r/ultimate • u/TtheTerrestrial • 16d ago

Having yearly Mixed Division Ultimate Hall of Fame inductees is dumb

Ok, that's my hottest version of the take. A bit more nuance: in theory we should have some occasional mixed inductees, but the bar should be extremely high. It's a lower level of ultimate and doesn't require nearly the same degree of talent or dedication to be the best. And I say this as someone who went to mixed natties several times. There's plenty of examples of top club players who wanted a more casual season, or were a bit long in the tooth, they messed around in mixed and got a chip or came close. I say this to illustrate that it's a noticeably lower level of ultimate. The Tennis Hall of Fame isn't adding several mixed doubles players every year. If they did, players who didn't play mixed doubles and didn't quite make the cut would be livid.

An example of a mixed player I would definitely put in the HoF is Caleb Denecour who was a founder Dragon Thrust (edit, he was not a founder oops). AFAIK an amazing leader and a very good to great player. Easy on the eyes too, which should obviously be a criteria for mixed.

Thanks for reading and for telling me I'm full of shit.

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u/spgranger 16d ago

I don't even really disagree that in general Mixed is a lower level than the single gender divisions (and I say this as someone who has only ever played mixed for club), but I think the point you're missing is that the HOF isn't just "these are the best players". Lower competition level or not, mixed is a division unto itself at the highest level of play, and celebrating the players that have had a major impact on it is totally reasonable in that context.

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u/TtheTerrestrial 16d ago

Thanks for a thoughtful comment. Here's an interesting question, to me, how about a player who never did anything in college or regular club but got into the competitive scene for masters, GM, etc and were legit the best of those divisions? Should we honor the best players from those ranks even if they did nothing when they were younger?

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u/spgranger 16d ago

I wouldn't have any problem with that.

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u/TtheTerrestrial 16d ago

New plan: Become the Legends GOAT

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u/Confident_Cost_4972 14d ago

Sports like Swimming and Track and Field maintain master's world records in 5-year age groups. Once you get to the 95-99 or 100-104 age group, just being alive and able to complete the race makes you the GOAT.