquarters in an office
near her home in Long Island;
Sholom (Eric) Simon, of Fairfax, VA, who was one of the longest-standing
contributors to the sport, having served in a wide variety of roles in the
UPA and Washington Area Frisbee Club from the 1970s through the early 2000s;
and
Jon "JC" Cohn, of Wayland, MA, who was considered one of the most dominant
players on the Ultimate field in the second half of the 1970s, leading one
of the sport's early powerhouse teams, Cornell University, into the National
Ultimate Championship finals in 1978;
Kelly Green, of Paso Robles, CA, who was one of the leading players on teams
in Michigan and Santa Barbara, CA that won the National Ultimate
Championship in six out of seven years in the mid 1980s along with a World
Ultimate Championship;
Jim Herrick, of Poway, CA who distinguished himself with his playing
ability, spirit of the game, leadership, and infectious enthusiasm about
play, culminating with his 1982 National Championship and 1983 victory at
the first ever World Ultimate Championship;
The "Founders," Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jonny Hines, who -- as
students at Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ -- developed the game,
prepared the first written set of rules, and named the sport beginning in
the fall of 1968.
"We are pleased to acknowledge the accomplishments of key individuals
involved in the sport of Ultimate who have distinguished themselves both on
and off the field," stated Sandie Hammerly, Executive Director of the UPA.
"Ultimate continues to be one of the fastest growing sports around the
world, in colleges, high schools, and local clubs." Steve Mooney, UPA
Alumni Director and Chair of the Ultimate Hall of Fame Committee, commented:
"It is exciting to look back and better understand the historical roots of
the game by looking at the stories of the candidates, each of whom stood out
among their peers as having accomplished something extraordinary within the
sport or its organization."
Summary Biographies of the Inductees
Contributor Category
Kathy Pufahl played a crucial role in the 1980s and early 1990s in
organizing and overseeing the administrative responsibilities of the UPA.
She oversaw the UPA Championship Series and other tournaments, organized the
women's college division, co-wrote the first update to the Ninth Edition
rules, and made sure the UPA Newsletter was published and distributed. She
was the second women's national director of the UPA from 1985-88 and the
first Managing Director of the UPA from 1988-90, setting up and running the
first official UPA headquarters in an office near her home on the North
Shore of Long Island. In 1981, she helped start one of the first women's
Ultimate teams, Housewives in Rochester, NY, and later played with Andromeda
in Washington, DC and the New York City women's teams. On the field, she
was a steady player who always got open, who was impossible to cover, and
who threw exceedingly strategically and accurately. Outside of her Ultimate
involvement, she was the foremost grower of hard-to-find annual plants in
the world and was dubbed "Queen of Containers" by Horticulture Magazine.
Born on December 17, 1958, Kathy was stricken with cancer and died in
October 2003. The annual "Spirit of the Game Award" for the women's
division at the UPA Championship was introduced in her honor in 2004. Kathy
is survived by husband Kevin Cande and two children.
Sholom (Eric) Simon is one of the longest-standing contributors to the
sport, having served in a wide variety of roles in the UPA and Washington
Area Frisbee Club from the 1970s through the early 2000s. Due to his tenure
as a Regional Coordinator and/or Board Member of the UPA, from 1982 to 1998,
Sholom was the unofficial depository of "institutional memory" for the UPA
over a nearly two decade span, ensuring consistency and efficiency in
decision-making. His contributions include the College Top 25 and
refinement of college eligibility rules, significant involvement in the
Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Editions of the UPA Ultimate Rules, the
development and revision of regional boundaries in the US, and numerous
tournament organizational innovations that are now standard practice.
Sholom has also authored a variety of instructional and organization manuals
that are still in circulation. He also played a crucial role in
revitalizing WAFC, one of the largest clubs in the world today, and
promoting play in the Mid-Atlantic region. Sholom began his Ultimate
playing career at Columbia High School in 1973 and founded the Michigan
State Ultimate team in September of 1975. He was also selected to play on
the US Masters Division teams at the World Championship in 1990, 1992, and
1994. Sholom was born May 3, 1957 and lives in Fairfax, VA with his wife
Shana (Sue) Wallace and two children.
Player Category
Jon "JC" Cohn was considered one of the most dominant players on the
Ultimate field in the second half of the 1970s. He started playing in 1970
at Columbia High School and went on to found the team at Cornell University,
which became the powerhouse of the northeastern United States and which lost
to the Santa Barbara Condors at the National Ultimate Championship in 1978.
On field, JC was an athlete when few players were, and had throwing skills
far beyond those of his peers, including the best pull on the east coast.
He was also a master strategist, introducing set offensive plays designed to
attack zone defenses and exploit man-to-man mismatches. JC introduced the
sport of Ultimate to and inspired many of the next decade's stars. Hampered
by a series of knee injuries, he nonetheless continued to play through the
1980s. JC was born August 31, 1955 and currently lives in Wayland, MA with
his wife "Louie" Mahoney Cohn, a leading member of the first women's
national Ultimate championship team in 1981, and four disc-playing sons.
Kelly Green distinguished herself early on the Ultimate field, playing with
the Michigan State University's men's team which made it to the semifinals
in both 1979 and 1980. With the introduction of the women's division, she
started a women's team at MSU in 1980, inculcating a culture of dedication
to the team, a "no-turnovers" mantra, and an intensity that few women's
teams were able to muster. Kelly's MSU Fisheads won the national
championship in 1983 and, after joining the Lady Condors in California the
next year, she and the Condors went on to win five out of the next six
national championships and a world championship. She was a consummate
coach, captain, teacher, and, above all, player who lived, ate, and breathed
Ultimate and inspired her teammates to do the same. Kelly was born August
25, 1960 and currently lives in Paso Robles, CA with her husband Bob Austin,
also a former Ultimate player, and three children.
