Frisbee Dog World Championship - Origin

Origin

In 1975, Irv Lander, Alex Stein and Eldon McIntire first organized a World Championship for flying-disc (Frisbee) catching dogs and their handlers. The event continued annually. Stein and his disc dog, Ashley Whippet, won the first three championships in 1975, 1976 and 1977. McIntire was the owner of another disc dog named Hyper Hank. Lander worked for Wham-O, the maker of the Frisbee, which is a registered trademark of Wham-O. He was a promoter of the Junior Frisbee Disc Championships, an event for humans. In the early years the championship took place alongside the "human" Frisbee championships, sponsored by Wham-o, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Eventually, it turned into a contest series and, in the early 1980s, was named the Ashley Whippet Invitational (AWI). The competition series included local and regional events where dog and handler pairs would qualify for the Ashley Whippet Invitational World Finals Championship. Until the mid-1990s there was only one organization for disc dog competitions. For many years the AWI World Finals was the only championship event.