Bernard Hellring

{{Short description|Creator of Ultimate frisbee}}

Bernard "Buzzy" Hellring was a co-creator of Ultimate Frisbee.{{cite web | author =

| title = Founders of Early Ultimate Teams | publisher = Ultimate History

| url = http://www.ultimatehistory.com/founders/Pg/teamfounders.html | date = | accessdate = 2008-04-06 }}

Along with Joel Silver and Johnny Hines, Hellring created ultimate in the parking lot of Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey.{{cite web

| author = Adam Zagoria

| title = The History of Ultimate

| publisher = The Ultimate Handbook

| url = http://www.ultimatehandbook.com/Webpages/History/histulti.html

| accessdate = 2008-04-06

| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080429233809/http://www.ultimatehandbook.com/Webpages/History/histulti.html

| archivedate = 2008-04-29

| quote = According to Hellring’s sister, Heidi, Hellring got Wham-O to send the team a box of Frisbees because the discs kept cracking in the 15-25 degree Fahrenheit air; one green 120-gram "moonlighter" was lost in the brook by the lot, The Colombian reported. Silver and Hellring also took the International Frisbee Association’s test, passing it as masters. The IFA was then the sport’s governing body...Hellring continued to write tongue-in-cheek Frisbee stories and place ads for the team in the paper. In one, the paper reported that "the rise of Frisbee in Columbia high school is merely indicative of a world-wide trend, according to major national periodicals." The story went on to cite a Time magazine article which recommended that the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. take their cue and henceforth "settle all disputes between the two with Frisbees instead of missiles." }}{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/1952-the-man-who-made-ultimate-frisbee-a-sport-is-born-1.5409701|title=1952: The Man Who Made Ultimate Frisbee a 'Sport' Is Born|newspaper=Haaretz}}{{Cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=6330376|title=A Parking Lot Game Spread Around the World|website=ABC News}}{{Cite web|url=https://flyingdiscstore.com.au/blogs/disc-golf-blog/ultimate-frisbee-through-the-years|title=Ultimate Frisbee Through the Years|website=Flying Disc Store|date=9 August 2021 }}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/nyregion/new-jersey/16frisbeenj.html|title=Still Competing at Ultimate Frisbee's Birthplace|first=Dave|last=Caldwell|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 14, 2008}} and subsequently codified the rules of the sport.{{Cite web|url=https://thesportjournal.org/article/the-origins-and-development-of-ultimate-frisbee/|title=The Origins and Development of Ultimate Frisbee|publisher=U. S. Sports|last=Academy|date=July 10, 2009| quote = Finally, in the fall of 1968, the members of the student newspaper challenged the students on Council to a formal game. In a match up that featured two large, co-ed teams, The Columbian won the first game in front of the high school, 11-7. This historic first match was played on the now famous Columbia parking lot. During the summer of 1970, Silver, Hellring and Hines re-wrote and refined the rules which were subsequently printed and copies were sent all over the world}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/08/18/639615807/1968-created-the-ultimate-anti-sport-sport?t=1632986801618|title=1968 Created The 'Ultimate' Anti-Sport Sport|newspaper=NPR.org}}

Hellring was the son of Bernard Hellring, an attorney and New Jersey Commissioner of Uniform State Law and Sally Horner Hellring of South Orange, New Jersey.,{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/07/obituaries/bernard-hellring-is-dead-at-74-battled-to-improve-varied-laws.html|title=Bernard Hellring Is Dead at 74; Battled to Improve Varied Laws|first=Peter B.|last=Flint|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 7, 1991}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/livingston-nj/sally-hellring-5202164|title=Sally Hellring Obituary - Livingston, NJ|website=Dignity Memorial}} part of the South Orange-Maplewood School District.

Hellring died in 1971, in an auto accident at Princeton University.{{cite web | author = | title = The "Founders" | publisher = Ultimate Players Association | url = http://www.upa.org/Founders | date = 2005-12-28 | accessdate = 2008-04-06 | archive-date = 2007-09-26 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070926222631/http://www2.upa.org/Founders | quote = In the summer of 1968, Joel Silver was introduced to a “frisbee football” type game while participating in an educational enrichment program at the Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Massachusetts. After returning to Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, that fall, he got a motion passed at the student council to introduce Frisbee into the curriculum. Together with his friends Bernard “Buzzy” Hellring and Jonathan “Jonny” Hines, they got other students to play their new game and refined the rules, producing a written “first edition” of the rules for the sport Joel dubbed “Ultimate Frisbee” and naming their group the “Columbia High School Varsity Frisbee Squad” in early 1970. The three classmates laid the foundation required to permit the transformation of a recreational activity into a sport over the following years. Ultimate today is still played largely according to the rules developed by Joel, Buzzy, and Jonny.}}{{Cite web|url=https://paw.princeton.edu/article/follow-flying-disc|title=Follow the flying disc|date=January 21, 2016|website=Princeton Alumni Weekly}}

He was elected posthumously into the Ultimate Hall of Fame.{{cite web | title = Ultimate Hall of Fame Inductees | publisher = Ultimate Players Association | url = http://www.upa.org/hof/inductees | date = 2008-02-14 | accessdate = 2008-04-06 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080410001734/http://www.upa.org/hof/inductees | archivedate = 2008-04-10 }}

After his death, funds were raised to fulfill his dream of producing the high school newspaper he edited as an in-house daily, through purchase of a large Heidelberg printing press. This press was sold sometime in the late 1990s as traditional printing arts were replaced by computer-based technologies in the school's curricula.