Staples Grads

1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977
	Bob Gassman Bob Lacy Mike Miller Dave Richard	David Abrams Sharon Appling Don Barnett Dan Buckley Mark Chinn Ed Davis Peter Edelman Jane Morse Elmer Ernie Ferrari John Flom Jim Garvin Mark Hartman Duncan Heath Larry Ikeda Ron Kaufman Bob Kaye Robert Krist Mike Mahar Greg Mead Mark Miller Mark Shufro Jon Steinberg	Doug Griffith Mike Nash George Patterson Matt Vea

Note: People in bold went on to be involved in organizing the Ultimate community.

[Al Jolley graduated from CHS in 1960 and founded the Staples HS team in 1971.
He coached the team until 1978.]

Please send me updates and corections:
Joe Seidler at

Westport News, 1973

It isn't commonly known, but Al Jolley also (briefly) coached a stunt frisbee sqaud. We were constantly challanging him to show us the stuff he had learned at Columbia High School. While Al was a very quiet fellow, we finally coaxed it out of him one hot spring day when he was dehydrated after practice. As the article indicates, he was injured when Dan Buckley's air bounce had a little too much on it. The picture above shows a reenactment of the event for posterity.

Al Jolley's Recollections
April 2004

I am a 1960 graduate of Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ. In 1966 I
began my teaching career at Staples as a mathematics teacher.

My sister was a student at Columbia at the time Ultimate Frisbee was
created. I believe she knew Paul Schindel and some of the frisbee
players. As I recall, she told me of this new sport at my old alma mater
and sent me a copy of the 1970 rules (which I still possess).

I had a close relationship with many of my math students as well as
personal contact with other students because of my work in Scouting and
with a local church youth group. Playing with a frisbee was a popular
activity. When I got a copy of the rules of Ultimate Frisbee and shared
the rules with my student friends.... well, the rest is history! We
quickly became avid Ultimate players at Staples and off campus at scouts
and the youth fellowship.

We organized ourselves to play Ultimate Frisbee after school on an unkept,
unmowed field adjacent to the school. (We sometimes tried to play on the
soft grass of the girl's field hockey team field, but they chased us off
waving their sticks at us!) We began to play Ultimate sometime in 1971
(spring or fall?)

There were no other Ultimate teams in the area. We scrimmaged against
ourselves. From the outset we included female players in our games. I,
myself, played with the students. We often played 3 afternoons a week and
into the late Fall until our Frisbees cracked due to the cold
temperatures. We created a "frisbee uniform" consisting of blue jeans and
a light blue turtleneck with our Staples Frisbee monogram on the chest and
FRISBEE on the back. ( I wish I still had one of the old shirts!) We
often wore a red bandana or sweat band on our head.

Staples had close ties with Weston High School in CT. We encouraged them
to form an Ultimate team. I believe we fist played Weston in Oct. 1972.
This was the first known interscholastic Frisbee game played in CT and the
first know COED interscholastic sport event in CT. Jane Elmer of Staples
was the first known coed to score a goal in a coed sport (she scored
against Weston in one of our several matches.)

I had been in correspondence with Paul Schindel of Columbia about an
Ultimate Frisbee match. The date was set for April 14, 1973 at Staples.
This was the first known interstate coed Frisbee match. Sharon Appling of
Staples became the first known coed to score a goal in an interstate coed
sport. Staples was victorious over the Columbia team, 18 to 8.

Staples was elated by its victory over the creators of Ultimate Frisbee
(although several of Columbia's best players were not able to attend the
game). In good fun, Staples claimed to be the National Champions!
Shortly after this match, Mr. James Driscoll, a National Observer
reporter, traveled from Washington to write an article about Ultimate
Frisbee. He wrote a long article that appeared in the National Observer
during the week of May 12, 1973. It was entitled:
"Survival Tactics: Gentlepersons Have a Fling at Ultimate Frisbee"

Before the game with Columbia, l had returned to Maplewood to visit my
family over some school vacation weekend. I remember locating the
Columbia Ultimate players engaged in practicing under the lights on a
paved parking lot! I was impressed with what I saw. I "spyed" on them.
They had a peculiar over-the-head throw that I had never seen before. I
returned to Staples the next week and showed my team this "amazing throw".
We henceforth called it the "Jersey throw."

Many of my "best" players graduated in 1974 and went off to develop Ultimate
teams at universities. You have noted many of them in your Founders list.
I continued the Staples UF team into the late 70's until issues with the
school administration over insurance and other matters led to the
dissolution of an organized team.

In August 1976 Dan Bulkley and Ron Kaufman, the organizers of WUFT,
created a round robin summer tournament of Ultimate Frisbee (UCONN, Brown,
WUFT) entitled "Westport Ultimate Frisbee Festival of Flight." This may
have been the last high profile Ultimate event in Westport.

Ultimate Players at Staples High School by Year Graduated

Ultimate Players at Staples High School
by Year Graduated