History of Disc Golf in the South and the Rocket City Chain Gang

In 1973, Tom Monroe was in Atlanta for the summer working to earn money to go back to college at the University of North Alabama in Florence. That was the year that Wham-O held nationwide Frisbee events in conjunction with radio stations all over America. They were called "The Great Frisbee Fly In". Tom had played Frisbee with his roommate in college and could throw pretty well for playing catch and doing a few tricks. Now he would see just how good he really was. Hundreds of people showed up for the Fly In at Grant Park. The events were Distance and Accuracy. Tom won both.

After returning to the University of North Alabama in 1974, Tom wrote a letter to Wham-O. He was a senior, soon to graduate and figured they should give him a job. They referred him to the International Frisbee Association. After a few letters back and forth, fate had Tom flying to California for his sister's wedding. Was it meant to be? Tom's father was in the aerospace business and had lived in Birmingham and Huntsville before moving to Ca. Tom's parent's lived within 10 minutes from Wham-O's headquarters.  Ed Headrick, the Father of Frisbee and Disc Golf, sent a car to pick him up. During their meeting. Ed told Tom about the World Frisbee Championship they had just run in August.  Tom told Ed, that had he known about it, he would have been there.  Ed laughed out loud and told Tom "you have to be invited".  Tom told Ed that he would be there next year. He was.

After touring the plant, Ed took Tom to play disc golf at the new course at Oak Grove. Ed explained that the was working on a design to catch Frisbee's, but all they had in the ground at the time were metal poles. Tom met and played with Ed's son Kenny and Women's World Champ Monika Lou.  Ed told Tom about a couple of Frisbee champs on tour with the Harlem Globetrotters. John Kirkland and Victor Malafronte were the World Champs in 1974. They performed a halftime show for the basketball icons. Tom met them in Memphis and then again in Atlanta. They showed Tom how to do the "nail delay" in Memphis and were amazed that he had mastered the trick only a month later in Atlanta.  Later that summer Tom beat them both to win the International Accuracy title in Toronto. Within months Tom had established himself as a major player. After watching the Frisbee shows, he also knew what he wanted to do as a profession.

Tom returned to college totally psyched about Frisbee Sports. The first thing he did was lay out an 18-hole Frisbee golf course around the campus at UNA. He recruited members and formed the Florence Frisbee Team. They were the first players from the South to venture to such established tournaments as the National Frisbee Tournament in Michigan and the Octad at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Perhaps the best thing that came out of Rutgers that year was a grad student named Dan "Stork" Roddick. His nickname came from his amazing abilities during Ultimate and Freestyle play. He was also the Editor of the Flying Disc News magazine that circulated around the East Coast.  Wham-O recruited Dan and he became the new Director of the International Frisbee Association. His first order of business was to establish a network of reliable Frisbee players around the country who could organize and run events.  He soon drove across America on this quest. It was during this trip that he made his first venture to the South and met with Tom and the Florence Frisbee Team. After the visit he asked Tom to become the Regional Director for the IFA.   Now Tom had a job as he started Graduate School. During these first few years of working with the IFA, Tom began performing Frisbee demonstrations. This was another source of income and led to a "company car" from Wham-O. Tom picked out a brand new, full size, customized Dodge van. Now he was able to do shows all over the country. His new team, "Frisbee South" traveled America spreading the fun from public schools to college campuses. They also did major promo work for Wham-O and other venues such as major league baseball and basketball games.         

As part of his position with the IFA, Tom was responsible for starting State Frisbee Tournaments in the South. He had done this in Florence during the fall of 74 after his return from Wham-O.  That was the first ever event that included Frisbee golf, along with Distance and Accuracy.    Tom managed to help start State Tourney's in MS, FL, GA, TN, N.C., SC and KY.  These events were the seeds for all of organized Frisbee to follow in the South.

While still in college in 1975 Tom was playing freestyle with Ken Westerfield.  In the gym that night, Lavone Wolfe had come to play basketball but he never played.  As he sat there amazed by the tricks and skill shown by Tom and Ken he finally got up and found an opportunity to introduce his self.  After letting Lavone throw the Frisbee a while, Tom invited him to meet them the next day to play Frisbee golf. It was raining but all showed up anyway and played. Lavone was hooked and a life long friendship began.

