David Leberknight
David Leberknight began playing footbag in 1980. In 1987, he attended his first World Footbag Championships. This was during footbag’s first major explosion in popularity, thanks to the work of earlier pioneers John Stalberger, Mike Marshall, Ted Huff, Garwin Bruce, and Wham-O buying the brand and creating a fad with it.
David played a wide variety of footbag disciplines, including footbag net, freestyle footbag, doubles net, and footbag golf. He was also an early pioneer in creating multi-panel footbags (many with 182 panels).
His primary footbag club was the legendary Wash Park footbag group in Denver, Colorado. They interacted a great deal with fellow Colorado footbag icons Bruce Guettich and Greg Cortopassi who ran the legendary World Footbag Association (WFA). David was a key figure during the 80s and 90s incarnation of the group. The Colorado scene (Wash Park and the WFA) carried footbag in this time, hosting and sponsoring many of the sport’s largest events including the World Footbag Championships. David is now part of the Footbag Lovers of Wellington (New Zealand) crew, otherwise known as FLoW Aotearoa.
He was inspired by many of the sport’s top players in the 80s, including world freestyle champion and Footbag Hall of Famer Rippin’ Rick Reese. Early Danish footbag stitchers (footbag sewers) were also a large inspiration to him.
David played and promoted the sport of footbag for multiple decades, from the 1980s to current day (2020s). He amassed many achievements in this time, including;
- At the 1993 Western Regionals footbag tournament, he took first in Intermediate Freestyle and second in Intermediate Net. This was one of the largest and most prestigious footbag events at the time. After this, he only competed in the Open category.
-A personal consecutive kicking record of 12345 kicks.
-The highest-altitude record for playing footbag. This was documented in the 1990 Footbag World magazine (volume 7, number 2), called Rally atop the Andres. He kicked at an elevation of 22834 ft (6959 meters). The photograph taken of him kicking in his mountain gear has become iconic over the years.
-Founding Funky Footbags brand, and stitching many multi-paneled footbags (plus thousands of cheaper footbags too). He also sold the popular brand Sipa-Sipa to retail stores, and at hundreds of Grateful Dead shows and other festivals.
Leberknight is one of the most well-traveled footbag players in history, having visited 85 countries with his footbags. He often taught people to kick or sew while traveling.
In 2018, he led a crew of kiwis to Myanmar and played chinlone, which is their version of footbag (video). He remains in New Zealand and plays footbag, sepak takraw, and chinlone regularly, decades after his humble beginnings in the sport.
Whether by traveling, attending events, making and distributing footbags, or working behind the scenes, David has promoted and advanced public knowledge of footbag for the majority of his life. For this, he was inducted into the Footbag Hall of Fame in 2023.
David Leberknight