Recently, a new WFDF world record was set for girls under 15 gridiron field goal distance.
While all world records are remarkable, this particular one comes with an interesting twist. In setting the record at 55 meters, Sydney Roddick became the fourth generation in her family to hold a WFDF world record.
That is…a record.
Sydney’s great-grandfather, Jack Roddick of Pennsylvania, held senior world records in virtually every discipline while accumulating 68 world senior event titles in overall from 1976 through 2008. PapaJack died at 97 years old in 2018. He still holds the accuracy world record for players over age 85 at 10 of 21 hits.
The next record holder in the Roddick family was Dan “Stork” Roddick. Stork held the open world accuracy record at 20 hits of 28 throws during the 1976 season.
The third generation Roddick record breaker was Stork’s son, Tyler. Beginning at age one, Tyler annually set many of the first younger age-grade records across multiple disciplines. At one time, he simultaneously held 14 world records.
Younger players, most notably the Bell family from Michigan, have swept up through Tyler’s marks, eliminating all of them with the exception of the 12 and under throw, run and catch record of 37 meters, which he set in 1989 and still holds.
Those three generations of record setting laid the pathway for young Sydney, who is primarily a soccer player, but definitely has the genes to fling the flying disc. We are expecting that some of our young women golfers might be interested in taking on the field goal record, but Sydney hopes to extend the record as she gets older. One of her throws, which went wide right (Sorry Patriots…too soon?), went over the fence at about 85 meters.
Incidentally, Stork has been managing the records since the early 70s and currently serves as the archivist for the World Flying Disc Federation. This is not nearly as suspicious as it may sound. Through all those years, he has had the pleasure of not only documenting his family’s records, but also processing the many performances that later replaced them.
In recent years, Rob McLeod, head of the WFDF Overall Committee and the holder of many world records of his own, has joined Stork in managing the documentation. They are a good team and continue to have fun documenting the extraordinary performances of our sport.
The listing of the many WFDF world records can be found at: https://wfdf.sport/world-records.
