MADISON, Wis. — German dog lover Marcus Wolff's introduction to the sport of Disc Drive reads like the profiles for most of the dozen entries in the debut event at the ESPN Great Outdoor Games.

He was on holiday at the beach tossing a Frisbee disc with wife, Sabine Bruns, when the idea to include the dog in the game came to mind. After returning home, an Internet search turned up a dozen sites on a sport that Wolff and his peers have found crosses all boundaries of breed and experience in the canine world.

That sport is called Disc Drive and two years later, Wolff and his dog Cato are the top-ranked team from the Great Outdoor Games International Disc Drive competition.

Of the dozen dogs competing in the Disc Drive event, seven have less than three years of experience in the sport. For most, the tie to competition began by chance. Such is the case with Ronnie Cole of La Mesa, Calif, and Annie, his yellow Labrador retriever.

Cole and Annie were playing fetch with a tennis ball when the thought occurred to him that his best friend would by instinct also retrieve the Frisbee he'd been tossing to a friend. His presumption was correct. That was last year. The fun remains but it also comes with the high stakes of going for the gold, silver and bronze medals up for grabs in the event's debut at the Great Outdoor Games.

Humans have been playing Frisbee since toymaker Wham-O invented the plastic-shaped disc in 1959. The origin of the canine connection is uncertain, although it gained nationwide notoriety in 1974, thanks to a stunt by Alex Stein.

During a nationally televised Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game, Stein and her dog Ashley rushed onto the field and performed during the seventh-inning stretch. They were later arrested, although the publicity garnered appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman" and other hit shows.

Compared to other Great Outdoor Games events, Disc Drive focuses more on having fun.

"Seeing and hanging out with friends is first," stresses podiatrist Darron Barrus who will compete with Hurricane, his Australian Shepherd. "Doing well and feeling good about performances is second. Winning is only the gravy."

The 12 teams qualified from around the world through a series of competitions sanctioned by the International Disc Dog Handlers' Association (IDDHA). Four qualifying events were held with the winner from each contest invited to the Great Outdoor Games, provided the team completed a throw of at least 55 meters (180 feet). The next nine teams qualified from the 2004 IDDHA Distance Ranking with the longest catch from any round making the cut.

The 12 teams will warm up on Saturday morning just as they do when playing Frisbee for fun in the park or on the beach. The scene at the Willow Island venue of the Alliant Energy Center in downtown Madison turns competitive at 7 p.m. That's when the action shifts to vying for gold, silver and bronze for the very first time in the sport's history.