I Wish I Was a Member of the Humbly Magnificent Champions of the Universe
I have a treatise on Frisbees written by Dr. Stancil E.D. Johnson in 1975. Yep, a treatise. Its a real gem. In the preface this psychiatrist-come-Frisbee-guru declares: "When a ball dreams, it dreams it's a Frisbee."
It becomes painfully clear that when sports players choose to call their kind "Humbly Magnificent Champions of the Universe" that the sport they play can hardly be taken seriously.
But Dr. Johnson certainly does take Frisbee playing very, very seriously.
The book is amply supplied with fairly irrelevant quotes from Euripides, Homer, Shakespeare and even poor old Wordsworth. Apparently there is no end to the favourable qualities of flinging a modified pie-dish into the sky.
Dr Johnson even asserts that Frisbees are the next evolutionary step for sports and that it makes the humble ball redundant, archaic and just plain boring.
Remember this was 1975.
Dr. Johnson has spent a lot of time on this book.
And Frisbees were pretty cool back then.
For a while anyhow.
If you were no good at anything else.
This book is exhaustive in its detail. It includes successful techniques for making it spin faster, stay straighter and shoot further. You can catch a Frisbee thumbs-up or thumbs-down, behind-the-back, between-the-legs or if you are extra silly you can try to do the old behind-the-head catch. If there is anything to know about Frisbees it is in this book (and I suspect nowhere else).
This year the International Frisbee Tournament is celebrating its 50th year. I'm sure Dr. Johnson is one of the only people surprised at this.
In the meantime, the International Frisbee Federation continues to lobby for a place at the Olympics alongside the lobbyists for axe-throwing and egg-throwing. Considering that skateboarding is about to gain admission into the holiest of holies in sport there is hope yet.
If it ever becomes as popular as skateboarding that is.
It becomes painfully clear that when sports players choose to call their kind "Humbly Magnificent Champions of the Universe" that the sport they play can hardly be taken seriously.
But Dr. Johnson certainly does take Frisbee playing very, very seriously.
The book is amply supplied with fairly irrelevant quotes from Euripides, Homer, Shakespeare and even poor old Wordsworth. Apparently there is no end to the favourable qualities of flinging a modified pie-dish into the sky.
Dr Johnson even asserts that Frisbees are the next evolutionary step for sports and that it makes the humble ball redundant, archaic and just plain boring.
Remember this was 1975.
Dr. Johnson has spent a lot of time on this book.
And Frisbees were pretty cool back then.
For a while anyhow.
If you were no good at anything else.
This book is exhaustive in its detail. It includes successful techniques for making it spin faster, stay straighter and shoot further. You can catch a Frisbee thumbs-up or thumbs-down, behind-the-back, between-the-legs or if you are extra silly you can try to do the old behind-the-head catch. If there is anything to know about Frisbees it is in this book (and I suspect nowhere else).
This year the International Frisbee Tournament is celebrating its 50th year. I'm sure Dr. Johnson is one of the only people surprised at this.
In the meantime, the International Frisbee Federation continues to lobby for a place at the Olympics alongside the lobbyists for axe-throwing and egg-throwing. Considering that skateboarding is about to gain admission into the holiest of holies in sport there is hope yet.
If it ever becomes as popular as skateboarding that is.
