Scripted History

The yarn how Sludge got its name is better, but worth a looksee...

A Parking Lot Game Spread Around the World (Nov 26.08)
How Ultimate Frisbee Began 40 Years Ago

That parking lot in the New Jersey suburb of Maplewood is where the game of Ultimate Frisbee began and this year's game will mark the 40th anniversary of the sport. In a corner of the lot is a weathered metal plaque embedded in a rock that proclaims "Birth Place of Ultimate Frisbee Created by Columbia High School Students in 1968."

"I marvel at it sometimes," said movie producer Joel Silver, who is to Ultimate Frisbee what Abner Doubleday was to baseball. "It's kind of a shock that it's reached such proportions," Silver, better known for his "Matrix," "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard" series.

As a Columbia High School student in 1968 and a member of the school's student council, he won a vote, almost as a joke, to have the game declared a club sport. He and a couple of fellow students refined the rules from football's first-down rules to the fast paced free flowing game that has swarmed across hundreds of college campuses and around the world.