Basket with History
The venture started the other night while chatting with a disc golf buddy on Facebook. He asked me how far I was from Glenview, Illinois. I told him about 30 to 45 minutes. He gave me a link to craigslist with a basket for sale. The listing said the basket was from Gilson Park in Wilmette, IL. I messaged another disc golfer who had some history of the course. After some research it’s believed that Wilmette had the first disc catching baskets in the state of Illinois.
I started to think about the historical value of the basket. Did Steady Ed himself make this basket? I discussed this with the club officers of DISContinuum DGC and we decided that we wanted it. I contacted the person in charge of the listing and decided to go meet him. In the mean time I started to get replies to some of my message board posts. It’s believed the course was installed between 1976 to 1977. Everyone is telling me that the course was pulled sometime in the mid 80′s. The park is only a few miles North of Northwestern University and located on Lake Michigan. The course got so popular it could not handle the traffic and was removed.
I was excited pulling into the driveway to pick it up. The basket was planted in the backyard. It sounds crazy but as an avid disc golfer the original Mach 1 looked like a piece of art. The owner told me that basket had been in the same place since the day he purchased it. I didn’t even haggle with the $150 price because it was in excellent condition. After I left I drove over to Gilson Park. It was only a few miles away. It was hard for me to imagine that a 18 hole disc golf course was there.
When I got home a friend of mine posted the photos below. It’s the front and back of a flyer from the 1979 WXRT 4th Annual Frisbee Day. The band UFO played in the park.