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Note: This is a letter “Steady” Ed wrote to the City of Pasadena. We at the DGA would like to urge you to also write the City of Pasadena and urge them to protect the first Disc Golf Coarse. Please feel free to use any or all of this letter to add your own voice to Save Oak Grove. Click here to contact the City of Pasadena.
March 27, 2002
City of Pasadena, California
Re: The pending removal or relocation of the 1st Disc Golf Course in the World
You probably do not know the history of Oak Grove Park from the early mid ‘70s when the County of Los Angeles was responsible for the park. Oak Grove had degenerated to a drug store. Oak Grove Park was within easy walking distance from a grammar school, a military school, high school, a junior high school and a branch of Cal Tech University, J.P.L. The small town of La Cañada was a bedroom community with several thousand children, young adults and scientists that worked at J.P.L., yet had no place to enjoy healthy recreation. Oak Grove Park was the headquarters for recreational drug use among the students with drugs being distributed out of the backs of cars. It was so bad that the Sheriff’s Department wouldn’t go into the park on Saturday or Sunday. Ask them if some of them are still alive. Adults were afraid to use the park and the original campers including BSA looked elsewhere for safer facilities.
Ed Headrick lived with his family of 3 boys and 1 girl, who attended La Cañada schools at all grades, in La Cañada from the early 1960’s. Mr. Headrick also worked for Wham-O Manufacturing Co., in San Gabriel and invented the modern Frisbee, developed the Super Ball and was VP of R/D and on up to CEO from 1964 to 1975. Other children from La Cañada were in Wham-O TV commercials along with his children; they had a scout troop, little league team and were well aware of the lack of wholesome recreation facilities in the area. The Rose Bowl hosted the first IFA Frisbee Tournament in ‘67 that was directed by Ed and featured movie stars, players from around the country and was won by Mr. Headrick’s son.
In 1975, Mr. Headrick conceived of taking the old game of Frisbee Golf that had targets of opportunity and making them permanent with pipe 5’ above in the ground and formal Tee Signs. All done with the permission and encouragement of the director of LA County Parks & Rec., Semore Greeben. The game of Frisbee Golf was so popular that most of the drug problem was solved with many people playing Frisbee Golf with pipe targets. Literally thousands of plays per month by adults from J.P.L. to children in grammar school. Headrick and Greeben were ecstatic.
A small problem developed in that the holes (targets) were subjective rather than objective. If you made a good shot especially if money was involved, and you said “Wow, did you see that shot?” The other members of your foursome would all be looking in the other direction and turn and say “What shot?” After two and a half years and 56 attempts of Headrick trying to conform with Greeben’s specifications, (i.e., can’t hurt anyone, can’t be easily vandalized, will last forever, will not support a fire, will be unobtrusive), galvanized chain was the answer.
Headrick built a prototype, showed it to an amazed Greeben and with some cash from Sport Chalet in La Cañada he built and installed 18 Holes on the cut off pipe and the World’s 1st Disc Golf Course was created. The rest is history from the creation of the game to the amazing speed that it spread across the county with the support of the International Frisbee Association, which Headrick also created. The IFA had 112,000 members; he then formed the Disc Golf Association, and the Professional Disc Golf Association. There has been over 5 million people who have played disc golf, 1,210 golf courses in the World and over 20 thousand members of the PDGA (that is now run by the players). Most of these players revere Oak Grove Park as a shrine and a monument to the sport we all love, Disc Golf has literally changed the lives of thousands of players. It taught them how to deal with themselves on a one on one basis. There are few sanctuaries that can equal the contribution that Oak Grove made to hundreds of thousands of people, please don’t destroy this monument and this moment in time.
I will personally re-produce 18 of the original disc pole holes and re-install them as close to the original design as possible at no cost to the city. I am confident that we can collect the funds to preserve this amazing piece of history for posterity to the benefit of the people of Pasadena and the rest of the World.
Sincerely,
“Steady” Ed Headrick
Inventor of the Sport of Disc Golf