- Many kids in Green Bay grow up dreaming
of one day playing at Lambeau Field.
That was certainly true of Tim DeByl.
- So I grew up probably two miles from the stadium
and my family s had season tickets.
For me, it was amazing.
Me and my brother used to go to all the games.
- But in college, Tim discovered a whole new game:
Ultimate Frisbee.
You ve probably seen it played like this
on a sunny day in a park.
It s a simple game.
Connect on a pass
to a teammate in the end zone to score.
- It's unique to sports I think, in that
it always requires two people to have a score.
There s no way to run it in.
There's no way to throw it to yourself.
There's seven guys. They all touch the disc.
Everybody needs to work together to get a score.
I think that's one of the compelling things
about the sport.
- That cooperative spirit goes back to ultimate s origins
in the 1970s counterculture.
An era that also inspired the name
for Madison s professional ultimate team: the Radicals.
That s right.
Ultimate, the mellow pastime, has gone pro.
And Tim is playing a huge part
as manager,
head coach and
co-owner of the Madison Radicals.
- Look at the coach-owner setting up the sign.
I don't think that we ever really thought that
it was a great business decision.
You know really this is much more about
having a passion for the sport.
- A passion that is being shared
by hundreds of fans who show up at games,
and through live streaming video coverage.
? ?
- Announcer: We are live at Breese Stevens Field.
- And it really took off.
There's highlights all throughout the game.
People are diving for the frisbee.
- Come on. - Let's go.
- They're making great catches, great throws.
- And while the Radicals are a passion project for Tim,
it helps that his day job is running a marketing firm.
- Having marketing skills in this was a huge advance
to our franchise.
- The Radicals have been
one of the league s most successful franchises,
both on the field and in the stands.
- Fans obviously want to come out and watch a winning team.
And I think without that,
they might not be as interested as they are.
- Tim has provided the hometown fans with a winner.
Going into today s game against their division rivals,
Pittsburgh Thunderbirds,
the Radicals are unbeaten at home.
- A 30-game home win streak is somewhat unheard of in sports.
It's kind of an amazing streak in itself.
And we want to keep it going.
- The streak is all the more impressive
considering Madison is, by far,
the smallest city in the league,
giving Tim a much more limited talent pool to draw from.
- There's a bit of a bias towards the bigger cities
like San Francisco and Dallas and Denver
where there's a lot more players.
I think our guys just want to prove they want to be
in that conversation.
- Like many sports teams without superstars,
the Radicals have found success by emphasizing defensive play.
Something Tim learned from basketball,
especially from legendary UW-Green Bay Coach Dick Bennett.
- My high school coaches in basketball
were Dick Bennett fundamentals.
- Announcer: One against four. Knocked away.
- So he was always about defense.
- But it was a hard sell
to get an ultimate team to work on defense.
- When I would ask,
"Hey, what's our defensive strategy?"
It generally would be, Well, stand near your guy.
We focused half of our practice on defensive principles.
And I think that was a big surprise to everybody.
But it proved to be really successful.
We ve been the number one defensive team every year
in the league.
- Tim s coaching success is even more impressive
considering that even having a coach is new to the game.
- We re back, okay, if it goes in the end zone.
Coaching ultimate players is really hard.
So most of them didn't have a high school coaches.
Most of them didn't have college coaches even.
- But coaching has become Tim s real passion.
- When I started the AUDL team,
I wanted to be the general manager.
I thought, "Well, for the first year,
I'll coach until we get things going.
And I just, I remembered how much I love coaching.
I love working with players.
I love the interaction between coach and players.
And those relationships that you build.
I think being a coach
is something that I don t want to give up anytime soon.
- Ra-Ra-Radicals!
- And it even lead to something Tim never imagined
growing up in Green Bay.
- Announcer: Let's play frisbee gentlemen.
- Ultimate being played at Lambeau.
The Packers invited the Radicals to play ultimate
at halftime on the Frozen Tundra.
- Eighty-thousand people.
The biggest ultimate game that s ever been played.
- For me, coming out of the tunnel was the best part.
The team got to run out of the tunnel and it was like,
"Wow! This is Lambeau and it s packed.
And the fans were really into it,
which was cool too.
It was amazing.
- While Tim didn t get to play at Lambeau,
he's now done something even fewer people have achieved.
He got to coach a team there.
- Being able to see them
out there on the field playing, for me,
was as good as playing.
I knew how much it meant to the guys.