A List of Firsts

[DavidSauls]

Most of you are not going to understand this story. You can try, but you don't have the experience. It was prompted by the disc golf segment during ESPN's college football broadcast the other night.

When I started playing, there were 2 courses in my state. On the only course we knew of and played, there were---maybe---a dozen disc golfers we ever saw. No one I ever met had any idea what I was talking about.

I remember the first time I ever saw baskets on another course. We had to drive 2 hours to see them, but it was amazing to play another course---one completely different from the kind of course we'd been playing.

Then there was the first time I was driving by an elementary school and saw baskets on the playground. Havre, MT, I think it was.

Or the first time I stumbled across a course that wasn't in any directory. I was at an empty crossroads in the Iowa countryside. I'd pulled off the road to look at a map, looked out my side window, and there was a basket about 15' from where I'd parked.

I recall my astonishment when I went to a physical therapist and, when I went to explain what I was doing that hurt my shoulder, he said he'd played disc golf before and understood.

The time I got tourist materials from the state of Mississippi, and the state parks guide listed all the disc golf courses.

Or the time some customers came into our office, saw the discs we have, and revealed that they play, too. Or when I was in a grocery store in a little town in S.C., and some folks saw my disc golf tee-shirt and came up to talk to me, because their son plays.

Which brings me to the marvel of the segment in the Alabama-Miss. St. broadcast. Not just that they showed disc golf. But the real thrill is that they didn't bother to explain disc golf. They just presented it as one of the other competitions between the two schools, as routine as any other.

That's about 17 years of "firsts"---each with more recognition of disc golf than I'd yet encountered, each a very pleasant surprise.

 

[Jimb]

:thmbup:

I can only imagine in your time playing what else you've run across. Cool little stories, in any case. I remember things kind of like your memories... but the scale is much, much smaller because of the growth of the sport.

I play disc golf and fantasy baseball... my brother in law has asked me before if I have a subscription to "Obscure Sports Quarterly."

(I hope that this made sense. It makes sense in my head, but might be hard to read.)

 

[joshuajames]

And we (MS State) kick their a**** at it!

Yeah Bama, you got football....but we got disc golf!

 

[JimDK27]

I still haven't seen all the things you have seen, but I haven't been playing as long or played the number of courses you've played. I can still tell it has grown a lot in the short time I've been playing.

And we (MS State) kick their a**** at it!

Yeah Bama, you got football....but we got disc golf!

Didn't you all lose? Not trying to start anything. That was what I heard in another thread.

 

[DavidSauls]

I play disc golf and fantasy baseball... my brother in law has asked me before if I have a subscription to "Obscure Sports Quarterly."

LOL!

I started a fantasy baseball league in 1987, from a book I found, long before anyone else had every heard of it. Before the word "fantasy" was attached. Before computers, when standings were a real pain.

I have an almost-identical list of "firsts" for that! First time I saw it mentioned in a magazine, first time I met someone outside our league who had heard of it, first time I saw a TV "fantasy draft" special.....

 

[Jimb]

LOL!

I started a fantasy baseball league in 1987, from a book I found, long before anyone else had every heard of it. Before the word "fantasy" was attached. Before computers, when standings were a real pain.

I have an almost-identical list of "firsts" for that! First time I saw it mentioned in a magazine, first time I met someone outside our league who had heard of it, first time I saw a TV "fantasy draft" special.....

You beat me by five years to FB (not Facebook), too. I started in 1992. We used Baseball (not Sports) Weekly to tabulate the scoresmanually. I liked the O's and a friend asked me if I wanted to try. I said yes. My last two picks were basically "pin the tail on the donkey." 21 years later and I'm the only remaining founding member of my original league!

 

[McFer]

I started a fantasy baseball league in 1987.

Only back then it was called rotisserie league baseball. I started playing that and what would become fantasy football around that time. Relying on the sports section for game stats (I still pick up a US Today sometimes just for nostalgia reasons - they had way better stats than the local rags). Typed and mailed newsletters. Calling in lineups to the commissioner.

Pain in the butt, but I find today's web-based games to be impersonal and inauthentic.

Really great post, and it's got to be great knowing that you're contributed to some of that growth yourself.

 

[Sadjo]

I grew up in Minnesota where Disc Golf was not far from the house and we rode our bikes to go play. Most of my firsts I remember tied to the sport are the first time seeing golf discs for sale in a store versus the back of someone's car. That was at a gas station in Roseville...just down from Acorn.

I did have a first early this year. My two younger boys had baseball practice. After practice when walking back to the car we stopped to watch two guys throw hole #1 at Sertoma Field. They decided to 'introduce' me to the game. They couldn't have been playing for more than a couple of months. It was the first time someone introduced me to the sport.

 

[KenTyburski]

Great post, David. Since I've only been playing for three years, I haven't been able to see this growth and change.

But I do remember playing back in the mid-90's once, at the now-extinct East Carolina University course.

And then about 6 years ago, when I played my "home" course for the first time with a borrowed disc and some of my brother's friends, when we finished playing the 9-hole course and realized that there was a brand new 18-holer.

But I never bothered to look into it further until 3 years ago... to think of what I missed out on for 15 years...

 

[DavidSauls]

I grew up in Minnesota where Disc Golf was not far from the house and we rode our bikes to go play. Most of my firsts I remember tied to the sport are the first time seeing golf discs for sale in a store versus the back of someone's car. That was at a gas station in Roseville...just down from Acorn.

