An all-freshmen tandem known as the Four Stooges spends their afternoons on the Quad or Rec fields working hard to hone their craft: throwing flying discs.
One of the Stooges, Preston Thompson, a music administration major, has been playing the sport since sixth grade.
“We come out here and like to do this on our free time,” Thompson said.
Craig Lenoir, Daniel Tylka and Andrew Wick are the other three of the Four Stooges.
The group specializes in trick throws into trashcans, and Tylka, an electrical engineering major, said the group practices these all over campus. Shots have included throws down the Walk of Champions and the steps leading into Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library.
“On average, it takes us about five to 10 minutes to get a trick down like [the shot down the stairs of Gorgas],” Thompson said. “The harder ones might take 30 minutes.”
The Four Stooges have recently been in the spotlight on campus because of a popular video showcasing their talents.
The video, titled “Alabama Ultimate Trick Shots,” shows the group doing various tricks, such as throwing a flying disc from the top of a campus parking deck to a garbage can below, throwing one down a flight of stairs into a can and ricocheting a disc off two walls to a trash receptacle three stories down.
“We just got our own trashcan, so now we can move around,” Thompson said.
It’s not all fun and games for these flying-disc enthusiasts. They also compete for the University on the official flying-disc club, the Alabama Ultimate Frisbee Team.
The team consists of 25 members with the same love for the sport as the Stooges, and the Alabama Ultimate Frisbee Team won the Gulf Coast Conference Championship last April in Tupelo, Miss.
“We are always looking for more people to come out and play on the team,” Thompson said.
When they are not competing against other SEC and regional schools, the Four Stooges most likely can be found practicing somewhere on campus.
“A lot of the time, we would just be hanging out and happen to have a couple Frisbees with us, and we’d be like, ‘look, there’s a trash can’,” said Lenoir, also an electrical engineering major.
