A Milestone for Canine Catchers : Publicity Hound Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of Frisbee Stunt

Even a promoter as adept as Irv Lander could not have staged what he witnessed at Dodger Stadium on the evening of Aug. 5, 1974.

Before the baseball crowd--and a national television audience--Alex Stein and his dog, Ashley Whippet, dashed onto the field and into a well-choreographed routine of long, hovering throws and running, leaping catches of a plastic flying disc.

The crowd roared. Slack-jawed security guards watched for eight minutes before ending the unauthorized performance. NBC broadcaster Joe Garagiola, speaking for millions of home viewers, exclaimed that he had never seen anything like it.

Lander, a self-employed Van Nuys advertising agent with a history of promoting kooky contests, wasn’t about to let what he had witnessed slip from his grasp. He trailed after Stein, bailed him out of jail and paid his $250 fine.

“I was dazzled by the dog,” Lander recalled recently. “He could run 35 m.p.h. and catch a Frisbee in his jaws. I immediately had a vision for it.”

Two decades of promotions and publicity stunts later, “canine Frisbee,” as the sport is officially known, is celebrating a milestone. And Lander, founder and executive director of the Canine Frisbee Disc Championships, remains top dog of the far-fetched pastime that has a niche in pop culture.

The 20th world championships will take place Saturday on the grounds of the Washington Monument in the nation’s capital. Six months of community and regional competitions involving more than 5,000 dogs will culminate with 14 finalists vying for the Lander Cup, the trophy named after . . . Irv Lander. The winners also receive a $1,000 savings bond and a year’s supply of dog food.

More than 10,000 spectators attended last year’s event at the same venue. In previous years, Lander, who still lives in Van Nuys, has held his “world championships” at the Rose Bowl, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., the Astrodome in Houston, RFK Stadium in Washington and Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Ever the publicity hound, Lander spends time between competitions coordinating exhibitions and soliciting the participation of celebrities, sports figures, politicians--anyone whose persona might promote canine Frisbee.

In 1976, he presented organizers of the Democratic National Convention with 1,000 Frisbees, each emblazoned with the names of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. A year later, he and Alex Stein were guests at the White House, where Ashley Whippet retrieved Frisbees thrown by Amy Carter and posed for photographs with Grits, the nation’s First Dog.

Lander corresponded with former National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle for more than a year before the league finally agreed to sponsor a halftime exhibition at Super Bowl XII in 1978.

“I always reach for the sky,” said Lander, who declined to reveal his age beyond saying he is a senior citizen. “I’m not, by nature, a very pushy person or an extrovert. But I’m very persevering.”

“Without Irv, there would be no (canine Frisbee). It’s as simple as that,” said Peter Bloeme, the 1984 world champion, who now serves as an organizer and judge.

Publicity was Lander’s long suit before he met Stein. For years, he had served as a consultant to toy manufacturers, organizing and promoting contests involving everything from Hula-Hoops to yo-yos. As a consultant to Wham-O, Lander served as executive director of the International Frisbee Assn., which sanctioned competition between people but had never considered canines--until Stein and his dog did their thing.

Within a year, Lander had secured sponsorship from major pet food companies and, with Stein, developed the sport’s rules and staged its first competition: the Ashley Whippet Invitational. Ashley Whippet went on to win three world championships before dying in 1985, at age 13.

Over the years, the game of fling and fetch has become more than a contest in which daring young dogs “fly through the air with the greatest of fleas,” as Lander likes to say.

After Ashley Whippet’s demise, Sports Illustrated eulogized the first Frisbee dog as an American sports legend, “both a Naismith (basketball’s inventor) and a (Babe) Ruth.”

A bevy of books and instructional videocassettes were released by Frisbee-dog competitors, espousing the fundamentals of training. Almost overnight, dog owners across the nation began to shun the stick in favor of the Frisbee.

These days, Lander leaves the contest judging to others. Although he used to spend as much as six months a year roving the country, he attended only three of seven regional finals this year.

Still, Lander is ever watchful for the opportunity to capitalize. He plans to schedule the stunt at a San Fernando Valley park within the next month, with Wham-O officials and--he hopes--media representatives as witnesses. He owns the hound whose skills will be tested that day: Cheyenne Ashley Whippet, grand-dog of the late, great one. “He can run fast and leap high,” Lander said. “He’s a lot like Ashley.”