Ah, yes, I left that out of my "firsts". I remember that one, too----discs in a sporting goods store, not just Ed Garris's trunk.

 

[DavidSauls]

Only back then it was called rotisserie league baseball. I started playing that and what would become fantasy football around that time. Relying on the sports section for game stats (I still pick up a US Today sometimes just for nostalgia reasons - they had way better stats than the local rags). Typed and mailed newsletters. Calling in lineups to the commissioner.

Pain in the butt, but I find today's web-based games to be impersonal and inauthentic.

Really great post, and it's got to be great knowing that you're contributed to some of that growth yourself.

We ran from 1987-2001 and still refer to it as "Rotisserie Baseball". Sporting News before Baseball Weekly; I got very fast with a calculator, compiling stats......I was glad when we got computer services to keep our stats, but never had a bit of interest in web-based leagues. If you don't know the guy you swindled in a trade, what fun is it?

*

Back to disc golf, the growth has been amazing. But the recognition, too. Each "first" ratcheted that up just a little bit.

Add to the list seeing the USDGC on the interstate highway sign.

And way back, at Redan Park seeing a sign for "disc golf parking". Sounds minor, but it thrilled us at the time.

 

[thrembo]

When I started playing there was less than 100 courses in the whole country. The 1st basket course that I played on was West Park in Joliet IL in 1979. We were fortunate, that we had two other courses put in nearby not too long after (Shorewood and New Lenox), and there was a couple of courses on the north side of Chicago also.

I moved to Ann Arbor in 1987. The only nearby basket course was Rolling Hills, still a 9 holer back then. Then came Hudson Mills, the 1st time that I was really wow'd by a course. Also the 1st time that I joined a league (A3) and the 1st time that I played in a tournament. To watch disc golf explode around there was amazing!

In 1999 I moved to Florida. The nearest courses were Watertower in Sarasota and the then 9 holer in Bonita. The growth down here has been a little slower, but its still going. We have a course in Charlotte county now, and several more courses in the Sarasota-Ft Myers area.

One of my finest firsts was recently playing in a tournament with one of my sons for the 1st time.

 

[Sadjo]

One major first was when I saw a flyer at course with a map of the entire Twin Cities and learning there were another 8-10 courses in the area and then seeing a flyer for The Flight Center, a Disc Golf store. That was in 1991.

Another first was when my two younger boys asked me if we could go play Disc Golf. When it is yours kids' idea to go play, that's pretty cool.

 

[DavidSauls]

Though this involves the growth of the sport, I was mostly thinking about the growth in acceptance and awareness of the sport in the outside world. Which is, of course, a by-product of the overall growth, especially in the number of courses.

I was at the bank this year after running a tournament, depositing a stack of small bills. Since I'm rarely depositing cash, let alone lots of $1s and $5s, they asked about it. Turned out 2 of the 3 workers there had played disc golf, one plays regularly, though not tournaments.

These days there are a lot fewer puzzled looks, and I spend much less time trying to describe a disc golf basket.

 

[DavidSauls]

One major first was when I saw a flyer at course with a map of the entire Twin Cities and learning there were another 8-10 courses in the area and then seeing a flyer for The Flight Center, a Disc Golf store. That was in 1991.

Another first was when my two younger boys asked me if we could go play Disc Golf. When it is yours kids' idea to go play, that's pretty cool.

Awesome, on all counts.

Are your kids designing their own holes yet?

 

[Sadjo]

Awesome, on all counts.

Are your kids designing their own holes yet?

They do. When we drive to Minnesota and back to SC each summer we carry an Innova Traveler and set it up at Rest Stops and Parks when we stop to picnic. They boys always have ideas for some pretty crazy holes. Lots include multiple mandos.

That reminds me another first...the first time someone came up and asked if he and his kids could practice putt with us. That was a couple of years ago at a rest stop in Kentucky.

 

[thrembo]

It was sometime around 1997 that I met someone at work that also played disc golf (That I didn't introduce to it). He was originaly from Lansing, and had transferd down to the A3 area.

 

[Guurn]

I've always had a straight, pretty long drive. One of my most memorable firsts was the day my son outdrove me. He was 14 at the time. After that he lost interest and I am still waiting for it to come back. I guess outdriving the old man was enough for him.

 

[biscoe]

LOL!

I started a fantasy baseball league in 1987, from a book I found, long before anyone else had every heard of it. Before the word "fantasy" was attached. Before computers, when standings were a real pain.

I have an almost-identical list of "firsts" for that! First time I saw it mentioned in a magazine, first time I met someone outside our league who had heard of it, first time I saw a TV "fantasy draft" special.....

my friends and i started playing rotisserie baseball, football, and basketball when we were juniors in high school after reading about it in sports illustrated. this was 1982. we would go to the school library during study hall to update the stats from the newspapers... "late" games on the west coast were a major pain in the arse.

 

[jhgonzo]

My first time playing was circa 1990-91 in Chicago...yes, I know, a dead zone for reputable courses, but this was even less of what we call "disc golf"...it was for a church youth group fair, and the leaders had a book full of game and craft ideas, one of which was "Frisbee golf" of the target variety, so we used cheap lids and played around the church yard throwing to taped targets on trees, fences, and walls. We quickly moved from game to game, but the Frisbee golf stuck in my memory until I encountered an actual course nearly a decade later and commented to the person who was "introducing" me to the game that I had played it once as a youth, much to his surprise as DG was just starting to take off in Wisconsin around 1998-99.