Austin Snakes

After graduating from Clear Lake High School a group of friends started playing Ultimate in Austin, Texas during the summer of 1980. Many of them were moving to Austin that fall to attend the University of Texas at Austin.  Some of these friends had been on the high school diving team (a UIL state powerhouse) and knew members of the UT diving team.  In the late 70’s ultimate was a sport that collegiate divers in Texas had been playing as a side hustle.  In 1979 SMU divers Scott Reich, Pat Bieker, and Keith Ranney who played with the Sky Pilots introduced Ultimate to UT divers, Danny Kelley and Ted Doyle. The UT diving coach also had UT divers and Olympic divers training in Austin with him including Brian Bungum play Ultimate for fun and conditioning. One origin story had some of the high schoolers playing their first game with the divers on a rocky field full of cactus in flip flops at Pedernales Falls State Park. In the fall this group would gather every weekend at the divers’ house and, after parties the night before, would play Ultimate all the next day on a small field at Patterson Park. Pre-game warm-ups involved throwing the Buzbee and were followed by an ultimate session with no real structure where scoring was accomplished by completing a pass over an imaginary line between two trees at either end.

Friendships and camaraderie grew as more players joined the “team” and spent many hours socially with a beer in hand and on the field bonding through the sport.  Near the end of 1980, Greg Clark heard about a UT Frisbee club and reached out to set up what would become our group’s first real Ultimate game at Zilker Park. We played a game against Stu Farquharson, Ronnie Eason and other UT Frisbee Club players who actually knew the rules. With patience and help from the Club players, this was the start of the Austin Ultimate “AU” Snakes. Back in those days we would follow up games at Zilker park with beers at Barton Springs Sunken Gardens.

In the early 80s, the AU Snakes played in Ultimate tournaments all over Texas including tourneys in College Station hosted by Aggie Ultimate, in Denton hosted by NTSU Ultimate, and in Nacogdoches hosted by SFA Ultimate. In spring of 1981 the AU Snakes went to their first tourney, Centex, which was being held at the UT Memorial football stadium in Austin. These were the early days of Ultimate in Texas and you learned how to play from playing against other players and watching other players play. Austin hosted two Ultimate National Championships in 1981 and 1982 and many Austin players got to see games between the likes of the Knights of Nee, Condors, Sky Pilots and The Hostages.

The AU Snakes played at the Texas Sectionals in 1982 and qualified for regionals after a 3-way tie for second place. There was no way AU was going to miss this tourney so they made preparations for the trip to Mobile Alabama having only 7 Sectionals players committed. But, being snakes, they “added” two other Texas players and played with a total of 9 players.

Over the years, the Snakes became a close-knit group of friends and in the first year made a Team Flag “Don’t Tread on Me” and Jim DeLine started the tradition of hosting a “Munch Crunch” team breakfast before Centex tournaments. Team shirts were designed every year either by Tony Hackney or Andy Hicks. The Snakes also developed multiple cheers and commemorated team events with psyche poems by star poets, Andy Hicks and Paul Keating.

Most famous Snake cheer:
We got the psyche right here today, In Austin, Texas, U. S. A.,
You want to beat us, give it a try, Step on the field, fuck off and die.

In 1983 key players, Pat “Bagger” Lee, Rob Delgado and Hugh Bender, moved to Austin and joined the Snakes. AU also started adding top Aggie Ultimate Players such as Rich Menicke, Billy “Beads” Murchison, Tim “Leroy” and Tony Hackney. At this point the Snakes started taking road trips to play tourneys all over the country including Tempe, St. Louis and Boulder. These road trips have become legendary in the lore of Snake history including broken down RV’s, side trips to Mexico, and even arrests.  In 1985 many AU players started playing on all-star and Austin combo teams for the UPA competitive series but would reunite to play Centex, winning Centex for their last time against the Houndz in 1990.

The Snakes started having team reunions in 1990 and have continued this tradition having a reunion every 3 years since. At the 50th Anniversary of Ultimate Frisbee at Nationals in San Diego, the AU Snakes were in the second team in the parade of teams right after the Columbia High School team, the team that started Ultimate.