From the Vault

I was going through my iPhoto library the other day and came across the logo for my first ultimate frisbee team, the Fighting Crackers. It is hard for me to believe that it was a little over five years ago that the team was founded…

It was at a time when a lot of schools and professional teams were getting in trouble for having mascots that were supposedly derogatory towards Native Americans, and since we were a bunch of white guys, I came up with the name “Fighting Crackers” as a parody. And I liked the idea of a scowling, pugilistic Saltine.

As a bunch of freshmen, the Fighting Crackers shocked everyone by winning the first ever intra-school ultimate tournament at Harding, and the following fall semester, we became more ethnically diverse with the addition of a half-Asian, half-Italian defensive specialist.

Overall, we were a pretty dominant team, winning two of the four tournaments we played in and finishing second in the other two, with a combined record of something like 16-3.

Some people were jealous, and others resented us (cough, Justin Bland, cough), but playing for the Fighting Crackers was my first real experience of ultimate as a team sport, and was instrumental in the later foundation of Harding’s official ultimate team.

I’m sure if I went back now and watched us play, I’d be embarrassed at how bad we were, but I miss those days.

We did wear some pretty hideous socks though.


Pictured above (L-R): Ty Gentry, Will Dockery, Mike McCubbin, Jonathan Towell, Sam Travaglini. Bent over in exhaustion (L-R): Luke Dockery, Colby Blaisdell. Not pictured: Jason Crawford, Michael Graves, Dave Pritchett, Patrick Williams.