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June 2008
No Guts No Glory

No Guts No Glory

Yoopers invented Guts Frisbee way back in 1958. Today folks are whipping the saucers at one another all over the world, but the game's U.P. DNA still guides the action.

Jun 10, 2008 Lynda Twardowski

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Barb Thorton

At its inception, Guts wasn't a bloodthirsty sport. It was a drinking game, invented by the Healy brothers at a 1958 Fourth of July family picnic in the Upper Peninsula's Eagle Harbor. The boys--Bob, Jake, Tim and Pete--had gotten their hands on a Pluto Platter, the 1955 precursor to the Frisbee, and began tossing it around.

Then, as now, there were no official uniforms. There were few official rules, with one exception: the oft-cited addendum 69B, wherein players were required to have a beer in one hand at all times. (Hence, the evolution of one-handed play.)

As the Healys' game drew bigger crowds and more players each year, word of Guts spread beyond the U.P., across the nation and eventually overseas. Among the converts was a slew of young professionals--doctors, lawyers, pilots, labor negotiators, etc.--who feared the repercussions of being associated with the beer-soaked sport yet couldn't resist playing. They took on nicknames to conceal their true identities: Dr. Kildare, Thor, Charlie Brown, Steel Hands and Sky King, for instance. The aforementioned members of the Foul Five, the team famous for unseating the nine-year reigning champion, the Healy Brothers' North Central team, in 1967. After that fateful game, Steel Hands and Charlie Brown were never seen again; to this day no one knows their real names.