DECATUR -- During the May 10 city council meeting, Mayor Bob Tharp presented a plan to build a nine-hole Frisbee golf course at Veterans Park. The course will begin at McCollum Park and wind down the hill at Veterans Park. It will circle back around the softball field and end at the concession stand between the ball fields. From 40 to 50 players are expected to use the course every week, with higher numbers expected once the sport catches on in Decatur.
Once completed sometime in June, the Decatur course will join that of Gravette, Gentry and Siloam Springs to form the Highway 59 Frisbee golf circuit. Organizers of the Northwest Arkansas Frisbee Golf Association plan on hosting one or two tournaments a year on these courses.
A proposed tournament would start in Decatur in the morning. After a lunch break, the tournament would move to either the Gravette or Gentry courses. This will help local businesses in these communities generate additional profits.
"We are excited about the extra revenue that this disc course will generate for the city of Decatur," Tharp said. "People will need to eat and purchase other services from our local businesses."
One of the fastest growing sports in Northwest Arkansas owes it origins to a popular craze that took flight as far back as 1871. The Frisbee, which gained in popularity in the late '60s and '70s, owes it humble beginning to a popular dessert. The Frisbie Baking Company of Bridgeport , Conn., sold pies to many New England colleges from 1871-1958. They sold their product in a pre-manufactured tin complete with its company name. Not knowing what to do with the empty tins, students discovered that they could be thrown through the air and caught with ease, thus inventing the flying disc.
In 1948, two Los Angeles inventors manufactured a plastic version of the Frisbie Pies tin. They found that the plastic version flew farther and faster then the original. Rich Kerr, who worked for the Wham-O toy company, changed the original spelling from "Frisbie" to the current "Frisbee" and sales, like the flying disc, soared.
The Wham-o company devised a new marketing strategy for the Frisbee and in 1964 it became a sport. In 1976 Ed Headrick founded the game of disc golf or Frisbee golf. Well over two million recreational users play the sport that has grown into league play across the globe.
The city of Decatur plans to eventually rent out the discs to those that wish to play. Details are still being worked out on the rental location and will be announced as soon as the course is in operation, sometime in mid June.
For more information on the new Veterans Park Frisbee golf course, call 752-3912.
General News on 05/18/2016