Gail McColl, Co founder, co owner of Discraft, and recent inductee in the Freestyle Hall of Fame has passed away. Our thoughts go out to Gail, her family and Discraft. The freestyle and disc community will miss you.

I first met Gail & Jim at NAS tourneys on the 1976 circuit.  They were great people and became good friends with them during the early WFC years.  The women’s Freestyle competition at the ’76 WFC consisted of an individual receiving 10 throws and the judging based on what the player did with those 10 throws.  It was individual because there were so few women competing back then compared to the men.  The women also had the option of choosing their thrower and Gail chose me to be her thrower – which remains a tremendous highlight in my career (yes she won :-).

Jens Velasquez

This is what Discraft posted about Gail:

The disc sports community lost a beloved pioneer on January 1, 2017 when Discraft co-founder Gail McColl passed away in Toronto, Ontario after a brief illness. She was 62.

 

Gail McColl was a lifetime contributor to the growth of disc sports who influenced generations of freestyle, disc golf and ultimate players.

 

Gail began her disc career in Toronto, Ontario, playing object golf in 1973 with Jim Kenner and Ken Westerfield. The trio would go on host the Canadian National Exhibition Frisbee Championships the following year. Through her playing career Gail earned six Canadian Women’s disc golf titles, the 1976 World Freestyle title and won the Women’s Disc Golf title at the 1978 World Frisbee Championships.

 

A top competitor in all disc disciplines, Gail has been called the original women’s freestyler and is credited as being the first woman to nail delay, body roll and air brush.

 

Her great passion for disc sports lead Gail to co-found Discraft Inc. with Jim Kenner in 1979. They set out to build a better product and began breaking the flying disc out of its culturally established role as a toy and into the high performance sports equipment it has become today. The many millions of smiles brought about by Discraft discs since those beginnings have earned Gail McColl and her Discraft legacy a permanent place in the rich history of disc sports. PDGA #240, Gail was inducted into the disc golf hall of fame in 2015.