Ken Westerfield

Cleo. Conn Westerfield, his grandfather, played baseball for the Detroit Street Railway League in the 1920s.

This contributed to Westerfield's early sporting interest.

Sports, in the order of interest, along with all disc sports, were baseball, hockey, motorcycles, golf, and basketball, in which he competed in several city leagues.

As one of the original freestylers from the 1960s, used his expertise in several company-sponsored touring Frisbee shows in the U.S. and Canada.

In 1960, at the age of thirteen, Westerfield and Jim Kenner, who later founded Discraft, became best friends.

They started playing Frisbee during their high school years.

Daily they would experiment with new ways of throwing and catching the Frisbee, this would later be called "playing freestyle."

At the time, Frisbee was only considered a toy for recreational purposes, and there was no reason to become skilled in throwing it.

There were no Frisbee professionals to look up to or disc sports tournaments to compete in.

Their shared anti-establishment attitude and lifestyle, which included their rejection of traditional sports, led them to develop a proficiency in playing Frisbee that had never been seen before.

In 1965, Westerfield graduated from Franklin High School (Livonia, Michigan).

He and his friend Kenner were part of the counterculture movement and enjoyed spending their summer days at Cass and Silver Lake beaches, as well as attending music festivals where they would showcase their freestyling Frisbee skills.

One day, they noticed an event ad in a local alternative newspaper and decided to take their Frisbees and a VW Bug to a music festival called Woodstock in upstate New York, which later became the music event of the century.

At the festival, they would throw the Frisbee over the crowd, just out of reach, and watch as people sitting on the ground reached out for it as it flew by.

Many of them may not even have known what it was.

Westerfield later reflected that it was an interesting crowd to play for.

Kenneth Ray Westerfield is an American pioneering frisbee disc player, who achieved numerous disc sports accomplishments in the 1970s.

A disc sports Hall of Fame inductee in freestyle, ultimate, and disc golf.

In addition, he was voted "Top Men's Player" in the 1970–75 Decade Awards.

Westerfield produced tournaments, set world records, and won awards in every disc sport.

In 1970, Westerfield and Kenner moved to Toronto, Canada, and established their disc-playing headquarters in Queen's Park.

They made a daily routine of playing Frisbee freestyle and object disc golf at the park.

The following year, with only a hundred dollars each, bedrolls, and a Frisbee, they hitchhiked across Canada.

They stopped along the way to perform Frisbee street shows to audiences in cities and at popular annual events such as the Klondike Days in Edmonton and the Calgary Stampede in Alberta.

After completing their cross-country tour in Vancouver, they made their home for the summer in the "All Seasons Park" (tent city), which was founded by the Youth International Party (Yippies) as a protest against the Four Seasons company's plans to build a complex on two blocks adjacent to Stanley Park.

Although they were not politically affiliated with the Yippies, Westerfield and Kenner made the protested park their home.

They made a minimal income by selling alternative newspapers, the Georgia Straight, on the city streets by day and performing nightly Frisbee shows in the historic Gastown area, in front of a railroad car turn restaurant named Frisby's. Because of the urban settings, their performances were highly surreal, as they freestyled with a frisbee at night in front of crowds in the streets.

They bounced the disc off buildings, threw around statues, skipped the frisbee through traffic, and threw over mobs of interested spectators.

One night, while performing at Frisby's, they unwittingly became involved in the Yippie-organized Gastown Smoke-in, a demonstration for the legalization of marijuana.

The subsequent smoking of marijuana in the town square quickly turned the peaceful but illegal demonstration into the now-famous Gastown Riots.

The police also began regular raids of All Seasons Park.

During the fall of 1971, Westerfield and Kenner, having to leave All Seasons Park due to continued police raids, needed money to return to Toronto.

They continued to perform at Frisby's and decided to try collecting money like street musicians.

It was a success.

He was a tournament co-director for the Canadian Open Frisbee Championships (1972–1985) in Toronto, the Vancouver Open Frisbee Championships (1974–1977) in Vancouver, BC, the 1978 Santa Cruz Flying Disc Classic in Santa Cruz, California, the 1985 Labatt's World Guts Championships in Toronto, and the 1987 World PDGA Disc Golf Championships in Toronto.

Irwin Toy, (Frisbee distributor in Canada, 1972–76), Molson Frisbee Team (1974–77), Adidas Canada (1974–1979), Goodtimes Professional Frisbee Show (1978–82), Orange Crush Frisbee Team (1977–78), Air Canada Frisbee Team (1978–79), Lee Jeans Frisbee Team (1979–80) and the Labatts Schooner Frisbee Team (1983–85).

Ken Westerfield was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Margaret Marion (née Beach), a clerical administrator for the public school system, and his father, Gene C. Westerfield, a trade school-trained refrigeration contractor in a family-owned business.

Born into a close, middle-class household, Westerfield lived with his parents and younger sister, Kathy, who graduated from Winston Churchill High School in 1972 and made a career in special education.

Westerfield's parents were both athletic, and his father schooled him in many different sports.

Westerfield founded the first ultimate league in Canada – the Toronto Ultimate Club (1979).