|
|
About Disc Golf
- or as some of us annoying players from the old days
call "Frisbee Golf"
Disc Golf
inventor Ed Hedrick not only provided many
improvements to a sport destined to grow and find
its way, he also shaped disc golf in countless ways.
Creating the most popular professional model Frisbee
with its band of raised ridges called the
Rings of Headrick in 1964, he continued to push the
limits with never-seen passion by developing the
first pole with a chain basket or "hole" similar to
traditional golf.
Creating a
sport he believed anyone could play, he designed the
first disc course in Pasadena. Early games used targets of
trees, trash cans, light poles, chicken wire
baskets and pipes. The game was formalized by
Heidrickk's first Disc Pole Hole
catching devise, consisting of 10 chains hanging in
a parabolic shape over an upward opening basket, US
Patent 4,039,189, issued 1975.
His first Disc Golf Course was designed and
built that same year in Pasadena, California's Oak
Grove Park and became an
instant success. Heidrick's imprint on the sport
would not stop. He also founded the Professional
Disc Golf Association in 1975, which he turned over
to the players in 1983. Headrick’s inventions include the Wham-O
Superball that sold over twenty-million units and
the utility patent for the modern day Frisbee, which
has sold over 200 million. Headrick led the advertising program,
was Vice President of Research and Development,
Executive Vice President, General Manager and served
as CEO for Wham-O Inc. over a ten year period. In a
deal that gave his company rights to earnings, Headrick took credit for over $18 million in
earnings under his umbrella, but the CEO received
only a paycheck. Frisbee is now owned by Mattel
Toy Manufacturers, only one of at least sixty
manufacturers of flying discs. Wham-O sold over one
hundred million units before the selling the toy to
Mattel.
Designing over 200 courses throughout his career,
today there are almost 1000 Disc Golf Courses in the
United States with around 3,000,000 regular players
and over 20,000 professional members of the
Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA).
Ed Headrick,
father of the modern Frisbee and designer of
Wham-O's first "professional model" flying disc,
died at the age of 78. Partially
paralyzed after suffering two strokes at a disc golf
tournament in Miami, before Headrick passed away, he
left a legacy and some thoughts to chew on. With
every member of his family avid disc golf players,
nothing was sacred, Headrick once said that Frisbyterians
were members of a religion. "When
we die, we don't go to purgatory. We just land up on
the roof and lay there.''
Headrick's
last wish was to have his ashes molded into memorial
flying discs to be given to a select few family and
friends. Steady Ed,' as friends called him, saw his
request as passion incarnate.
For example, he took the entire family to Tahiti
back in the 1960's, toting six cases of Wham-O
Toy Co. Hula Hoops with them. The family gave them away and showed people how
to do it. They also introduced the Frisbee there.
Headrick was a man who longed to make people smile.
After high school, former classmates invited him to
join their budding company, called Wham-O. Headrick
jumped at the chance to follow his inventive
instincts and joined their successful venture in
Emeryville.
An Abbreviated History of Disc Golf, by "Steady" Ed
Headrick, the father of Disc Golf and of the modern
day Frisbee.
The Discoblus
“Scaling”
Early targets
The first course
The first catching device
33 Years With The Frisbee
Sears and water heaters
Wham-O
The Frisbee
IFA - International Frisbee Association
The first Masters Competition
|
|
