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A tribute to Arthur K.“Spud”
Melin. by "Steady" Ed.
A.K. “Spud” Melin Spud, you are gone but not forgotten. You are my mentor and I your protégé. All that I am I owe to you. A little history. Spud was the reason I came to Wham-O in 1964. I bet Spud and Rich that I would work for free 3 months and if they hire me then they would pay what I ask for and put me in charge of R&D. They accepted. The first job Spud gave me was to do something about the Frisbee. I didn’t even know how to throw a Frisbee as Spud soon found out and won $50.00 from me learning not to bet. There were no instructions so I pumped instructions from Spud, Rich and Dick Gillespie. I wrote the first instructions and taught myself, with my new instructions, how to throw. As far as I know these instructions are still in print today and eventually superseded the old “Flip Flat Fly’s Straight, Tilt to Turn, Invent Games.”I’ll bet the “Invent Games” was Spud’s idea.
So why was it designed for a 6 year old? I had an old Saucer mold to play with so I developed a theory that the disc needed to fly in turbulent air instead of smooth air. The lines of Headrick also made for a great grip. I filed the 1st mechanical patent, invented a new theory of aerodynamics and assigned it to Wham-O. Spud also instructed me to form a Frisbee organization like his National Sling Shot Association. I formed the IFA (International Frisbee Association) that had 112,000 members and was disbanded when I left Wham-O in ’75. My Frisbee patent protected the disc for 17 years and with sales in excess of 200,000,000 units. Spud said fix it and believed in me. Then about month two he and Rich walked into my makeshift office with what resembled a gum eraser. He threw it under my desk and it returned to his hand. I thought, “here we go again”, but I didn’t bet. He and Rich said someone had presented it to Wham-O but it broke when it was thrown. Would I fix it when I was through with the Frisbee? My family named it Superball and after a few thousand throws with hundreds of test balls it was fixed. As I recall it sold over 20,000,000 units. I think Spud and Rich recognized something in me that I didn’t know I had. The rest is history. I left Wham-O in 1975 and invented Disc Golf???? How could I invent something that Spud invented before I came to Wham-O? He and some of his drinking buddies were playing catch with a Pluto Platter in his yard when they started to play Frisbee Golf. You know, pick a target and throw at it. Low and behold they wound up on the San Gabriel Country Club’s prestigious golf course, across the street from Spud’s house, and got in 2 holes of Frisbee Golf before several sheriff cars arrived and escorted them back home. Thus establishing his unclaimed greatness! When Spud got that certain gleam in his eye it was time for something to happen, I learned, ask Susie. When Spud, Rich, and some buddies went hunting in darkest Africa for a month, taking pages out of Spuds book of tricks, several of his friends and I planned the ultimate trick to get Spud in hot water with Susie. We tricked her right? Wrong. We sent an international wire to Susie from Spud saying, “Having a wonderful time, sending a small gift ahead, please take care of it until I return. Love Spud.” We had to move fast because it is very difficult to fool Susie. We called the Zoo and rented a baby elephant, hired a couple of cameramen, and staked out his home in several vans. As instructed the animal trainer knocked at Susie’s door and told her he had a special delivery in the truck for her. He handed her a leash and she followed him to the truck. When he let the tail gate down and he put the leash on the baby elephant, the trick almost backfired. She told the handler to take the elephant in the backyard. It took one hour to convince Susie that Spud didn’t send her the elephant. We did! She finally let us help get the elephant back in the truck. We weren’t around when Spud got home but I think we can claim one for our side. Perhaps! All that I am today I owe to this great and unassuming man. I am proud to have been his protégé. He passed on to his rewards on 06/28/02…my birthday. I wonder…………… Lock the doors and bar the windows God. You have your hands full.
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Then I realized that the Flying Saucer was to hard for a 6 year
old to learn to throw.