From the testimony of Dusty Becker, co-captain of the University of Oregon Ultimate Frisbee team. Becker was appealing the university’s decision to shut down the team’s season after multiple instances of drunkenness, speeding, and playing naked.
“Speeding, drinking, nudity — they’re not bad things … They’re things a big portion of the community doesn’t think are wrong. … To run around naked is just kind of a hippie, ultimate thing… We didn’t think there was anything wrong at the time.”
The appeal failed.
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Update: A reader, Larry, points out that Oregon might have made a serious mistake. He cites the following:
“A study by Dr. Michael Norden of the University of Washington shows that among all 86 private national universities, those ranking in the top half for Ultimate [Frisbee] have a graduation rate of over 85%, while those in the bottom half graduate just 60%. The difference in the totals of Rhodes scholars and Marshall scholars among their graduates during this decade is even more dramatic – 208 versus 15. (The odds of this happening by chance are truly infinitesimal). Moreover, the top ten schools based on Ultimate ranking have a slightly higher mean graduation rate and more winners of top scholarships than schools chosen by – not only SATs, but any standard metric including: grades, faculty resources, and financial resources.
… Why a game, requiring such all-around athleticism should so consistently be dominated by universities (and presumably students) with off-the-chart academic credentials, is truly a mystery. The top seven schools for ultimate have a mean graduation rate of 95% and nearly as many total Rhodes and Marshal scholars as all of the rest combined. The names speak for themselves: Stanford, Brown, Harvard, Tufts, Dartmouth, Yale, and Princeton.”
More at Dan Drezner.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:47AM
Dusty Becker? Playing Frisbee nude? I think Dusty Pecker is more likely.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:33AM
"…We didn’t think there was anything wrong at the time."
Remove "there was anything wrong" from that sentence and you can sum up Mr. Becker and his friends quite well.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:07PM
Some kind of "Spiritus loci": Was not U of Oregon the place where they actually made "Animal House"?
April 28th, 2009 at 4:29PM
My son, who plays Ultimate Frisbee at a small midwestern liberal arts college, tells me that nude play is part of the national Ultimate Frisbee culture. "For the last point of our last game of Division III nationals last year, both teams put all of their seniors on the field, and they played a nude point. [His friend’s] parents were there to see it, and everyone was very amused. To me, this is a reflection of the attitudes of the Ultimate Frisbee community in general. I don’t think occurrences such as this are uncommon."
April 28th, 2009 at 4:48PM
The nudity’s kind of sweet. I think these guys got in trouble because of the other stuff.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:00AM
I hope the administration considered the effect this decision could have on their academic reputation –
http://www.discraft.com/ult_news_060831.html
April 29th, 2009 at 9:15AM
Larry: Great stuff. I’ll add it to the post. Thanks for the link.