New President of William & Mary Played and Coached Ultimate

Rector Todd Stottlemyer introduced Katherine A. Rowe as The College of William & Mary's new president, during which he highlighted Rowe's ultimate history. She will be the first female president of William & Mary (Virginia) in the school's 325-year history.

WATCH

"Katherine also loves sports and has been a competitive athlete throughout her life. She remarked throughout the search process how sports – varsity, club and intramurals – are an important part of the university. Katherine also observed how well William & Mary does with its varsity sports in producing outstanding scholar-athletes who compete and win on the field of competition and in the classroom. On a personal level, Katherine is well known as a player and now championship coach of United States Ultimate Frisbee. Ultimate is a self-refereed team sport governed by the "Spirit of the Game:" the joy of play and a mutual respect for fellow players. This is how Katherine leads."

Rowe played ultimate a Carleton College and, more recently, coached the Lower Merion High School Girls Ultimate team to multiple state (Pennsylvania) championships. Additionally, Katherine Rowe built up her already impressive resume with a few articles published on Ultiworld.

W&M's announcement describes Rowe as having..

spent more than a decade coaching Ultimate Frisbee and has led multiple teams to state championships in Pennsylvania. She was a World Ultimate Club Finalist and a Women's Nationals Finalist. She also co-founded the nonprofit Boston Ultimate Disc Alliance and the Carleton College women's Ultimate team.

Rowe shares her love of Ultimate with her spouse, Bruce Jacobson...

[UPDATE. Ultiworld Retracts Story About] The Time When Skyd Magazine Offered to Buyout Ultiworld

UPDATED [8:51pm]

Skyd Magazine's Editor Liam Rossen provided their side of this story via reddit:

This is incorrect.
In 2012, Bryan reached out to Charlie to talk about partnering and the Ultiworld reporters potentially joining the Skyd team, as we often did to new ultimate blogs that popped up (that's how we got No Look Scoober [Bryan] and Inside Breaks [Neeley and Joaq] in the beginning).
We never made any sort of offer to buy out Ultiworld at that time, and we certainly never had "$10 or $11000" floating around to even entertain that possibility.

Ultiworld's Charlie has since confirmed the deal specifics as discussed on the podcast were not accurate.

Correction: I just looked up the email (from Bryan Jones) in my inbox and there was never any kind of financial offer discussed for a buyout of Ultiworld by Skyd. There was the desire to “make [Ultiworld] an offer to join up” with Skyd, but, as I said on the podcast, I don’t think that was ever actually discussed (although I honestly do not remember). I think Wes and I just misremembered the specifics of what actually happened there. Although we did talk about six figures being the selling price 😂. Apologies for the error.

-----------
[Originally posted on 8:11am]
Ultiworld just celebrated 5 years and took a trip down memory lane in their anniversary Deep Look podcast [July 14, 2017]. Original collaborators Charlie Eisenhood and Wes Cronk discussed their recollections of building their simple website plus a business offer unknown until now.

The gist is then-Skyd-reporter-now-Ultiworld-supporter Bryan Jones on behalf of Skyd Magazine emailed Ultiworld a buyout offer - after just 2 weeks after their launch.

From the podcast [start @ 6:30]
Wes: We got this offer from Skyd....it was no more than 10 or $11,000...$11,000 was something I could see young 'us' biting at. ... There's no way you sell for less than six figures, right?

Charlie: Two weeks in!

Wes: ...You have spent five years doing this. I think that the fun and satisfaction of those 5 years are worth more than that 10K would be to you now.

Charlie: Oh yeah. I don't think we ever had a conversation with Skyd.... We're two weeks old and we have a garbage Wordpress site slapped together. I won't lie. ... I'm a competitive person. And, I was out to beat Skyd in every way possible.


##

On This Day: Ultiworld Launched in 2012

Happy Birthday to Ultiworld! Congrats on making to the 5-year mark.

Ultiworld officially launched on this day (July 14) in 2012 as "a new premier news media site about the sport of Ultimate."

Here's a photo from how Ultiworld filmed games - atop a ladder with a handheld videocamera.

Charlie (Ultiworld filming at USAU Mid-Atlantic Regionals (Sept 2012).

Montreal Royal Prove Ultiworld Wrong

In December 2016, Ultiworld published '2017 AUDL Championship Weekend To Be Held In Montreal, Quebec' and mentioned: "However, this will also be the first time since the inaugural 2012 season that the league will hold the Championship Weekend in a city where the home team will not be favored to make the playoffs."

Ultiworld's flippant statement was probably relying on the history of AUDL East where Toronto Rush are perennial champs, the New York Empire are recurrent playoff contenders, and the D.C. Breeze most recently made the playoffs. The AUDL 2017 season was still 4 months away and rosters had not yet been finalized. Montreal's first and only appearance in the postseason was in the AUDL 2015 season.

Toutefois!

Seven months after Ultiworld's diss, the Montreal Royal (8-4) earned a playoff spot after Week 14 and are "officially in the playoffs!"

