\0:~ft>~~ ,Jtj, ~~'\., ~~_e: The DISCollector~ The official publication of the International Flying Disc Collector's Association Volume 2 Number 1 $4.00 Space - Age Flyer Mellow Yellow Prize Pack Lavish Fastback For Lavender Flashback Members Only VOLUME 2, NUMBER 1 From the Director IFDCA is dedicated to promoting flying disc collecting throughout Welcome to the fifth issue of the International Flying Disc Collector's the world. newsletter. We have some really good articles in this issue. It has been a long Editorial Offices and busy season, with over 60 local mini tournaments (18 holes of play only) and IFDCA 7 major events. Unfortunately I was involved with most of these, which kept me c/o Disc Flights, Inc. busy and caused our IFDCA Newsletter to suffer. However, I have freed myself P.O. Box 470794 up from alot of the local club duties and we have some good responsible people Tulsa, OK 74147-0794 taking over next year. I have every intention to deliver what I have sold each and Membership Rates every one of you. Right now we (the Directors of IFDCA) are working on $10.00 annually (4 issues) Volume 2 Numbers 2 & 3. We will strive to be back on schedule by March 1995. $25.00 three year special ( 12 issues) As an association we helped the PDGA Foundation get off to a $266.00 Article Submission successful start. The frrst IFDCA auction was held at the PDGA Worlds in Port Deadline for next issue - Dec. 20 Arthur, Texas. It was a success in raising money for the foundation, but we still had a low turnout ofinterested people. We will feature a story in Number2 about Director I Editor Rick Neil the auction - what sold and at what price. Assoc. Dir. I Editor Bob Morton Assoc. Dlr. I Editor Steve Ward As for the IFDCA membership fees coming due the end of December, those Contributing Editors Tom McRann of you who want to renew their memberships at that time can (see page 19). Flying Disc Magazine Or if you would rather wait until you receive Volume 2 Number 4 you may- it's up to you. However, we will not be able to send you any more issues if you do not renew at that time (unless you have renewed for the three year special). By the way, we on! y make enough issues for our membership. We will not be able Table of Contents to offer back issues - sorry. 4 Space- Age Flyer 5 Daisy Mae's Dream 6 Mellow Yellow Collectively yours, 7 Fastback Flashback 10 Collector's Showcase 13 Lavish Lavender 13 For Members Only 14 PDGA Weight Limits 15 Prize Pack 15 Dr. Disc 17 IFDCA Who's Who 18 Collector's Trading Block 19 Membership Forms ,. Club Newsletter Editors If you find mistakes in this publication, please Feel free to reprint any article of interest. consider that they are there for a purpose. We publish something for everyone, and some people Cover Photo are always looking for mistakes! ! ! Grandstaff Portrai t Studios Tulsa, OK The articles in this publication are not necessarily the views and Owner: Ron Grandstaff IFDCA #90. opinions of the editors. Any differences in views or opinions should be directed toward the author of the article in question. The #1 N aine in Disc Golf Innova-Champion Discs, Inc. 1735 Monticello Ct. Ontario, CA 91761 (714) 947-7885 THE SPACE SAUCER: an important missing link disc The most intriguing aspect of disc description she gave me was completely sometime during the '50s. The only thing collecting is the anticipation of finding a unfamiliar, and I began to think that maybe that John Kirkland knew about it was that valuable or significant disc. When I thought she bad a disc that I bad never seen before. be wanted one very badly. I might be getting a valuable disc from a I called John Kirkland and be thought that The information I got from my recent acquaintance, my excitement was the description sounded like a Space Sau­ benefactor was a little more specific. Her hard to conceal. When John Kirkland clued cer, a very rare disc that I indeed bad never father had bought the Space Saucer discs me in that it might be a Space Saucer, the seen before. I allowed my hopes to rise once while be was attending Dartmouth Univer­ anticipation became intense. When it indeed again and eagerly awaited for my acquain­ sity during the early '50s. Armed with this turned out to be a Space Saucer, I played tance to retrieve the disc from her parents' information, I drove to New Hampshire to detective and tracked down the source from home