Flying Discs 2: From Frisbee to Flying Disc
The Frisbee and its various associated sports really took off during the 1970s, not just in the United States but internationally. The Swedish Frisbee Federation was founded in 1974, the Japan Frisbee Disc Association in 1975. Before the end of the decade, similar associations had been organized in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Norway. The first European championships were held in 1980 and the European Flying Disc Federation (EFDF) was founded the following year.
Major tournaments also sprang up during the 1970s and early 1980s. Rutgers held the first OCTAD, combining eight events, was staged at Rutgers in May of 1974 and the first American Flying Disc Open was held in Rochester, New York, in August of that year. Also in August, the first freestyle pairs competition was held as part of the Canadian Open Frisbee Championships.
Yale hosted the first major Ultimate tournament in 1975. It was renamed the National Ultimate Frisbee Championships the following year. The Ultimate Players Association was founded in 1979 and held its first national championship event that year. The first World Ultimate Championships were staged in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1983.
Kransco Group Companies bought out Wham-O in 1983 and the International Frisbee Association, which had been operated by Wham-O, was shut down. In its 16 years of operation, the IFA had grown to 100,000 members in 30 nations and had helped to develop rules and procedures for the several Frisbee-based sports.
To fill the vacuum left by the demise of the IFA, the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) was revived and reorganized. The WFDF had been established by several players' groups at a 1980 meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, but had basically been inactive since then.
A WFDF reorginizational meeting was held at the U. S. Open Overall Championships in 1983, when it was agreed that more European countries had to be involved if the federation was to be effective. The new WFDF was formally set up July of 1984 at the European Overall Championships in Oresbro, Sweden.
An organization called United States Disc Sports (USDS), founded in 1982, was the original U. S. affiliate of the WFDF. However, USDS was never very large nor very effective, and it went out of business during the early 1990s.
There is now no single U. S. governing body. Three organizations based in the U. S. belong to the WFDF: The Freestyle Players Association, the Ultimate Players Association, and the International Goaltimate Organization.
Obviously, the trademarked word "Frisbee" has disappeared from most of the organization names. In many cases, it's been replaced by the generic "flying disc." At one time or another, more than 60 companies have manufactured flying discs of varying aerodynamic quality.
Twelve manufacturers, including Wham-O, are currently represented on the WFDF's list of discs approved for competition.