Michigan Pro Ultimate Frisbee Team Wins First Game In 7 Years

I remember the first time I was introduced to ultimate frisbee in elementary school, I told my gym teacher that it was a knock off football. That may have been because I wasn't too good at throwing the frisbee yet, but I definitely was one of the better receivers in the class. Nonetheless, I had no idea how big of sport ultimate frisbee actually was or how fun it could be when taken seriously.

I chose disc golf as my frisbee sport but have a newfound appreciation for those who can excel in the ultimate frisbee world. Believe it or not, there is a professional ultimate frisbee league and the talent is spectacular as they compete in 4 divisions that compete for one championship. Michigan has a team in Detroit that competes in the Central division, it's been a rough go for them in recent years, until this summer.

The Ultimate Frisbee Association (UFA) is the professional league in the United States that had its inaugural season in 2012 and Detroit was one of the original teams that season. 2012 was their most successful season as they were able to go 7-9 but since then it has been a downward trajectory. Things really settled in for the Detroit Mechanix in the late 2010s as they were still struggling to put a team together and found themselves in muddy waters.

2017 was the year that everything for real for the Mechanix as they were only able to win one game and they still hadn't found the formula that would work for them. Well, the changes they made only made things worse as they proceeded to enter a portion of time that would be the darkest and they would go winless for 7 years, until this summer, all of that changed.

On Saturday June 22, 2024, the Detroit Mechanix ended their losing streak and etched their names into the UFA history books for the time being. The longest losing streak in UFA history belongs to the Detroit Mechanix but is no longer active as the Mechanix took down the Pittsburgh Thunderbirds by score of 25-14.

@watchufatvAfter 2611 days, Detroit ends their historic 81-game losing streak ⛓️‍♬ original sound - Ultimate Frisbee Association

As you can see in the TikTok above the team was still stunned that they had managed to do the seemingly impossible and the league was on notice. Most coaches and players around the league said they were happy but shocked that Detroit was able to find their way to victory.

The celebration wasn't as big as I thought it should've been considering the feat that was just accomplished but everybody processes things differently. More importantly, I hope that they are able to keep this momentum going and find themselves in the win column more often over the next few years.