The idea for a disc golf course at Illinois Valley Community College began with Mr. Wes Black and fellow faculty member, Mr. Ryen Nagle. In the fall of 2008, Mr. Nagle and Mr. Black approached the college with the idea of putting a disc golf course somewhere on the campus. Although a site was not originally designated, the idea for the course was approved pending budgetary requirements, etc.
Eventually, after various areas were pondered, the current site was deemed most worthy for a course location. This area of campus had at one time been part of farm fields that were later left to grow wild as it did for a few decades. Even before the site was prepped and a design could be done, nine baskets arrived on campus from Innova in the fall of 2009.
Then, in the spring of 2010, the IVCC grounds crew arranged for much of the brush, saplings, and undergrowth to be taken down by farm machinery and with that accomplished, the design phase for the course began. However, the lead designer, Mr. Nagle, an experienced disc golfer with some design experience, had taken new employment at Moraine Valley C.C., but fortunately, Ryen Nagle's father, Dan Nagle, an IVCC alumnus (1973-75) with disc golf design experience of his own, stepped in and came up with most of the design that now exists for the course. Ottawa resident, Dana Vicich, lent valuable advise, and Mr. Black offered several tips of his own.
With the design phase complete, the finishing touches needed to be applied to the site, so Dan Nagle and Wes Black went to work pruning hundreds of bushes and trees, removing stumps, and clearing rocks and stones. After several weeks of labor the course was ready to be installed.
IVCC workers, using a power auger, drilled holes for the baskets as a crew of volunteers including Dana Vicich (Ottawa, IL), Sean Cook (Ottawa, IL), Nick Rapp (Princeton, IL), Wes Black (IVCC), and Dan Nagle (Normal, IL) followed behind pouring concrete and assembling/installing the baskets.
Later, temporary course signs were made by Mr. Black. Then, Mr. Black and Dan Nagle installed the signs and the landscape timbers which designate the eighteen different tee pad areas of the course. When that was finished the IVCC ground crew returned to do some mowing and weed killing (poison ivy mainly) and the course was ready for play.
In early June 2010, the first rounds were played at the course and it has seen a brisk level of activity ever since.
