DECATUR — It was a perfect day for a round of disc golf Jan. 31, so Coach Dayton Shaw pulled three new portable disc golf goals out of storage and set them up around the football/soccer field at Bulldog Stadium in Decatur.

Shaw, who is the head boys’ basketball coach and physical education teacher, had taught his fifth-, sixth- and middle-school classes the art of launching and catching a flying disc since the start of the school year.

Shaw, an avid disc golf player, wanted to get his students away from tablets, cellphones and other distractions and get them more physically active as part of the school’s physical fitness program.

The students first learned to throw on the original 12.25-inch Wham-O Frisbee disc which weighed in at between 8 and 10 ounces. Once the students mastered the larger disc, it was on to the small and lighter ultimate disc which is 10 inches and weighs in at 6.2 ounces. Shaw’s students would soon take to throwing these discs whenever they got a chance, either in the gyms when the weather was bad or outdoors when the weather was sunny.

Sometime around the late 1870s, in the town of Warren, Conn., a baker by the name of William Frisbie (original spelling) sold homemade pies in and around Connecticut. Frisbie packed his delights in a light tin baking pan with the name of his company, “Frisbie Pie Company” stamped on the bottom of it. Soon his pies became popular treats with the students at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. One problem with the tins was what to do with them once the pies were gone.

In the 1940s, some of the Yale students found an ingenious use for the leftover pie tins. They turned the pans upside down and began throwing and catching them all the while shouting “Frisbie” as the pans sailed through the air — thus the birth of the popular flying disc.

Today there is a growing movement around the country involving the discs and a metal-chain-clad goal.

There are three basic discs used in the sport. There is a driver disc used for long-distance shots, a mid-range disc used for mid-to-short-range shots, and a putter disc used for shots into the goal.

There are two basic types of disc golf courses, a nine-hole and an 18-hole. Decatur’s Veterans Park includes a nine-hole course that boasts one of the longest holes in the country, and the Old Town Park in Gravette is one of the most challenging in the area. Gentry also has a disc course.

In mid-January, the Decatur School District purchased a complete nine-hole Frisbee golf course complete with goals, several complete disc sets and bags. Current plans are to design and build a nine-hole course around the middle and high school and behind Bulldog Stadium. A completion date has not been set.