From: jp@moscom.com (Jim Palmeri)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.disc
Subject: Re: Disc Golf Trivia Question
Date: 12 Jan 93 14:44:41 GMT
Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY

Geoff Hungerford's attempt to answer the "first disc ever made
specifically for disc golf" trivia question":

>The IFT (International Frisbee Tournament) held in
>Marquette, Michigan, included a disc golf event in 1975.  Normally this
>was a Guts tournament with some side events like distance.  But in 1975
>the official tournament discs were a yellow 15-mold Pro model (for
>guts) and a stiff, bulky yellow cross between a Super-Pro and what was
>to become a 50 mold (141g).  That year there were two side events
>besides Guts: MTA and Disc Golf. .....

>.............................................The IFT Super-Pro was
>eclipsed only a few weeks later by the first run of 40 and 50 molds in
>white plastic with the 1975 Rose Bowl hot stamp.  These discs were
>quickly touted as the most stable, longest flying plastic ever
>available. We used them for golf, although probably not manufactured
>primarily for golf, as the 75 Rose Bowl was an overall competition and
>the newly pressed 40 and 50 molds were just the official tourney disc. 

Geoff was a little off in that first paragraph, because there was no
disc golf at the 1975 IFT.  The side events were MTA, distance, and
accuracy.  Geoff may have played some impromptu disc golf on the side,
but there was no official disc golf.  However, he was absolutely correct
in his assessment of that disc as being a good golf disc.

His second paragraph was highly accurate also.  The 1975 Rose Bowl
119g and 141g World Class Discs ushered in the modern era of disc
play in general, and began the evolution of the golf disc in particular,
although they themselves weren't made specifically for disc golf, as 
Geoff pointed out.

The very first disc put together specifically for the game of disc golf
came in the spring of 1977.  They were the white 119g World Class
"Around Nine" discs that Ed Headrick had made up for his fledgling Disc
Golf Association.  They were given to each person who joined the DGA. 
That disc performed very well, somewhat better than the standard 119g
discs of that era.  The prevailing theory is that these discs were left
over from the very first run of white 119g's that were used for the 1975
Rose Bowl tournament, which were slightly heavier than subsequent
production 119g discs.

Shortly thereafter, Ed Headrick got the idea that even heavier might
be better, and the summer of 1977 saw the advent of the DGA glow in 
the dark Night Flyers, extra heavy versions of the 119g world class
discs made exclusively for the DGA.  The first ones ranged from 125 
to 130 grams, and could be thrown further than any other disc in
existence, including the original "Around Nine" golf disc.  That
fact coupled with the fact the "Around Nine" disc was somewhat of a
collectors item led to the rapid disappearance of the "Around Nine"
disc from the golf courses of the day.

After that the golf disc began to evolve rapidly.  The 40 mold discs
got heavier and heavier; heavy versions of the 41, 50 ,80, and 100
mold discs came out, (even a fastback version showed up).  By the 
end of 1979, other manufacturers began to get interested in the golf
market.  Tom Schot and Victor Malafronte worked with a company called
Brand X and got them to release a big heavy thing that had some
potential, but nothing that could out-perform the state of the art
DGA discs.  Jim Kenner and Gail McColl of Discraft had some golf
discs in the works.  Jan Sobel was working on a golf disc.

Then, in the spring of 1980, Jan Sobel's "puppy", as described in
earlier post, showed up on the scene.  At that point all hell broke
loose and the evolution of the golf disc just exploded.  I lost
track of what came when at that point.

Basically the Wham-O based DGA 70 mold came along as counterpoint to
the puppy.  After Wham-O was sold, the DGA went with the puppy type
discs and spun off their own line from there.  AMF voit marketed
a version of the puppy.  Then, of course, Innova-Champion introduced
the Aero, and the truly modern era of disc golf began.

Many thanks to Geoff Hungerford for getting us disc golfers out of
the closet and on to the network.
-- 
Jim P.   (jp@moscom.com)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.disc