George, a resident of Jonesville in Yadkin County, is well known in the disc golf world. His design was the first standardized target in the disc golf evolution, but that was several years after the initial introduction of the Pluto Platter in 1957 by Wham-O, which also released the Hula Hoop in 1958.

So how did the Pluto Platter become the Frisbee? George explained that Wham-O discovered there was a Connecticut company called the Frisbie Pie Company, and the drivers, while they were waiting on the baked goods to be loaded in their trucks, would throw around the pie pans stamped with “Frisbie’s Pies” on the bottom. They called it “playing Frisbie.”

In 1960, Wham-O decided to rebrand their flying discs (the Pluto Platters, and others that came out each year named for other planets) as Frisbees.

“The most fun is watching people play and enjoying it. For me, it’s also marveling at something I was part of the beginnings of, and it is now all over the world.”

-George Sappenfield

“I loved playing Frisbee from the time my neighbor threw one to me,” said George, who earned his degree in recreation from Fresno State College (now university).

But how did that evolve into being one of the early pioneers of disc golf?

“One of the college classes I took in 1965, the instructor said you were wasting taxpayer money if you don’t use all of the equipment and land you have available,” he said.

A trip to a ball golf course the same year turned into an “a-ha” moment for George, who was working as a part-time recreation leader while in college.

“I was on the golf course in the woods waiting my turn. I got to thinking there was a picnic area that was hardly ever used [at the recreation center], and the Hula Hoops were hardly ever used, too.”

Up until this point, Frisbee enthusiasts had been playing a version of disc golf that just had players throwing the disc trying to hit things like light poles, mailboxes, trees or anything just to see if they could hit the “target” in the fewest number of throws.

“I visualized a Hula Hoop with a Frisbee flying through it. I got the kids, and I set up four holes of Frisbee golf with wooden stakes in the ground and Hula Hoops vertically tied to them,” he said.

George’s became the first real target in an organized game of disc golf. As a recreation supervisor in Thousand Oaks, California, he wrote to Wham-O in 1969 to see if they would donate Frisbees and Hula Hoops for his Frisbee golf tournament. Not only did they make the donation, they sent out a public relations employee as well because “they thought it was a neat idea.”

In 1967, for two quarters, George joined the newly created International Frisbee Association (IFA) as member No. 209. The organization ended up with over 100,000 members, he said. The following year, the IFA wanted to have an expo and tournament at Brookside Park outside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. All Frisbee enthusiasts were welcome. It included trick catching, distance throwing and GUTS Frisbee, which was a team sport. George suggested to organizer, Ed Headrick, a Wham-O manager, that they set up a Frisbee golf course and try it out to test the interest level. Headrick was reluctant to do so, but he agreed to have a nine-hole course. It was very well received and Headrick realized he needed to pay attention to Frisbee golf.

For 10 to 12 years following that, George helped IFA and Wham-O coordinate the National Junior Frisbee Contest held through recreation departments in over 500 cities. Frisbee golf was not part of the contest but was a suggested additional activity. In 1972, he established the first college credit flying disc class where he taught various Frisbee skills plus how to play Frisbee golf.

In 1975, he was asked to be the event director for the World Frisbee Championships in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl. George convinced Ed to include Frisbee golf, which he did at Oak Grove Park located near the Rose Bowl.

There was a need for a standardized target though, because sometimes it was hard to tell if the disc had gone through the hoop, and others were using boxes or tape around a tree as the holes. So Ed used a 4-foot-high metal pole, then introducing the patented Disc Golf Pole Hole that he developed with his son for the 1976 World Frisbee Championships. This is the same target used in today’s disc golf game. When the disc hits the target, the sound of the chains hung from the horizontal hoop allows players and judges to know if the disc has hit the target.

When Ed couldn’t convince Wham-O that Frisbee golf was something to pursue, he left the company, and, in 1976, the sport became disc golf. Ed then established the Professional Disc Golf Association.

The discs also got a redesign, because the original Frisbees weren’t heavy enough. George said now there are 30 to 40 discs used to play disc golf — everything from drivers to putters and more. In the early to mid-1980s, the discs got additional redesigns with beveled edges.

Through the years, George has designed 25 to 30 permanent disc golf courses, several of which were established in North Carolina after he moved to the state in the mid-1980s to teach commercial recreation at East Carolina University. In 2006, he was named vice president for corporate and continuing education at Surry Community College, and he moved to Jonesville.

While teaching at ECU, he designed a course in Greenville, and later he designed a course at Primland Resort on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Additional courses closer to home that he designed are at Fisher River Park in Dobson and his namesake course at Yadkin Memorial Park in Yadkinville.

For George, a World Frisbee Master, it’s not about winning the game.

“To me, the fun part is whoever has the most fun wins,” he said.

For his 80th birthday in 2025, 30-plus members of his immediate and extended family came together in California to surprise him. His son set up a three-hole disc golf course at the celebration using George’s original vertical Hula Hoop design.

George and his wife, Tami, travel internationally once a year along with going to see his son, Scott, his wife, Lisa, and grandchildren in Denver, as well as Tami’s son, Jonathan Kernen, his wife, Liz, and grandchildren in San Antonio.

While he doesn’t play competitively anymore, George, who was elected to the World Disc Golf Hall of Fame in 2018 and currently serves as its assistant executive director, said, “I do still play for fun. I’m always going to be involved.”

“The most fun is watching people play and enjoying it. Some of the workshops I’ve done, where a family has brought two or three kids, and one child isn’t very athletic — but they turned out to be the best disc golf player,” he said. “For me, it’s also marveling at something I was part of the beginnings of, and it is now all over the world.”