06/04/2025
😂
Forgotten Sports Legends: The Larry Stubbins Story
Before Tiger. Before MJ. There was Larry Stubbins.
Largely forgotten by today’s highlight-driven sports culture, Larry “Larry Stubbins” Stubbins is widely recognized by disc golf purists as the greatest disc golfer of the 1970s.
In fact, he was the first professional disc golfer in history to sign a three-figure endorsement deal with Schlitz Beer.
Stubbins exploded onto the competitive disc golf scene in 1972, stunning the nation with a dominant, sweat-drenched victory at the Asbestos Open, held at Call State Park in Algona, Iowa.
He posted a commanding +14, blowing out the field of nearly 7 other disc golfers.
Often referred to as the “neglectful stepfather of disc golf,” Stubbins helped popularize disc golf while simultaneously doing almost nothing to advance it. He competed in an era where disc technology was rudimentary at best. The average disc was molded from crushed granite and war-era plastics.
Yet, through sheer brute force and a torque-heavy throwing motion, Stubbins managed a record-setting drive of 37 feet.
When asked by reporters after his first major win what drove him to such greatness, Stubbins famously replied, shirtless:
“Fame? Money? Women? I want none of those things. That’s why I play the beautiful game.”
He would go on to win three more tournaments, and star in a short-lived PBS instructional series called “Flings with Larry”.
Today, Larry is said to be living a quiet, humble life in a converted van just outside of Tulsa, a peace made even quieter by the fact that he tragically died to death 30 years ago in a hail of 53 bullets during a botched m**h lab raid.
