By Lavone Wolfe #580

Tom Monroe, PDGA# 033, passed away after a yearlong battle with cancer on February 10, 2024. He was one of the most important pioneers of all flying disc sports and was known as “The Johnny Appleseed of Disc Golf.” His Frisbee story began when he was a student at the University of North Alabama in Florence. In the summer of 1973, Tom happened to be in Atlanta when there was a Wham-O-sponsored “Great Frisbee Fly In” and he decided to go. Hundreds of people competed in distance and accuracy; Tom won both events.

At the time, I was also a student at UNA. Early the next year, I walked across the street from my dorm to the gym to play basketball. I happened to see Tom playing freestyle and I sat down to watch. He asked if I wanted to throw and, in a while, he said I should meet him to play Frisbee golf the next day. (Which I did, in the rain!) I had no idea how significant that day would be in my life and how fast my competitive focus would change. Tom started numerous overall state flying disc championships, but the first was later that year in Alabama. I won the golf event.

A Trip to California

Tom was on fire for finding a way to make a living with a disc. He had started communicating with Ed Headrick and when went to California for his sister’s wedding. He met Ed who already knew of Tom’s skills with a disc, but then he saw his enthusiasm first hand.

A short time later, Ed hired the renowned Frisbee player, Dan “Stork” Roddick, to run his International Frisbee Association. On a trip to the south, Dan asked Tom to be an IFA Regional Director. As a result, Tom got his dream job and was chartered to travel America to spread disc sports. He was given a nice new customized Dodge van with big, bold Frisbee South graphics. He ran tournaments and performed shows at venues, schools, universities and even major sporting events. Tom ran two North American Series tournaments in 1976 and ’77 in Florence that attracted the top players in the country. I was a married student with a job, but I jumped at every chance I got to get in his van and travel to design a course or run and play in a tournament. In that day, most were multi-event tournaments. In 1978, I went with Tom to play in the first ultimate tournament in the south held on the Ole Miss campus. There were many road trips where we had to tie ribbons around trees to make a course like we did in Charlotte’s Freedom Park for one of the earliest events in that disc golf Mecca of today. Tom was always on the move from town to town sowing the seeds.

Moving Back to Huntsville

Both Tom and I had grown up in Huntsville, Alabama and we both moved back there shortly after college. Tom brought Ed to town in 1976 to help install one of the earliest courses in the world in Brahan Springs Park. A few months later, in 1977, Redstone Arsenal was installed. Later that year Tom ran the very first PDGA tournament in Mobile, Alabama. All over the country the growth of the sport was gaining momentum as it pushed into the 1980s. It was time to shift to running exclusive disc golf world championships. Tom wanted to host the first PDGA World Championships in 1982 but Ed said no and kept it in California. Tom and I, as his assistant, ran the second in 1983. It doubled in size and the cash prize soared. The tournament was crucial to the progress of the PDGA because we stood up to Ed and allowed discs — other than Wham-O and DGA — to be used in competition. Most notably the first beveled edge disc, the Innova Eagle/Aero. Ed got over it and respected that stand by giving both of us positions on the PDGA’s first steering committee. In 1984, Tom was influential in leading that committee and managed to convince Ed to relinquish control to the membership and no longer let it be corporately owned.

Player of the Decade

Tom was a fierce competitor but it was his charisma that made him a crowd favorite. He was known for shots such as one in the ’88 Worlds. He intentionally threw directly through a high-spraying water fountain over a lake to park a hole. He is viewed as the first superstar in disc golf and was named the PDGA Player of the Decade in the 1980s. He won 21 world championships and countless other tournaments and titles in all disc events. He was a key PDGA board member for 10 years and an inductee in the inaugural year of the World Disc Golf Hall of Fame in 1993.

