October 2025 Athlete of the Month
By Del Moon, NSGA Storyteller
Davis Johnson, 75
Monson, Massachusetts
From the time he laid hands on his first Frisbee in 1965, Davis Johnson became obsessed with throwing it as far as he could. That would lead to getting his name into the Guinness Book of World Records as the first person to throw the disc more than 400 feet (412 to be exact) and made further history by competing in the first recognized disc golf tournament in 1975.
He’s still helping advance the sport 50 years later, both as an organizer and competitor. His wife, Joan Simmons, is the event coordinator for 25 sports for the annual Massachusetts Senior Games and encouraged Davis to be the tournament director for Disc Golf in 2016. He still serves in that capacity and even co-designed the local disc golf course in Wilbraham where they compete.
In a way, Davis wrote his own ticket to the 2025 National Senior Games presented by Humana, because the level of sport participation at the state level often determines when a sport can be offered nationally. Davis eagerly competed in the debut of Disc Golf in Des Moines, winning gold in a field of four in the 75-79 age group. “One guy, Jerry Brown, was a serious challenger and gave me a good run for the money,” he says. “I was only two strokes ahead after the first round and kind of sweating a little bit. I had a real advantage over him in a variety of shot choices but I have to give him tribute for keeping it very close.”
A Pioneer in the Sport
Davis marvels about his role in the formative age of competitive disc throwing and how the sport has grown internationally with both informal play and professional tournaments. He says that in the beginning, there were various games created for the flying disc, but Disc Golf really took off as the dominant sport when the disc basket pole was invented.
“The way we played before was to set up object courses in various places hitting rocks or trees. It was a cross between golf and miniature golf,” he recalls. “Ed Headrick was the Johnny Appleseed of the game, and he went all over the country pioneering disc golf courses. His basket was the real catalyst for getting the sport going because there was no longer an argument whether a disc has gone into a basket or not.”
Davis Johnson competing in the 1975 World Frisbee Championships. Image courtesy Davis Johnson.
He is proud to have participated in the 1975 World Frisbee Championships held in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. His distance record for throwing a disc over 400 feet, considered by players as the “4-Minute Mile” of the sport, was not recognized by Guinness immediately. “I held both the indoor and the outdoor records since 1974,” he explains. “But it was not put in the book until 1978 because I did it with a non-Wham-O disc. In those days, they were the domineering company in the game, and if you didn’t throw a Frisbee (created by Wham-O), you didn’t get in. Now there are dozens of disc golf companies around the world making discs.”
His record was broken by fellow MIT student and friendly rival John Kirkland. “I held it for almost five years, and John broke it in a tournament in Texas,” he says. “However, he used a slightly more advanced disc. I still hold that record for classic discs, so technically it has not been broken. But as they say, records were made to be broken.” Davis recounts his early history in this article for The Flying Disc Museum: A Far-Out History of Throwing Far.
The Advantages of Disc Golf
Davis finds several reasons for the growth of Disc Golf. “For one thing, people are daunted by ‘ball golf’ as we call it because it’s difficult and can be frustrating. Disc golf is much easier for the layperson to pick up, and it’s also far less expensive,” he explains.
“The discs are reasonably priced – many courses now are pay-for-play, but you’re probably going to spend no more than $10 for a round. It’s informal, fun and really inclusive, and we are trying hard to get more women into the sport.”
Instead of clubs, he says most players use 15 or 20 discs to make shots. “There are specialty discs that will go one direction or another, and you have your putters, and your mid-range would be your irons, and then you have your drivers, which are less predictable but go a lot farther,” he says.
Davis Johnson preparing for a throw. Image courtesy Davis Johnson.
Davis, a published poet and songwriter who edited Victor Malafronte’s “The Complete Book of Frisbee” in 1998, is retired after a 30-year career teaching writing, speech and journalism at Springfield Technical Community College. He has also worked as a radio weathercaster, motivational speaker and author of a children’s book. But he has always found time to get out in nature and fling discs around, and he believes Disc Golf is here to stay in the National Senior Games.
“I got in so early I’m number 44 in the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA), and there are now over 200,000 members,” he notes. “Those people are aging just like me, and I think the senior competition will become a lot more challenging and fun.”
Davis summarizes that it is the people that he loves most about being in his sport. “If you had disc golf people running the world, we’d have a lot more egalitarian and peaceful world, because people treat each other well in this sport.”