One of Tom's accomplishment's in college was the design of the first ever disc golf course in the South. It was situated throughout the campus of the University of North Alabama.  The 18-hole object course utilized such diverse targets as trash cans, light poles, archways and headstones. The archway shot into the Science Building was one of the coolest shots in the country at the time. The tee was on a hill next to a girl’s dorm and the target was simply the line in the cement of the 12 foot archway at the entrance to the building about 60 yards away. Your chance of a hole in one was just as good as a bogie if you hit the side of the building and rolled back into the street. The first Annual Southeastern Nationals were held on this location. The events included Accuracy, Frisbee Golf, Maximum Time Aloft and Distance. Indoor events included Gut's and Freestyle in the air-conditioned gym.  The first ever Alabama State Overall tourney was also on the UNA campus. Lavone won the golf event and set a course record of –12. Tom later beat that score with a –13 in the 1976 National Championship Series tournament.  The Alabama State Tournament has run continuously ever since. The SE Nationals ran for 20 years. They both moved to Huntsville, Alabama (the Rocket City) with Tom in 76 and the SE Nationals went to Florida when Tom relocated there in 1983. The SE Nationals turned into a major Professional Disc Golf Association event for it's last ten years.

In 1975 Tom was pronounced Rookie of the Year within the IFA. He had won the International Accuracy title in Toronto by beating the current World Champs during his first season and finished 2nd in Freestyle at the Worlds in the Rose Bowl with thousands of fans watching on.  From 1977 on, Tom has been the man to beat in the Self Caught Flight events. He won virtually all those events in State and National competition.

From 1975 on Tom, was invited to every Wham-O World Championship. This included an all expense paid trip to L.A. in August to compete in the Rose Bowl. During the 1979 World Frisbee Championship, Tom set a World Record in the Throw, Run and Catch (TRC) event with a toss and catch of 90 yards. This feat put him in the Guinness Book of World Records and was very helpful for future publicity and Frisbee South bookings.  The day after the big throw, Tom appeared on all three national network morning shows with Olympic Star Bruce Jenner.

While Tom was in Huntsville he helped the nationwide movement to put the PDGA into the players control.  Ed Headrick realized that this was a good idea and asked both Tom and Lavone to be on the newly formed Board of Directors.  Tom stayed on the BOD for ten years and was influential with forming new policy and procedures. Lavone became the first technical standards director.
In 1977 the first PDGA tournament was held at the Stix River KOA on I-10 between Mobile and Pensacola.  Tom and Ed Headrick designed the course together. Tom was the TD for this historic event and Steve Slasor, # 055, won. Second place was Tom #033.

Tom was named Disc Golfer of the decade for the 80's by the PDGA. Ken Climo wrestled the title away for the 90's and would go on to win 12 PDGA World Championships including 9 titles from 1990 to 1998. Tom was actually the first Pro that Kenny beat on his way to such an amazing career. When asked what the thought about the kid from Clearwater who had beat him at his own tourney, Tom just said, "that kid is going to be good"! It was also interesting that in 1989 Lavone gave Climo some gas money to go home from the PDGA Worlds in Iowa.

Tom won the very first PDGA Masters World title at the same event that he ran in 1983. With a creative entry fee structure he also finished 2nd in the Open just behind the winner from Sarasota, Florida, Jeff Watson. During that week of play Tom shot a -16 on the Redstone Arsenal course to set the lowest round ever recorded at a World Championship. As players were coming off the course it was already known that Lavone Wolfe had shot a –12 and the first PDGA World Champ, Harold Duvall had shot a –14.  Tom was on his last hole and in sight of the early leaders. His tee shot was high into a cedar tree directly above the basket. As fate would have it his disc dropped into the basket for an ace! Tom’s record held for 13 years but it was eventually broken at the 1996 Worlds in South Bend when Johnny Lissaman shot a -17 on a much shorter course.

While in Grad school Tom did a semester of Student Teaching.  Somehow he was able to teach a High School Frisbee class.  The passion for teaching/coaching was ignited and he later coached a Frisbee class for credit at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and then at the University of Florida where his tenure lasted 15 years. The class was called "Flying disc Sports" and was filled every semester.

After college Tom moved back to Huntsville where one of the attractions of moving to Huntsville were Frisbee players, Wayne Walters and Patti Kunkle.  Wayne organized Ultimate activity and Patti was/is the First Lady of Frisbee in the South.  Tom and Wayne played on the Huntsville Ultimate Team and helped Ultimate grow in the 70's.

Soon after moving to Huntsville, Wayne Walters did the legwork for the City to buy the Brahan Springs course. Records are a bit sketchy but it is believed to be the 7th course installed in the world. It went in soon after Wham-O donated a 9-hole course to Miami and Atlanta. Tom did the initial design using the whole park. He then went to a tournament in Toronto and Ed came to town. After seeing the park Ed decided that the whole course should be in the infamous pine trees. Tom was quite surprised when he returned. Over the years the first courses have been removed or relocated. There is a debate between Brahan Springs and the Oak Grove, California course being the oldest existing course in the world.

