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The International Frisbee Association (IFA) was founded in 1967 by Wham-O Mfg. vice president, Ed Headrick. Its original purpose was to handle the strong consumer responses to the products and to satisfy Ed's own personal fascination with the Frisbee disc. The IFA created the IFA News publication in late 1967 or early 1968. It's stated mission was to "serve as a central communications forum to strengthen the bonds among FRISBEE players everywhere". Immediately after being established, the IFA started a campaign to invite "Charter Members" and it invited several hundred people. This gallery includes some of the early correspondence sent out by the IFA as well as the Charter Member applications. Membership absolutely exploded as Wham-O started to include membership applications in most of the packaged frisbees they sold. In less than 2 years, membership in the IFA had reached over 50,000! It took another 10 years (1980) to reach the 100,000 level.

The IFA also established Proficiency standards. "Within the IFA there will be four classifications of members-Novice, Amateur, Expert and Master." This gallery includes the basic membership cards as well as many of the proficiency standard cards earned by its members.

In 1975 Ed hired Dan "Stork" Roddick to head the IFA. Dan was instrumental in establishing the National Series meets, he began the affiliate club program, started the publication Frisbee disc World, initiated international ties and developed and implemented the regional director program. Through these efforts, the purpose of the IFA changed to being an effective promotional effort for Wham-O Mfg. Co. and as a source of information and opportunities for enthusiasts of the sport. Later the IFA established a mail order program and the discs in this gallery are a result of their marketing efforts.

The IFA set of discs represent 15 colors sprinkled over 9 different molds. Prior to 1983, other than stock discs, this "collection" had the largest number of different discs with the same hot stamp. The first disc produced with the circular IFA hot stamp was the clear fastback around July of 1979. This hot stamp was produced until the end of 1981. At that time, the IFA adopted a new hot stamp design. The new hot stamp, which features reversed lettering, 2 IFA globes, a solid inner band and a split TMB was introduced on a clear FB with a metallic gold and purple hot stamp. It was produced in the fall/winter of 1981. Wham-O was sold at the end of 1982 and that marked the end of the IFA as it existed and it ended the IFA specific hot stamp collection of discs.

This gallery features documentation and proficiency cards from the IFA and its members in general chronological order. Most of the IFA print material is dated prior to the production of the IFA hot stamped discs so it is first in the gallery. Following the printed material are all of the discs.

The discs are listed in approximate chronological order. Production dates come from when the discs were first available in the Factory Connection in Frisbee World magazine. The production numbers were recorded at the time of production and coordinated with the then head of Wham-O shipping Tim Selinske. After the first 25 or so discs, the order is not specifically known. Unfortunately, while accurate tracking was done of the production numbers, the date of production was not recorded, other than what was listed in Frisbee Worlds.

This gallery represents the most complete collection of the important history of the International Frisbee Association.

~Mike Hughes