Alum Updates: John Toupin '85, Harper Alexander '02, Kyle Weisbrod '02 John Toupin '85 The Skinny email: jtoupin@live365.com class of: 1985 hometown: Medford, MA current whereabouts: San Mateo, CA what he's up to: Internet radio; still playing coed disc; just turned 40 Vital Stats date of birth: 3/12/63 height: 5'9" weight (in college): 152 weight (today): 165 jersey number: Jersey? Jersey? We don't need no stinkin' jerseys. boxers or briefs? briefs. Beatles or Elvis? Beatles. The Long and the Short of It favorite ultimate moment at Brown. Savage seven at tourney in Northampton. Lost to Williams in finals by 2. anecdotes, memories, reflections... Cur Hood's VW van with 9 guys in it; 15-second stall counts; weavers, spinners & artisans; Ultimate Affair in '82 (a tourney so big that some guy died there and I didn't find out about it until 10 years later); we didn't have any idea of what we were doing until Bill Rodriguez and I spent a summer in Palo Alto in 1984 and brought back the Stanford O for 1985, when we made Regionals; played all zone D in '85, 5-man cup; my two roommates from college: Bill (well, you know what he's done) and Ben Flower, who won 2 College Nationals while getting his PhD at UCSB. I will take partial credit for the name "Brownian Motion." When we arrived, the team was the "Bears"; at some party in 1982, though, we came up with the Motion name and this guy named Mark Three Stars (full-blooded Indian from AZ or NM, as I recall) came up with this very cool shirt that went with the name. I still have a couple of those shirts. Mark was one of the first true ultimate spirits I ever ran across. In most games he could be found completely horizontal about 3 feet off the ground with a huge grin on his face. He probably was a '83 or so. There's a pretty big contingent of ulty playing alums in the Bay Area. Jeff Stokes (maybe '90) is a teammate of mine, though I don't think he played a lot at Brown. I run into Bob Herold '77 and Kurt Fleischer '82 from time to time. Mike Shantzis ('84, '86) switched to ice hockey once he moved to the Bay Area (he's also won an Oscar or two at Pixar) — he works with Kurt. Glen Adler ('84 or so) used to play with me on the Palo Alto SCUM team many moons ago. I think you guys are doing a great job with the team on and off the field. It's turning into an East Coast dynasty similar to the way the West Coast schools (Stanford and UCSB in particular) work, with the alums supporting and driving the current team, both financially and with coaching. We were always scrambling to get numbers and our total budget was $600/yr. Field space was a bitch. Sometimes we got Marvel gym across from the football stadium; sometimes the JCC field next door. One practice Bill R laid out and put a 3-inch cut on his hand, there was so much glass. We hailed a passing car to give us a ride back to the infirmary and Bill stuck his bleeding hand outside the window and dripped blood for 2 miles. He felt so bad he splattered blood on the outside of this guy's car. Until they built the new gym, we got late night winter practices at Marvel; afterwards, we got to practice at 10pm on the field hockey artificial turf. Bill Brown ('83, '87 MD) had an uncle who worked in the WhamO factory in San Gabriel, CA who would send us boxes of misprinted discs. He also sent us special winter discs which wouldn't crack in sub-zero temps. ultimate after Brown. All CA: SCUM (Palo Alto), Strange Brew (SF), Spin Doctors (Palo Alto), Black Mountain (Los Altos). Retired from Open about 6 years ago; now play only co-ed with Feral Cows. anything else you'd like to get off your chest? Taught Bill Rodriguez, my freshman roommate, everything he knows about ultimate. ;-)