Jim Herrick stands out as a complete package: playing ability, spirit of
the game, leadership, and infectious enthusiasm about play. He began
playing Ultimate with the Cornell University team in 1974 and in 1976 was
selected to play in the Wham-O Frisbee Championships and to represent the
East squad in The Rose Bowl Ultimate Game. A fitness fanatic, Jim's
on-field athletic prowess, throwing and catching skills, consistent play,
and strategy contributions culminated with his 1982 National Championship
and 1983 victory at the first ever World Ultimate Championship with the Rude
Boys of Boston. An all-round disc player, he was the 1988 Individual
National Champion and also co-developed the game of Goaltimate. Jim was
born July 27, 1954 and currently resides in Poway, CA with his wife Leslie
and five children.
Special Merit Category
The "Founders:" Joel Silver, Bernard "Buzzy" Hellring, and Jonathan "Jonny"
Hines: In the summer of 1968, Joel Silver was introduced to a "frisbee
football" type game while participating in an educational enrichment program
at the Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Massachusetts. After returning to
Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, that fall, he got a motion
passed at the student council to introduce Frisbee into the curriculum.
Together with his friends Bernard "Buzzy" Hellring and Jonathan "Jonny"
Hines, they got other students to play their new game and refined the rules,
producing a written "first edition" of the rules for the sport Joel dubbed
"Ultimate Frisbee" and naming their group the "Columbia High School Varsity
Frisbee Squad" in early 1970. The three classmates laid the foundation
required to permit the transformation of a recreational activity into a
sport over the following years. Ultimate today is still played largely
according to the rules developed by Joel, Buzzy, and Jonny.
Joel Silver is currently an accomplished Hollywood producer, producing
dozens of films including the Lethal Weapon series, the first two Die Hard
films, and The Matrix series. He is married to Karyn A. Fields, has one
son, and currently lives in Burbank, CA. Jonny Hines, who founded the
Princeton team and played in the first college game ever -- the
Rutgers-Princeton match-up played before more than 1,000 spectators in 1972,
is now an international attorney splitting time between New York and Moscow.
He is married to Olga Dyuzheva and has two sons. Tragically, Buzzy Hellring
died in an automobile accident while returning to college at Princeton
University in the spring of 1971.
The Selection Process
The inductees were selected by the Ultimate Hall of Fame Committee, which is
appointed by the UPA Board. Selection involves a three stage process. The
first stage involves "peer voting," where potential candidates are reviewed
and ranked by a group of players or contributors from their own playing era.
The second stage involves winnowing the field down to eight candidates
through a review of the peer voting results and of written applications
solicited by a five person Vetting Subcommittee. The final stage involves a
vote for up to five inductees by the full voting committee, comprised of the
Vetting Subcommittee and the Player and Contributor members of the Ultimate
Hall of Fame. An inductee must receive an affirmative vote of at least 60%
of the voters to be selected. This year's voting members of the Committee
were: Vetting Subcommittee members Steve Mooney, Tiina Booth, Andy
Borinstein, Jim Parinella, and Eric Zaslow; and current Hall of Fame members
Suzanne Fields, Irv Kalb, Tom Kennedy, Dan Roddick, and Larry Schindel.
Significant contributions to this year's work of the Committee were also
made by Steve Courlang and Robert L. "Nob" Rauch.
About Ultimate
Combining the non-stop movement and athletic endurance of soccer with the
aerial passing skills of football, the game of Ultimate is played by two
seven-player squads with a high-tech plastic disc on a field similar to
football. The object of the game is to score by catching a pass in the
opponent's end zone. A player must stop running while in possession of the
disc, but may pivot and pass to any of the other receivers on the field.
Ultimate is a transition game in which players move quickly from offense to
defense on turnovers that occur with a dropped pass, an interception, a pass
out of bounds, or when a player is caught holding the disc for more than ten
seconds. Ultimate is governed by Spirit of the GameT, a tradition of
sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the players
rather than referees. Ultimate, which was developed in 1968 at Columbia
High School in Maplewood, NJ, is now played in over 40 countries by hundreds
of thousands of men and women, boys and girls.
About the UPA
The Ultimate Players Association (UPA) is a player-run not-for-profit
organization based in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Founded in 1979, the UPA is
among the first flying disc sport organizations in the world and one of the
largest, with approximately 20,000 members and hundreds of volunteer
organizers.
The UPA serves as the governing body of the sport of Ultimate in the US.
Its mission is:
a.. To promote and support the sport of Ultimate and its players;
b.. To increase participation in the sport of Ultimate at all levels;
c.. To uphold the Spirit of the Game, including personal responsibility
and integrity; and
d.. To provide a framework for players to organize and conduct competition
and other activities related to Ultimate.
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For further information, contact:
Ryan John
Director of Media and Communications
Ultimate Players Association
4730 Table Mesa Drive, Suite J-200
Boulder, CO 80305 USA
+1-800-872-4384 or +1-303-447-3472 x113 or +1-719-499-3516
Peter Mc
pockets, already associated with disc sports which would permit the UPA
to have this Hall of Fame facility, and public archive (?), several
years before 2018.
$20,000,000?
Happy Holiday(s),
Peter Mc
MDSC
Columbia, MO