NZ Ultimate
History in the making
At the recent tour in Auckland a rather significant milestone in the history of New Zealand Ultimate occurred, which largely would have gone unnoticed. I felt it my duty to bring this small moment of NZ Ultimate history to your attention.
Some 20 odd years ago… no actually I’ll have to start a bit before that…
It was the mid 1980’s and I had spent several years trying to coerce friends and acquaintances to play this crazy game. I’d been running local flying disc tournaments and organising many a demo game – more often than not ending up playing 3 on 3. Then one day I got a call from a guy from Kansas who had found my name from the public relations office. That guy was Jeff Zimmerman, a fanatical ultimate player who played a pivotal role in developing the ultimate scene we all enjoy in New Zealand today.
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Jeff or ‘JZ’ as he was known, was so mad keen on Ultimate he twisted the arms of just about everyone he worked with at Databank. This meant from the pool of players I had, and what JZ could muster, we really had a chance to make something happen… and well... I guess we did!
It can’t have been much more than a year or two after JZ hit town we started crystal ball gazing. First it was “lets meet the guys from Auckland in Taupo”, this continued as an annual event and has now become the “Taupo hat” that many of you would have played in.
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Then we thought “we should have a Nationals”, we had 3 teams after all – my Wellington team, JZ’s Databank team, and Auckland. (I guess I have to add Databank won the first 3 Nationals and even fielded 2 teams the second year). This is what you know today as the NZ Open, our national tournament, which this year will celebrate it’s 20th anniversary.
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So what was next?
Things were rolling along quite well but we wanted this to last, so with assistance of several others we set about forming the NZFDA (and the NZUPA – which we later rolled back into the NZFDA and now is essentially the NZU!).
A couple more names deserve a mention here as founding members of that committee who you may know, Vit Drga, (who I want to school with – currently in St Andrews, Scotland), and Jonathan Liddell, (one of many Databank recruits who still graces the field occasionally).
However there’s a third unsung heroe that few of you will ever have had the pleasure of meeting. His name is Ivan McDonald. I first meet Ivan in 1980 I think, where he was throwing a paint can lid in the Wellington Regional Frisbee Champs for distance! He also had a huge (or maybe that was becuase I was smaller!) German Shepherd named Gretchen who was happy to dispose of any unwanted or cracked plastic – but had the good taste to leave good ultimate discs alone. Ivan had been a regular (along with Gretchen) at many a Sunday disc throwing gatherings at Appleton Park, whenever he wasn’t away tramping. Much to my surprise I met him down town in a suit after years of just seeing him as depicted in the photo below (note the bare feet - some were tough back then!). What’s more he had really gone to the dark side, as he worked for Databank and was to join JZ’s band of merry men! It also turned out he was an accountant (not to mention having some worldly experience that many us young whipper snappers lacked) and proved to be worth his weight in gold on the exec.
Disc Throwing Extravaganza — 9/1/1987 Evening Post |
JZ visiting the country prompted a reunion where we meet up at Anderson Park for a throw – one of the original venues it all started. Great as this reunion was it’s not the milestone I’m referring to – as you’ll note there’s a third gentleman in the picture (below) with JZ and Ivan.
Those that played on $5 Jugs in Tour 2 Auckland will recognise him. You see, 20 years ago when JZ was busy helping kick start ultimate, his lovely wife Jane was helping kick-start their family (but that’s another story invoving stairs and jumping - but you'll have to ask Jeff or Jane about that!).
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The Wednesday after Tour 2 in Auckland was, I believe, Graham Zimmerman’s 20th birthday. So not only did JZ help kick-start the first ever NZ National Championships he has returned 20 years later to play in a National tournament with his son Graham (who is currently attending Otago Uni) on the same team ($5 Jugs) showing a true dedication to the sport in this country.
JZ – from all of us that have had the pleasure of your company many thanks for your contribution to NZ Ultimate.
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I must add JZ was a part of the First True NZ National Ultimate Team (along with the other founders of the NZFDA – Jon, Vit & myself – sadly Ivan did not make that trip) which travelled to Tasmania to compete in the Australian National Championships in 1989, and performed the first Official NZ Ultimate Haka as shown above.
So there you have it — 20 years of NZ Ultimate history.
Here's to the next 20!
Gazza