Ultimate Frisbee

Ultimate Frisbee is a competitive sport that is played as a co-ed club sport at Knox College. Currently, the club is named Xonk. They have competed in tournaments throughout the Midwest and compete in the Central Plains Section of the Great Lakes Region of the UPA College Series.

Beginnings

Knox Ultimate was founded by students Rob Clark and Ned Early, sometime in the early nineties.

Dingos

Eschewing the school's offical Prarie Fire mascot, The Dingos was chosen as the original name of the team, and they sported a Wile E. Coyote-ish standing dingo as their mascot. This name lasted until 2001, when it was reappropriated for the Alumni Team (a group of alums, spouses and friends who play in the annual Natalie Verazano tournament). The team rarely competed in tournaments at this time.

Casual Mexican Dining

After a team discussion in 2001, the team name was put to a vote and was subsequently changed to "Casual Mexican Dining".

Etymology

The name comes from a tournament trip in 2000, when team members drove by a laundromat with a cardboard sign in the window reading "CASUAL MEXICAN DINING". The team stopped to investigate, went to the back of the laundromat, and found a small room with a picnic table and a place settings - a tiny restaurant. The team name remained until 2005.

Regionals Appearance

The team began to compete more actively in UPA sanctioned tournaments as well as the UPA College Series - the offical sectional and regional competions that determine 16 teams to compete in the UPA College Championships (akin to the NCAA's "Final Four"). In the 2003 season, Knox defeated Notre Dame (amongst other teams) to win a bid in the Central Plains for the first time in school history. They competed against teams from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and went 2-2, with the University of Illinois and Ohio State winning the two bids to the Nationals.

• The team was known for a large number of TKE players, notably Ben Martin, founder of the current chapter of TKE and former Dingo/CMD team captain.

Xonk

In 2005, the team again voted to change their name, this time choosing the onamatopoetic "Xonk" (Knox backwards, obviously). The team has seen a significant number of its players affiliate themselves with the Sigma Chi Fraternity since its inception, notably Nate Pierce, a founder of the school's chapter.

Natalie Veneziano Winter White Out Tournament

Each winter, Knox holds an indoor tournament across the gym's four courts, playing one game at a time. The tournament is named for Natalie Veneziano, a former Knox Ultimate player who recently passed away from cancer. At the tournament, a ceremony is held thanking the teams, remembering Natalie, and awarding the Rob Clark Award to the alumni who best displayed the spirit of Ultimate Frisbee and contributed it to the club. It has been awarded once to a non-alumni: in 2004, Jeremy Karlin (husband of professor Monica Berlin and long-time team tutor, competitor, and friend for the team).

References

• http://www.knox.edu/x4208.xml Knox Website news article]