Comparison: Fundraising by Ultimate Frisbee Media

Ultiworld's membership drive forwent an online crowdfunding platform (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc) as it successfully reached its goal of 1000 subscribers. At a minimum - if all 1000+ subscribers are at the $3.99 monthly rate - then Ultiworld estimated fundraising would be over $50,000. How do those numbers compare to past media fundraising efforts?

[UPDATED 7/6/2017]

In 2014, Skyd Magazine ran a successful fundraiser - exceeding their goal of $12,000 with nearly $15,000 from 269 backers. Skyd ran another successful campaign the next year raising $37,000 from 750+ backers - again exceeding the Skyd Fund's 2015 goal of $32,000.)

Ultiworld offers 3 membership package options with monthly tabs -  $3.99, $12.99, $19.99. At the most - with all 1046 subscribers @ $19.99/month - UW would raise over $250,000 in a 12-month period. (They didn't.)  It's probably safe to assume there are some Ultiworld members who subscribed at the $12.99 or $19.99 monthly, which would mean Ultiworld most likely outraised Skyd's combined total 2014+2015 ($52,082).

NOTE: For comparison charting, the published data of 1046 subscribers was used @ the lowest option ($3.99/month).

RELATED: History of Crowdfunded Ultimate Projects.

Support Ultiworld's Coverage of Ultimate with a Subscription

Today is the last day of Ultiworld subscription drive, which is 99% funded.

Support Ultiworld's coverage of our sport.

Sludge bought a subscription. YOU should too.

Subscribe to Ultiworld.

To all our readers,
Your support is vital to us. Really. And our revamped subscriptions offer much more than a video subscription: you get exclusive articles (like this one), a brand new members-only podcast, the chance to vote on games and article ideas, the ability to turn off ads and improve your site experience, and more. You can learn more and sign up right here. Thank you.

To all our readers,
Ultiworld is not unique in the web publishing ecosystem. More and more, publishers — from small ones like Ultiworld to very large ones like the New York Times — have realized they cannot rely on advertising dollars alone. And in order to serve their communities, direct financial support from readers is necessary. Your subscription directly supports our writing and journalism from college to club to youth.
Thank you.

Ultiworld is running its first-ever membership drive. While historically we have covered our travel, equipment, editing, and other costs with video sales, Ultiworld needs more direct reader support in order to survive long-term as an independent journalism organization. Consider becoming a subscriber today! 

TBT: Ultiworld Launches

Happy Birthday to Ultiworld!

Ultiworld officially launched on this day (July 14) in 2012.

Ultimate Jerseys at 2016 Worlds

A compilation of jerseys of teams that competed at WFDF's World Ultimate and Guts Championships in London.

Finland, Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, and Austria

via

Jersey watch: Mexico pic.twitter.com/CkWj3gwV9x

— Ultiworld Live (@Ultiworldlive) June 21, 2016

Jersey watch: Singapore. pic.twitter.com/tcE1bOYqGu

— Ultiworld Live (@Ultiworldlive) June 21, 2016

Jersey watch: Switzerland pic.twitter.com/cRWASq2bsU

— Ultiworld Live (@Ultiworldlive) June 21, 2016

Jersey watch: Egypt. pic.twitter.com/bBGDxjaSCT

— Ultiworld Live (@Ultiworldlive) June 20, 2016

Jersey watch: Israel. #WUGC2016 pic.twitter.com/FswueFNgfC

— Ultiworld Live (@Ultiworldlive) June 20, 2016

Jersey Watch: India. #WUGC2016 pic.twitter.com/gFJHEU6YT1

— Ultiworld Live (@Ultiworldlive) June 20, 2016

Jersey watch: United Arab Emirates. pic.twitter.com/J9HyQR2IOL

— Ultiworld Live (@Ultiworldlive) June 20, 2016

@sludgebrown Belgian and Czech tops (along with Finland and USA polo). Czech is awesome pic.twitter.com/5VtmjjRA9s

— Alistair Robb (@AlistairRobb7) July 1, 2016

Canada: RED and WHITE

USA: BLACK and RED

[SOURCES: Ultiworld, Openbracket Ultimate, VC Ultimate, Five Ultimate]

NOTE: This is not a complete list. Please share links to other jerseys from WUGC.

Skyd Ad on Ultiworld

After the final games of the 2013 Triple Crown Tour there was still one more score to be settled...Postseason Pick'em Battle between the "experts" (Skyd magazine vs Ultiworld). Skyd guessed better won over Ultiworld, while a few "non-experts" showed some prediction skills.

For winning, Ultiworld will run a Skyd ad on their site for one month, for free.

Here's the first look at the Skyd "ad" planned for Ultiworld...

[spoofed ad]

Happy Birthday Ultiworld!

Happy Birthday to Ultiworld!

The unofficial beginnings of Ultiworld can be traced back to July 11, 2012 noted as "This article is the first effort of Ultiworld, a new Ultimate disc news organization that will be launching soon." The official launch of the site was July 14, 2012. Since that time, Ultiworld has given Ulti fans plenty of amazing coverage via facebook, twitter, tumblr, video & podcast. Happy 1-year anniversary...& many more!

Ever-changing twitter bio for Ulti_world