Calling Card Minis

If you were a serious disc player in the 70s and early 80s, your business card would have had to be a Wham-O mini Frisbee, printed, paper cards just didn’t do!

Here are 4 classic examples:

Victor Malafronte: 2 times World Frisbee Champion and holder of many World Records as well as a member of the Frisbee Hall of Fame, Victor is a real Frisbee legend, and Disc Golf pioneer… don’t take my word for it, just watch this

UFOs Freestyle Team (Corey Basso & Evan David): Evan David and Corey Basso reset the standard of play when it came to freestyle Frisbee. They were considered two of the best players ever.

Jonathon Harries: Faulkner Sports had the licence to manufacture Wham-O frisbees in the UK back on the 70s & 80s, Not sure I ever met Jonathon, but I have his calling card… May give him a call and see if he still plays Frisbee!

Rick Castiglia (Coloradicals): Started playing in 1977 and competing in 1978, winner of 10 major titles and member of the Coloradical Frisbee Freestyle team, again, don’t take my word for it, watch this 1988 Santa Barbara footage

International Man of Frisbee

Ron Kaufman is quite famous in the world of corporate things… He’s also quite famous in the world of Frisbee things too.

In 1976, Kaufman founded Discovering the World as a mail-order operation selling flying disc sport equipment, which is now a store in Buena Park, CA, and an online outfit specialising in Disc Golf, Ultimate Frisbee, and all other flying disc sports equipment. Kaufman then planned a national series of Frisbee Disc and Hackysack Footbag Festivals with Wham-O company sponsorship.

Between 1985 and 1990, Kaufman used Frisbee as a means of citizen diplomacy. Part of this mission was the creation of World Peace Tours, based in La Jolla, CA, to organise Frisbee Flying Friendship Tours to the People’s Republic of China. These tours included Frisbee demonstrations, festivals, and tournaments to cities around the world. Kaufman also led Youth Ambassadors of America tours to the Soviet Union. Kaufman stated that the purpose of the China and the Soviet Union tours was to “to break down the walls of misunderstanding.” As Kaufman recounts, “How can you drop a bomb on somebody you’ve gone skateboarding with down the Great Wall of China or played Frisbee with in Red Square?”

During the 1980s, Kaufman served as the Master of Ceremonies for the World Frisbee Disc Championships at the Rose Bowl in California.

A Little Disc Golf History & Some Dreadful Fashion Sense

Here a disc golf TV spot from 1984 featuring Victor Malafronte and some interesting sense of fashion by the news reporter.

1976 Classic!

This Wham-O Fastback Frisbee is not only nearly 40 years old, but are FB5 mould, the metallic part hot stamp print is fading away (no surprises there!), but the colour and quality of the plastic still as it was all those years ago.

The 1976 World Frisbee Championships were an invitational affair, held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The overall champions were: Peter Bloeme and Monika Lou, both from the USA

You can see some of the Ultimate action here and listen how Peter got started here

’80 World Frisbee Championship Fastback

The 1980 World Frisbee Championships were also held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California between 28-31 August. This is a Wham-O fastback with the tournament’s logo hot-stamped onto a FB3 mould. This mould was used by the majority of MTA (Maximum time aloft) & TRC (Through run & catch) competitors because of its ability to “stall” during the return part of its flight path.

Wham-O paid the travel expenses of ALL competitors.

The champions that year were:
Men’s division: Scott Zimmermann, USA
Women’s division: Cyndi Birch, USA

’78 World Frisbee Championship Fastback

The 1978 World Frisbee Championships were held at the famous Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California between the 23-27 August. This is a commemorative Fastback frisbee by Wham-O using the FB22 mould. Don’t think this was used for MTA or TRC as most players preferred fastbacks with lower mould numbers (FB3s & FB6s).

This hotstamp design was also use across a wide range of Wham-O frisbees available at the event.

The champions that year were:
Men’s division: Krae van Sickle, USA
Women’s division: Laura Engel, USA
Master’s division: Ralf Williamson
Highest placed European player: Anders Svensson

W.F.C. ’78 was certainly the most elaborately planned even in disc history. Every evening featured auctions, clinics, seminars and informal competitions.