Nearly six decades ago, a group of Columbia High School students gathered in their school’s parking lot and struck a pose.
Disc in the middle and trophy clutched high, the New Jersey teens congregated in Mark Epstein’s desired formation. In need of a photographer, they called on his younger brother, Roy. The quick shutter of a camera captured an early, powerful image of the sport Mark Epstein and his friends invested in with no designs on its future explosion.
“It started out just with four friends who invented the game of ultimate Frisbee on the high school parking lot, and it’s become this worldwide phenomenon,” Roy Epstein said. “Nobody dreamt at the beginning that it would ever become something like this.”
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Epstein sat down with the production crew for an upcoming documentary on ultimate frisbee to discuss his late brother Mark’s key role in the sport’s history.
The feature documentary by Tony Leonardo, titled “ The Lot: The Story of Ultimate Frisbee,” explores the 55-year history of ultimate frisbee at Columbia High School, a public school in Maplewood, New Jersey. The film’s producers bill it as “an archival resource for generations to come” with interviews, archival newspaper stories, photographs, and more. Columbia’s program, which began in 1968, now boasts 18 New Jersey state championships.
A two-term Belmont Select Board member and longtime Town Meeting member, Roy Epstein moved to Belmont in 1994. An expert international economic analyst by trade, Epstein never played ultimate.
But his older brother, Mark, did. In fact, Mark Epstein is one of a quartet of former Columbia High School students and former members of The Columbian student newspaper who invented the sport. Mark Epstein, Columbia High School Class of 1970, died July 16 in Belmont at age 73. He moved to Belmont in 2008 to be closer to his brother. Health complications prevented him from participating in an interview for the film.
Leonardo traveled to Belmont to interview Roy Epstein and collect memorabilia, including a photo of the first-ever ultimate team that, of course, included Mark Epstein. Leonardo has made an “astonishing effort” in capturing the story, Epstein said. Their on-camera interview lasted for approximately 20 minutes.
“It started out almost as a lark … by an extremely talented bunch,” Roy Epstein said. “The game of ultimate frisbee today is basically the same as the little rule book they developed in 1969.”
Though the film’s focus isn’t Belmont, the town boasts a burgeoning ultimate scene of its own, including a successful half-decade-old middle school program and Belmont High School Marauder varsity, sub-varsity, and club teams. Nationwide, more than 18,000 college student-athletes compete in ultimate, according to USA Ultimate. It’s not currently an Olympic sport, but the International Olympic Committee officially recognizes ultimate. It was considered for the 2028 Los Angeles Games and remains a possibility for 2032 in Brisbane, Australia.
“Ultimate emerged almost as a countercultural activity,” Epstein said. “The guys who thought it up wanted a sport that was a team sport that didn’t cost much, didn’t want any real contact, and wanted it to be co-ed. It was like that, really, from the get-go.”
