Ultimate

It may not be the ultimate game, but Ultimate, a.k.a. Ultimate Frisbee, is perhaps one of the most ambitious and successful efforts to redefine the sports experience.

The sport itself is a thing of grace and beauty, and an opportunity for intense team competition. It's a bit like playing soccer/basketball with a disc ("Frisbee" is a trademark, "disc" is the thing that looks like a Frisbee). There are teams and goals. You can't run with the disc (as in basketball), so you basically catch, pass, and position yourself to catch again until you can throw it to someone who is in the opposing team's goal area (as in kinda like soccer). It's played on college campuses, by men and women. There are world tournaments.

The ambitious part of Ultimate lies in what players refer to as the "Spirit of the Game" - an undisguised attempt to make players their own referees. Basically, the ideas is that if you commit a foul, you call it on yourself. Imagine what it takes for a serious player to have the strength of personality and purpose needed to do a thing like that - to stop herself and the game, in the blue heat of competition, and admit, publicly, that she broke a rule!

It takes sport back to the era in which it was considered a way to build character. And what a way! No wonder the sport is called "Ultimate."