General Information
Montreal Ultimate Association
The Montreal Ultimate Association became an incorporated non-profit organization in the spring of 1997. However, there has been organized Ultimate in Montreal since the late '80's. We are a rapidly growing organization; 86 teams participated in the Summer league and 16 teams participated in the Indoor league in 2003, up from 67 teams during the summer of the previous year. We publish an annual Fall newsletter, Discours, and email a periodic electronic newsletter, AFFAIReS to our members.
PURPOSE | HISTORY | STATISTICS
- To organize and promote the growth and development of the sport of Ultimate and other disc sports throughout the Montreal region.
- To facilitate open and continued communication within the disc sports community and between the disc sports community and the sports community in general.
- To represent regional Ultimate teams and players to both governmental and non-governmental authorities and institutions.
- To obtain and manage the necessary finances, personnel and equipment to make the main purposes of the organization possible.
- To serve the best interests of its members.
DIsc in Montreal started with a McGill intramural league in 1984. The league was founded by Marcus Brady, orginally from Ottawa. Next came Steve and Eileen Wright, from the "Peg", who were instrumental in starting Montreal's first Ultimate summer league. By 1989, four teams would meet each Tuesday evening at the beautiful Isle St-Helene fields to play Ultimate. The league didn't grow much in the following few years, though Montreal did host vey successfully the 1991 Canadian Nationals, held at the newly discovered facilities of the Douglas psychiatric Hospital in Verdun (making all participants feel particularly at home!).
Things really didn't pick up seriously until 1993, when a concerted effort to promote Ultimate was made by Luc "The Flash" Drouin, Tony "Smoke" Boyd, Philip Scalia (Oh really!), and Nina "Ozone" Burke. The spring of that year saw the launch of an eight team summer league, with play every Tuesday night at the Douglas Hospital. The teams were coed (minimum 2 women out of 7 players), serving the purpose of promoting women's Ultimate.
The league grew to ten teams in 1994, sixteen in 1995, and by 1996, twenty teams would compete for the title of Summer League Champion. 1996 also saw the emergence of a more competitive Thursday league for both men and women. While this initiative did not fully succeed in its first season, this formula will likely grow in popularity in the years to come.
Since 1994, Montreal has hosted the "Montreal Jazz Tournament", held during the world famous Jazz Festival. Founded by David Hoppenheim and Neil Bienstock, the tournament quickly became a popular event among North Eastern Canadian and US Ultimate teams eager to enjoy a full weekend of Ultimate and "Jazz festing". Unfortunately, both the Jazz tournament and the summer league are out-growing the facilities at the Douglas Hospital. Montreal's biggest challenge in the years to come is to find new facilities to accommodate the ever growing number of players eager to take up the sport of Ultimate.
Tony Boyd
Discours, May 1997
Co-founder of the Montreal Ultimate league
Statistics
