Forty-Five Years Ago: First Intercollegiate Ultimate Frisbee Game Was Played

On this date in 1972, the first intercollegiate ultimate Frisbee game was played between Rutgers University and Princeton University.

The New York Times [November 7, 1972] coverage of
the first intercollegiate game of Ultimate Frisbee

The November 6th game was organized by Irv Kalb – a Columbia High School graduate and a freshman student at Rutgers – on the same date Princeton and Rutgers played the first college football game in 1869. This game was originally scheduled for early October, but later changed to coincide with the historical football date. This college frisbee game was played on a parking lot, which was the approximate location where the first football game was played exactly 103 years earlier.

Rutgers won this ultimate game over Princeton by 2 points—the same score difference of the first football game.

The New York Times covered the college sporting event (above) and estimated the crowd at 1000 - way more than the local paper's estimated attendance.