Monday, March 25, 2013
The game started at Roos Field on Friday morning. All day, while other people worked, ate lunch, went to class, met up with friends, ate dinner and went to bed, the game of ultimate frisbee continued.
All day Saturday, while other people slept in, ate breakfast, watched basketball, cried about the Zags and went to bed, the game continued. All day Sunday, the game continued.
It will end, finally, after sunset tonight, as the Eastern Washington University Ultimate Frisbee Club attempts to break the world record for the longest ultimate game ever played. The current record is 80 hours, 15 minutes and 13 seconds. The goal is 85 hours.
“All year we’ve poured heart and soul into the game, practiced, and now we get an opportunity to do something that no one else can say they did,” club president Zack Ranck told KXLY.
To prove the playing time, participants have to keep a detailed log book and stat sheets. (They’ve also been streaming video from the field sporadically.) The marathon is actually a series of shorter “games” defined by the number of points scored, and each of the two teams has 15 players on a rotation for brief naps.
If the players succeed, it won’t be the first world record set in the Spokane area (or the strangest). Hoopfest got into the books as the Largest Streetball Tournament in 2009, and that same year the Largest Free Floating Soap Bubble was created at The Lincoln Center. The Guinness Book of World Records also credits the Spokane Shock for tying the record for highest score in an arena football game, with 69 points. And the results haven’t been certified yet, but last year a local company attempted to make the world’s largest piece of of handmade paper. Previously in Cheney, volunteers helped set the record for the largest cardboard box sculpture.