Universe Point: A Book About Ultimate

by Kevin Cramer

As an ultimate player, Kevin Cramer will never be mentioned with the all time greats. Realistically, the only tangible things he got from his first two decades playing the sport were about a hundred crappy T-shirts and a weird clicking sound in his right ankle. But the intangible things – the moments he got to spend with some of America’s wackiest personalities playing a game that’s never quite been able to figure out how seriously to take itself - are what define his twenty year career. The personal narrative, “Universe Point” follows the evolution of ultimate from a virtually unknown “hippie game” to a growing international phenomenon over the past two decades by featuring the unforgettable characters, clutch moments in otherwise unknown contests, and overall counterculture goofiness of the perpetually misunderstood sport of ultimate Frisbee.

496 pages, Paperback

Published March 15, 2017

Reviews

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

My bias: I've played Ultimate for nearly 40 years (and still play) as an earnest B-level player, which hasn't stopped me from hitching my wagon to a number of pretty good teams over the years, playing in scores of seasonal leagues, attending myriad pick-up games, and coaching men's and women's college teams, as well as middle school mixed teams.

Kevin Cramer's book is an exhilarating exaltation about what it means to play a sport for the sheer joy of it. He came to the game by chance at a small Florida college, then led the formation of a competitive team, travelling hundreds of miles to play a single team. When he discovered the multi-game, two-day tourney, he was hooked, firmly committed to this game that gave him opportunity to chase plastic.

Cramer tells Ultimate anecdotes that span nearly 20 years, and they all abound with his good humor and irreverent banter. The book is marred by lack of a good editor, with some typos and a few grammatical errors, but it was a low-budget publication, because... after all... just how many of us wacko Ultimate players are out here? However, if any book can get through to a non-player, it just might be this one!