| Ultimate Canada | |
| Sport | Ultimate (sport) |
| Area of jurisdiction | National |
| Formation date | 1993[1] |
| Affiliation | World Flying Disc Federation |
| Chief Exec | Danny Saunders |
| Official website | |
| www.canadianultimate.com | |
Ultimate Canada is a not-for-profit organization that serves as the governing body of the sport of Ultimate (also known as "Ultimate Frisbee") in Canada. It runs the Canadian Ultimate Championship (CUC) and Canadian University Ultimate Championship (CUUC) series.
Toronto Ultimate
The Toronto Ultimate Club[2]is one of the largest Ultimate clubs in the world, with thousands of players and hundreds of teams participating every season and on most days of the week, on various fields (indoor and outdoor) throughout the year. It is a not-for-profit organization that was incorporated in 1995. The club consists of three full time managers, a strong board of directors which represent the membership, and over 100 volunteers.
In 2010, its 30th anniversary, the club released the documentary film,[3] which traces its history.[4]
Not far removed from the invention of the game in the late 1960's, several Americans came to Toronto in the early 1970's and began introducing disc sports to Torontonians. Ken Westerfield and his friend Jim Kenner (the founder of Discraft) ran the Canadian Open Frisbee Championships (GUTS, Distance) in the early 70's at the Canadian National Exhibition and then later on Toronto Island. From these championships and the presence of their professional frisbee players (Ken, Jim, and Bob Blakely of Irwin Toy) Toronto became the hub of Frisbee activity in Canada. But it was not until the late 1970's that Westerfield discovered Ultimate Frisbee specifically and introduced it north of the 49th parellel. Until then, people played all types of Frisbee sports including disc golf, freestyle, guts, double disc court, maximum time aloft, and others. Ultimate Frisbee was originally just one option out of many and no more important than any other.
As Ken Westerfield lived in Kew Beach in south east Toronto, this is where he would set up shop, taking his Frisbees down to the beach and playing with whomever wanted to join him. Four of the original Utimate players, Ken Westerfield, Jim Lim, Stuart Godfrey, and Patrick Chartrand, tried playing a 2-on-2 game of Ultimate Frisbee one afternoon with Ken outlining the rules. For this group it became a regular thing and the group began to grow.
Christopher Lowcock, introduced to disc sports by his brother Les, became part of this group that would play a pickup game at Kew Beach every Wednesday evening in the summer time. Chris, Ken and the others would recruit more people as they passed by along the boardwalk, and the original 2-on-2 would evolve into 2 full teams. These were the very first Utimate Frisbee games in the city of Toronto and the beginnings of the Toronto Ultimate League (Club).
The first year of the Toronto Ultimate League there were four teams. The Toronto Ultimate League developed into the Toronto Ultimate Club, which now has 3300 members and over 250 Teams playing year round.