A platter that matters

Frisbee exhibit looks for funding

By JANE NORDBERG, DMG Writer

HOUGHTON - Hockey, shmockey. Houghton might be the birthplace of professional hockey, but for Dennis Walikainen, more kudos should be bestowed on the genesis of another sport, Guts Frisbee.

"It started here, right here, in the Keweenaw," said Walikainen Saturday from the lower level of the Carnegie Museum in Houghton. "More people need to know that, to come here to find out about its history."

Walikainen of Hancock is the curator of "You Gotta Have Guts! The history of Guts Frisbee and the International Frisbee Hall of Fame" exhibit. On display at the Carnegie since July 4, the exhibit will run at the Carnegie through Nov. 26.

At that time, Walikainen will pack up the hundreds of plastic platters, T-shirts, photographs, plaques and other memorabilia collected by the sport's enthusiasts over the last 51 years, and hope to find them another home.

"We're looking for funding for a permanent exhibit similar to the hockey exhibit at the Dee (Stadium)," Walikainen said. "It's a part of Keweenaw history we want to see preserved for the next generation."

Believed to have begun by the Healy family of Eagle Harbor in 1958, the game of Guts Frisbee grew throughout the 1960s and 1970s, spreading from the Upper Peninsula to the Midwest and eventually spawning teams from California and even Japan.

Last year, the International Frisbee Tournament celebrated its golden anniversary, and this year, just prior to the summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the U.S. beat the heralded Japanese team to regain its top spot in Guts.

"I say we won a gold medal even before the Olympic Games even started," said John Walikainen, Dennis' son and one of Walikainen's best hopes for a new generation of Guts Frisbee enthusiasts.

The younger Walikainen and his friend, Aaron Brickman, a Michigan Technological University student from Chicago, said they came to Guts Frisbee for different reasons.

"I can't help but play with my dad being my dad and all," John Walikainen said. "But it's easy to get fired up about it once you start playing it."

For Brickman, any game where you get to throw a hard-flying object at another person as hard as you can is a good stress reliever.

"You maybe have a hard day at work, you go out and whip a Frisbee at somebody," Brickman said.

Walikainen the elder said he hoped the exhibit will encourage the next generation to try Guts while giving the sport the respect it deserves.

"It's been good seeing the older players come in here and tour the exhibit, especially those who are in the Hall of Fame," he said. "To see the old T-shirts and the old photographs, it's a trip down Memory Lane."

"You Gotta Have Guts" is on display at the Carnegie Museum in Houghton through Nov. 26. Hours are noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday, noon to 5 p.m. on Thursday and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Jane Nordberg can be reached at jnordberg@mininggazette.com.