Disc golf enthusiast will fly on forever

Some people want to be buried at sea. Most opt for the traditional 6-feet deep hole in the ground. Ed Headrick wanted to fly forever.

Considered the father of disc golf, "Steady" Ed Headrick is the topic of a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" segment airing tonight on TBS at 8 p.m. because of his odd post-mortem request.

Headrick, who passed away at age 78 last August, requested that his ashes be made into discs. All the money from the sale of the discs will help build the Ed Headrick Memorial Museum to display his collection of frisbees.

"We have negotiated with Ed's family, who have given us an oral commitment that the museum will be housed at Wildwood Park," said Brian Graham, a member of the Greater Augusta Sports Council and disc golf enthusiast who is trying to bring the Professional Disc Golf Association headquarters to Wildwood Park in Columbia County.

//

In addition to inventing disc golf, Headrick was the former CEO of the Whammo Corp. and invented the modern frisbee and the superball.

"Ed was a character," Graham said. "What happened is that Ed was in Miami at the amateur world championship when he suffered a stroke. In the week's following that was when he requested his ashes be made into discs. Basically, they took his ashes, mixed it with some of the plastics to make the discs."

Graham, who is final negotiations to relocate the PDGA headquarters from Toronto, Canada to Wildwood Park, hopes to incorporate Headrick's museum into the plans for the headquarters.

"Our proposal is that in three years to build a dedicated building for our use," said Graham. "In that building will be the PDGA headquarters, the Disc Golf Hall of Fame Museum, the Ed Headrick Frisbee Museum and then a clubhouse."

Steady Ed memorial discs are available online at www.discgolfassoc.com. They come in sets of two, a putter and a driver, at $210.