Joel Silver 65 and Was Headed for a Playoff with Bob Goalby to Settle Golfs Most Pres• Tigious Tournament
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•• ~ ( ,l .~ Roberto De Vicenzo 01··•.•••·1.\1. ";('OHE (',\1/11 III II I! 1\ , .• I' lto 11 ." I•• 1"__ .••• fa •••- 4 3. \ lUll. '_'"fIW "" ••)*,,~.1Ii ,,'HoJI, .•. ... more than 230 victories, NOTWITHSTANDINGincluding the 1967 BritishHIS Open, Roberto De Vicenzo's fame comes from one very costly mistake. On the final day of the 1968 Masters, the Argentinean shot a seven-under Joel Silver 65 and was headed for a playoff with Bob Goalby to settle golfs most pres• tigious tournament. But first De enon. In the fall of 1968 Joel Silver, a junior at Columbia Vicenzo had to sign his scorecard. ITHighWASin aMaplewood,high school jokeN.J.,thatraisedbecamehis handa sportsat aphenom•student Playing partner Tommy Aaron kept council meeting: "I move that we establish a committee to De Vicenzo's score that day, and on the par-4 17th hole Aaron investigate the possibility of adding Frisbee to the high school inadvertently recorded a par, though De Vicenzo had made a curriculum." Recalls Silver, now a major Hollywood producer, birdie 3. When De Vicenzo signed the erroneous card, it gave "Everybody laughed-and the motion was carried." The stu• him an official score of 66 and a four-round total of 278-one dent committee born from that meeting wrote the first rules behind Goalby's 277. He would play in the Masters six more for Ultimate Frisbee. times, never again coming so close to winning. "Every now Silver had learned a similar game at summer camp, and back and then I will drop a tear," he says, "but I've moved on." in Maplewood he and his friends adapted it into what originally Indeed, De Vicenzo estimates he has earned as much as was called Speed Frisbee. "That name wasn't romantic enough," $250,000 in appear• says Silver, 56. "This iSumuuuuuuu,uuuuu, FEW REGRETS De Vicenzo's ance fees and other the ultimate Frisbee con- DISC DRIVE Silver (above) got botched Masters scorecard has opportunities stem• test." The game spread as the Ultimate phenomenon flying. earned him lasting fame. ming from the incident. he and his friends went "I've gotten more out of off to college, and now signing the card wrong nearly a million Ameri• than if I had signed it cans regularly play Ulti• correctly," he says. And mate, a staple of college he's a hero in his coun• intramural sports. There try; in his hometown of are 181leagues in the U.S. Quilmes a museum and and 77 internationally. gymnasium are named Many more millions in his honor. have enjoyed Silver's ca• De Vicenzo , 85, still reer in movies. He runs plays, regularly shoot• Silver Pictures and Dark ing in the high 70s. "I Castle Entertainment, and along with Jerry Bruckheimer, lead a pretty boring he is credited with reinventing the Hollywood action movie, life," he says. "I don't having produced such titles as the Lethal Weapon, Die Hard drink, smoke, gamble or and Matrix series. While Silver's movies often feature daz• dance." And he mostly zling special effects and cost more than $100 million to make, grins when people bring Ultimate requires only a plastic disc and some open space. up '68: "I got to see the Still, Silver knows Ultimate will always be a part of his legacy. world through golf. No He remembers reading an obituary for Donald Duncan, who one should feel sorry for mass-marketed the yo-yo. "In the last paragraph it says he me." -Farrell Evam; also invented the parking meter," recalls Silver. "I guess that's where Ultimate will be in my obit." - J.L. JULY 14, 2008 89.