In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Tom taught disc golf courses for credit at U of A Huntsville. He then moved to Florida in 1984 after his wife, Denise, took a job as a nurse. There he installed a course where another future star, Garrett Gurthie, hung out and cut his teeth on the chains as a young boy. Tom taught disc at the University of Florida until moving to Birmingham in the mid-90s where he also taught at the University of Alabama Birmingham and Samford University. When he wasn’t traveling and teaching, he parked his van at George Ward Park and brought more into the sport on a daily basis. Tom competed in, promoted, and directed hundreds of tournaments. Even he lost count of courses he designed and installed. Tom returned to Huntsville in 2020. He again drove the van on every good day to his beloved Brahan Springs Park where he greeted every golfer who came out to play with a loud “FORE!” He told stories, instructed, sold and gave away discs until his health failed. He gave 50 years of life to grow disc golf and fulfill his mission of establishing a foundation for future generations. His legacy links him directly to thousands of players and champions that have followed in his steps. Now it’s the grandsons and granddaughters of his students that continue holding the threads he tied.

I visited Tom a few months back after he had been diagnosed with cancer and chosen to stop taking chemotherapy. The part of his house we were sitting in was a virtual museum. The book cases, tables and walls were covered by hundreds of spectacular trophies and we were surrounded by photos and memorabilia.

Bringing Smiles to People’s Faces

Tom was one of my longest friends. We never had a cross word even though we battled against each other in dozens of tournaments. He would say he was forever mad at me because I didn’t give him money in time for him to sign us up for the PDGA and get single digit numbers. He sent his in and got 033. I waited because I was a poor student.

When he made a great shot, I called him lucky, but he always said, “Skill gets it to the luck part.” I would say no one has that much skill and he would say, “Son, I taught you everything you know but not everything I know.” How could I argue that? I seldom called him by his first name. Most of the time it was T.M. which I always said stood for “Trade Mark” because it was fitting. For an hour or so, we laughed and cried as we recalled half a century of adventures to throw a disc and watch it fly. After a while it got a bit quiet. I looked him in the eye and asked what he wanted to be remembered for. He paused a moment. He glanced at the walls and slightly shook his head. He didn’t mention any of the tournaments he won or the accolades he was given. He said “I always wanted people to remember that I brought a smile to their face.”

Tom died on February 10, 2024. Knowing we were close friends; many have told me they were sorry it was on my birthday. I’m not. Now, it will be even more special. I will always smile when I remember PDGA 033, the man that introduced me and thousands to disc golf.

Competitive Highlights

• 1982 – World Flying Disc Federation Championship Masters Overall
• 1983 – PDGA Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 1985 – World Flying Disc Federation Masters Division World Champion
• 1986 – PDGA Open Division Doubles World Champion
• 1988 – PDGA Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 1989 – PDGA Masters Division Doubles World Champion (with Lavone Wolfe)
• 1992 – PDGA Grand Masters Division World Champion
• 1992 – PDGA Grand Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 1993 – PDGA Grand Masters Division World Champion
• 1993 – PDGA Grand Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 1994 – PDGA Grand Masters Division World Champion
• 1995 – PDGA Grand Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 1996 – PDGA Grand Masters Division World Champion
• 1997 – PDGA Grand Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 1998 – PDGA Grand Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 1999 – PDGA Grand Masters Division World Champion
• 1999 – PDGA Grand Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 2000 – PDGA Grand Masters Division World Champion
• 2000 – PDGA Grand Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 2001 – PDGA Grand Masters Division Doubles World Champion
• 2002 – PDGA Grand Masters Division World Champion
• 2002 – PDGA Grand Masters Division Doubles World Champion

Other Highlights

• 1974 – Started the longest running overall state tournament in Alabama
• 1975 – International Accuracy Champion
• 1975-1983 – Winner of Overall State Championships in Al, Tn, Ky, Ga, Ms, and Fl
• 1977 – Tournament Director of the first PDGA tournament in Mobile, AL
• 1979 – Self-Caught Flight World Championship and World Record 90-yard TRC
• 1983 – Original PDGA board member, served 10 years
• 1983 – Tournament Director second PDGA World Championships, Huntsville
• 1983 – Shot -16 in World Semis at Redstone. Held major tourney score record 20-plus years
• 2018 – First disc athlete to be inducted into a “traditional” sports hall of fame. Huntsville-Madison County Alabama