Ice Bowl History

The first disc golf tournament called the "Ice Bowl" was held in January of 1987 at Albert-Oakland Park in Columbia, Missouri. It was an attempt to get some disc golfing activity going in the dead of winter. The Sunday before the Super Bowl was chosen because it was (at that time) a football-free day, thus getting rid of the "I'm watching the game" excuse for not playing. News releases were issued, and on the night before the Ice Bowl, it snowed five inches. The results were good as both 34 people and the media showed up. There was a picture in the sports section of the Monday edition of the Columbia Daily Tribune-disc golf in Columbia got some free publicity.

The first Ice Bowl was mentioned in the debut issue of Disc Golf World News (March, 1987), and since then, it has been promoted by DGWN and Disc Golf World. The initial idea was to have everyone playing on the same day as an act of disc golf solidarity in the dead of winter. Sun belt states were encouraged to participate for this reason and because of the irony. Because some cities preferred holding their Ice Bowls on different weekends or on Saturdays and as we discovered that people were willing to travel for some disc golfing fun, even in January, we adopted the official "Ice Bowl Corridor," four years ago. This year, it has been expanded to six weekends.

In 1993, Ice Bowl merchandise was introduced for the first time, and prizes for attendance, media coverage, photos, etc. were awarded. In 1994, the Indianapolis Disc Golf Club introduced the idea of collecting food and raising money for its local food bank. In 1996, fundraising for local food banks was made an important component of Ice Bowl, and disc golfers responded by providing over 5,500 meals. In 1996, we set a modest goal of providing 10,000 meals, and ended up with nearly 59,500 meals. In 1998, the goal was a still-modest 100,000 meals and we provided over 145,000 meals. In 1999 we raised the bar quite high-300,000 meals-figuring it was better to have a lofty goal even if it took more than one year to reach it. We did well in 1999, providing 207,250 meals. In 2000, the goal remained the same, and we still came in short with 284,928 meals. Last year, the goal was 330,000 meals and we raised the equivalent of 317,000 meals.

Due, in part to September 11, but also because several Ice Bowl TDs have previously chosen to support other worthy causes (Red Cross, Unicef, Meals on Wheels, Boys and Girls Clubs, etc.), we're changing our worldwide charitable goal to dollars this year, and are counting donations to all legitimate charities. That goal is $51,000. Last year, we raised the equivalent of over $46,000. We encourage those of you who have been supporting your local food banks to continue to do so. They still need all the help they can get. Pounds of food that are raised will be converted to cash, with each pound of food having a cash value of about 13¢.

If you have any questions and/or need some counseling about how to run your Ice Bowl, don't hesitate to call me at 888-237-6884 or send me an e-mail at rick@discgolfworld.com. Thanks, and have fun. -Rick Rothstein, Ice Bowl Instigator.