in Boston. see what I could find. a few meager clues, and as I got closer and John Kirkland was once again My wildest dreams and expecta­ closer to what I was looking for, the excite­ right. To my supreme delight, my friend tions were vastly exceeded. I discovered a ment became unbearable. handed me not one, but two Space Saucer disc collector's heaven. Not only did I find This is how it happened: The re­ discs! And best of all, they were of obvious some information about the Space Saucer, I cent acquaintance bad told me about a disc different periods of production. One was found Ernest C. Robes, the man who in­ of her father's that he bad claimed was one red and bad a small "PAT. APLD. FOR" en­ vented the Space Saucer. Mr. Robes bad a of the fust ones ever made. She said she graved on the topside, and the other was a storeroom full of left over discs that he was would get it the next time she visited her beautiful green and white marbled colored willing to sell to me, but perhaps even more parents and bring it for my collection. I disc that was definitely from the same mold, important, be had some absolutely fascinat­ imagined a Pluto Platter, Flying Saucer, or but was made of a different plastic alto­ ing information that shed some brilliant light Sailing Satellite, and hoped that it might be gether, and did not have the patent applied upon the early days of disc flying. an elusive American Trends Pluto Platter. for engraving. From the mind-boggling bits of My hopes turned to puzzlement when I The available information about information that Mr. Robes bad to offer, showed her all my older discs. I bad fig­ the Space Saucer at that time was near zero. we've pieced together these facts: ured she might recognize one of them as be­ The only known example of one resided in • The earliest known origins of the ing like the one her father bad at home, and the Roddick-Seubert collection and neither game of Guts centered right there at that I would get a clue as to what was in one of them knew anything about it except Dartmouth University during the year 1954, store for me. But she said none of them that they were told by the person that do­ the same year that the Space Saucer made looked at all like the one she recalled. The nated it to them that it bad been acquired its debut at the Dartmouth Co-op. 4 • It was the Space Saucer that led Guts from a game played by a few tin lid throwing die bards to the popular Ivy League game of the fifties. Mr. Robes bas actual sales invoices showing that literally thou­ Daisy Mae's Dream sands of Space Saucer discs were sold by By Rick Neil both the Dartmouth and Yale Co-ops from 1954 until 1962. • The legendary "Dartmouth" disc as described by Stancil Johnson on page thirty-five of his book FRISBEE, is actu­ Little is known about the Li'l Abner Flyin' Saucer. It could be one of the oldest ally one and the same as the Space Saucer. flying discs in existence. Stancil Johnson's book FRISBEE mentions the Li'l Abner and Mr. Robes bad offered a special fund-rais­ states that the Li'l Abner is Pipco's third arcuate vane flying disc. Pipco was Fred ing deal to Dartmouth students in which they Morrrison's company that manufactured these discs. Produced in a hard (butyl sterate) would take Space Saucer discs home with and soft (polyethylene) plastic, the hard version, sometimes referred to as the Pipco "Crab", them to sell during their summer vacations. was also manufactured into the 1948 Li'l Abner disc. Says Stancil: When Stancil Johnson was doing the re­ "The Li'l Abner would have been the first premium disc if the arrangement with search for his book, he came across the in­ Al Capp had gone through. It didn't; Pipco's hard Arcuate Vane with a Li'l Abner label formation that Dartmouth students were sell­ pasted on is a disc collector's dream." ing some sort of disc in the Chicago area. Further investigation for this story revealed the Li'l Abner pictured in Jim Not having seen the disc and not being able Palmeri's publication Flying Disc Magazine (April-May 1980). The photo caption states to gather any information beyond that, be that The Li'l Abner was one of the very flrst plastic discs ever sold.* dubbed it the "Dartmouth" disc. When I started collecting in the 1980's I was buying many collectable flying • It appears that these Space Sau­ discs from Discovering The World, owned at that time by Ron Kaufman.