Ted Smethers On How The PDGA Originated, His Relationship With Steady Ed & Disc Golf Growth
Ted Smethers shares his insightful perspective on the origins of the PDGA and its growth into a global disc golf organization. As the former Commissioner of the PDGA from 1984 to 1988, Ted offers a unique glimpse into the early days of the organization, including how he coined the title "Commissioner of Disc Golf." He also opens up about his relationship with Steady Ed, the founder of the PDGA's precursor, who graciously allowed them to use the name and later had a special letter written by Ted that brought them closer together. With his induction into the Disc Golf Hall of Fame in 1993, Ted provides a wealth of information on the history and development of disc golf, shedding light on the key figures and events that shaped its growth and success.
Hear Ted Smethers share the fascinating history of the PDGA, his personal relationship with Steady Ed, and the remarkable growth of disc golf as a sport.
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and a very warm welcome to our last but very special guest ted smithers ted how are you doing today wonderful it's a beautiful day can you say for the camera what your pdga number is 11 59. all right and ted you were the commissioner of the pdga from 1984 to 88 something like that all right and an inaugural member of the disc golf hall of fame in 1993. shed some light on those two huge huge amazing facts about yourself well i remember in 84 we're sitting around the room we're about to i was about to be proclaimed head honcho and we were sitting around i remember joe fight and i said what are we going to call you and i said i don't know grand poobah what right he says well the the head of disk bogoff is commissioner head of baseball is the commissioner so commissioner of disc golf there we go so we we invented the title sitting around having a beer waiting for the big meeting and uh so that's that's how that came about and the hall of fame only with i believe six other members there were seven total conducted that at that time yeah i was the last one in but you know hey i got in and it um yeah i i didn't get in because i was a great disc golf player i was the right guy at the right time with the right attitude and the right skill set and i basically took the pdga from from steady ed who used it but steady head created it basically as a marketing tool and uh it didn't really exist as an organization and i made an organization out of it we uh we ed graciously gave it let us have the name and we transitioned over set up a board of directors set up with bylaws and constitution and and the rest is history absolutely i think a lot of people want to ask and hear about this the next question what was your relationship with steady ed you know it was wonderful at first he he told me one time he had a letter that i written him that when he feels bad he pulls it out and reads it and so we kind of had that relationship um but it it toward the end um...
