The Denver Summer Ultimate League got its start as a 12-team League in 1985. It
started out as the Denver Ultimate Frisbee League where all its games were held
in Washington Park south of downtown Denver. Teams were already formed, pretty
well set, their players being pretty consistent from year to year until 1990.
By that time, the League had grown from 12 teams to 16. By 1991, however, there
was interest in introducing parity into the League, as many of the teams were
very strong, and the newer teams that had formed over the years were being
dominated by the teams that had been around for the 6 years the League had been
in existence. Ninety-ninety-one saw the introduction of a full draft system.
The League had outgrown the capacity of Washington Park, affectionately known
as Wash Park, but the intent had always been to field all the games at one site,
so the Denver Ultimate Frisbee League then had to move from alternating sites
within the Denver Parks and Recreation District.
In 1993, the Denver
Ultimate Frisbee League switched its name to the Denver Summer Ultimate League. By 1995, there were enough players to bring the League to 20 teams, and DP&RD did not then have a site large enough to accommodate that many teams on any given night. The DSUL then moved to a site in Lakewood within the Foothills Park and Recreation District on the west side of metro Denver. The DSUL grew steadily over the next several years to reach its peak of 780 players divided up into 40 teams, roughly half of them being A-division teams comprised of very experienced players, some of them having UPA national's-level players, the other half being more casual players and newer, beginning players in the B-division. The DSUL has been at the same site since 1995 where it started out with 5 fields (two time slots), and has expanded to its current 9 fields.
While competition has always been a significant part of the DSUL in both divisions,
fun has always been the prevailing factor behind the apparent success of the DSUL.
Players from up and down the Front Range have been a part of the DSUL, from as far
north as Fort Collins to as far south as Colorado Springs. It is not uncommon for
players to come down from the mountain towns of Frisco, Breckenridge and Winter Park
to be a part of the DSUL.
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