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Ultimate Frisbee got its start in the late interesting twist to it is that my first journal-
1960s as a high school game, which then istic effort, when I was at Rutgers
caught on in a big way on college campuses. University, was Flying Disc World. So I
Ultimate is played between two teams on a probably put in print the generic term first.
field with end zones, and the object of the Many of the early things done under the
game is to score by catching the Frisbee—a aegis of the IFA were done by Wham-O,
“pass”—in the other team’s end zone. exclusively. It was all Wham-O money.
Today, there are Ultimate Frisbee leagues all Once they put me in place there [at the
over the U.S., including at many colleges IFA], I had regional directors out there, I
and universities. had Frisbee World magazine, we had the
The king of Frisbee sports may just be Frisbee World Championships … Frisbee
disc golf, which has seen huge growth since Frisbee Frisbee. It made sense for Wham-O,
the 1960s. Disc golf is just what it sounds because any publicity that came with the
like: players throw discs toward a “hole” activity, guess where the shelf action was?
(usually a chain link basket) on a dedicated Frisbee.
course. The score is kept, much as in the “But as the market started to broaden,
standard game of golf, according to how with companies like Innova and Discraft
many throws each player makes before and others beginning to get a foothold—
putting the disc into the basket. The player first just through enthusiasts and then
with the lowest total score (for the 9-hole or actually getting shelf space—and going into
18-hole course) wins. major [outlets], it just increasingly made
Disc golf is perhaps the best example of a sense for it to become a generic sport, like
long-time debate that has taken place virtually all others. Whether it’s surfing, or
regarding the words “Frisbee” and “disc.” golf, or whatever … they all work with
Although it’s known both as disc golf and various manufacturers. That was a very hard
Frisbee golf, Wham-O is just one player in Wham-O’s Frisbee Fantasy Series discs, produced transition for Wham-O to make because it’s
that market. “Wham-O does a little bit in during the early 1980s, are popular with collectors good to be king! Why share lunch, especially
Frisbee golf because it would take a lot for for their sharp artwork. when you’re buying lunch? A hard
them to try to get a piece of that market,” transition, and I was right in the middle of
says Victor Malafronte, author of The it, and I had my critics on either side. In
Complete Book of Frisbee and the “Original World Frisbee Champion” retrospect, particularly with people in the sport, it gave me a lot of
from his victory at the Invitational World Frisbee Championships in latitude. I was still working for the company that made Frisbees (Mattel
1974. “Now there are six or seven big companies that are making golf Sports owned Wham-O, at that point) and I was the director of the
discs. You have Discraft, you have Innova, you have Dynamic Discs, World Flying Disc Federation. You can imagine that that would
you have Prodigy.” In general, golf discs are smaller and are more dense raise eyebrows.”
and flexible than standard Frisbees, characteristics that enable a golf
disc to be thrown further and with greater accuracy. Disc Collectibility
Early flying discs, such as the American Trends Flyin-Saucer and the
Pluto Platter, often come with big price tags. They can run into several
hundred dollars, and occasionally into four figures. But with more than
70 years of flying disc history to dig into, there’s a huge number of great
Frisbees out there waiting to be found.
Condition, unsurprisingly, is king with older discs. “You can get a
Pluto Platter for anywhere from $10 for a common color one that has
dog bites all over it, to thousands of dollars for a pristine example in a
rare color,” says Dan Roddick. “If you just want a cool Pluto Platter to
put in a frame and hang on the wall, you can get away pretty cheap. But
if you want a significant, important disc that potentially will gain in
value, then you need to become more knowledgeable and find out what
the key components are. When someone tells me something like, ‘I
have an old Mars Platter that we used to throw around up at the camp
for years, would you like it?’ That might be interesting to see, but if it’s
a beat-up and dog-bitten disc, I generally advise them to keep it as a
family heirloom and enjoy it because it usually doesn’t have much value
as a collectible.”
Dan “Stork” Roddick shows how it’s done at a 1970s Many (though not all) discs came in packaging of some sort,
disc tournament. Photo courtesy Dan Roddick whether a plastic bag attached to a header card, or a cellophane-
wrapped piece of cardboard. The older the disc, the less likely it is that
it’s still in its packaging. If it is, depending on the condition of the
The growth of Frisbee and related games and sports has resulted in
the creation of organizations to manage and facilitate participation. packaging, the asking price can easily double.
Even the names of these organizations point up the Frisbee versus disc Stickers, on those discs that originally came with them, are another
question. Dan Roddick, a multiple-time Frisbee champion and well challenge. Some collectors consider a disc incomplete if it doesn’t
known as “Stork” in the Frisbee world due to his height and sometimes have its intact original sticker in its center. These often gradually
twisty playing style, grew up in Pennsylvania. He had his first contact wore off discs due to repeated use, of course, but others were
with a Frisbee when he received a Pipco Flyin-Saucer as a Christmas removed intentionally by owners intent on improving a disc’s flying
present when he was five years old. He served both as director of the performance. Either way, an original sticker not only looks sharp, but
International Frisbee Association (IFA) from 1975 to 1982, and as also can help in identifying the model (name) of the disc.
president of the World Flying Disc Federation from 1986 to 1992. Victor Malafronte thinks that one of the “holy grail” Frisbee items
Does he see the names of these organizations as reflecting the growth isn’t even an actual disc. It’s an original pie case (also known as a pie
of disc sports and the fact that Wham-O was getting more and more safe) from the Frisbie Pie Co. in Connecticut. These wooden cabinets
competition from other manufacturers? “Absolutely. And the were used by the company to display the product, and likely were often
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