Lavone graduated from UNA in 1977 and immediately moved to Tuscaloosa to attend grad school. That summer he met some another Frisbee enthusiast on the quad named Mark London. Lavone and Mark founded the first University of Alabama Ultimate team and began touring together with another Birmingham player Kerry Shapiro. They did demos at baseball games and other events. They were known as the “Bad News Bees”.  Players on their ultimate team roster included legendary Alabama football players Barry Krauss and Marty Lyons. During this time Tom was teaching disc classes in Huntsville at UAH and one of his students was Joe Thacker. Joe later went to the University of Alabama and he started his legendary status as one of the best to ever play ultimate. Everyone who saw him throw a disc agreed with Lavone who always said Joe was one of the most naturally talented disc players ever. It should also be noted that Lavone’s son Gary also followed his father and played Ultimate at Alabama in the 1990’s.

In 1978 Lavone and Tom were members of a “pickup” ultimate team that traveled to Oxford, Mississippi to play in the Magnolia State Frisbee Tournament held on campus at Ole Miss. This was the first Ultimate tournament in the southern United States. Other members of the team included David Eyler from Nashville and the ambidextrous Ross Snyder from Atlanta. Earlier that year most of the group also had qualified and went to Huntington Beach, California to play in the Wham-o $50,000. Disc Golf Tournament.

While teaching the UAH Frisbee class Tom installed the first disc golf course on the campus. Lavone helped Tom with the design and they used 25-gallon oil drums with a U shaped cutout on one side. In the backside they hung a piece of carpet to slow the disc and allow it to drop into the drum. This was cumbersome because the player was allowed to turn the drum to the angle he wanted for his putt.  These targets were soon replaced by 3’ diameter concrete culverts turned on end with a round fence post sticking up through the middle. The "culvert" course was used in many tournaments and helped teach hundreds of new players. It was also used for the players that did not qualify to continue into the final round at the1983 World Championships. In 1988 Lavone decided it was time to install real chain baskets on campus. Within weeks he raised the money, designed and installed the new course.  The first round was played on August 13, 1988.

After graduating from Alabama, Lavone moved to Georgia where he continued to travel to tournaments often joining or meeting Tom at events around the south.  Tom would always joke and tell others “I taught Lavone everything he knows but not everything I know”.  Lavone would always agree honoring his mentor. In 1982 Lavone moved back to Huntsville and began to help Tom with growing disc golf.  A “mother” club was created that had under it various groups for all disc sports. It was called the Rocket City Disc Club.  When Tom obtained the bid to host the 1983 PDGA World Championships Lavone decided to create a club to focus on disc golf and he coined the name Rocket City Chain Gang and used it as the name of the club for golf in Huntsville.

With help from Lavone as the assistant TD, Tom and the Rocket City Chain Gang ran what is still one of the best events the PDGA has ever seen.  Players raved about the perks including a full 18-hole mini disc course held on the moonscape at the Space and Rocket Center during the players banquet. Ten years later Lavone was the TD for the 1993 PDGA Worlds.  Lavone produced a one-hour TV show that was shown across the U.S., Canada, Japan and some countries in Europe.  Lavone signed Pizza Hut, Innova and Discraft as a major sponsors.

Tom Monroe literally was the “Johnny Appleseed” of disc and disc golf in the south and across much of the United States. During the winter his Frisbee South concentrated on doing Frisbee shows at public schools. One tour had them performing 3 show's a day; five day's a week throughout the Midwest. When spring rolled around, they did shows at college's and universities from Boston to Texas.  Some of the more significant Frisbee shows that they put on were in the Super Dome and Atlanta for the Hawks and the Braves. One of their show's helped kick off the Worlds Fair in TN.

After years of Frisbee and Disc Golf, Tom was inducted into the first class of the Disc Golf Hall of Fame. At the second PDGA Worlds held in Huntsville in 1993 Lavone Wolfe realized a dream when he founded the Disc Golf Hall of Fame. It was a big moment for Tom when he was inducted with the likes of Ed Headrick, and Dan Roddick. It was also very special for Lavone when Tom had the honor of inducting him the very next year. Tom now lives in Birmingham where he sells and designs disc golf courses for the Disc Golf Association. He is the Course Pro and can be found most days at the George Ward course.