The frisbee was invented by students at Yale University in 1947, who played with aluminium pie plates, which they discovered had amazing aerodynamic qualities when thrown to each other. These came from a Bridgeport baker, Joseph Frisbie, whose Frisbie Pie Company was a regular supplier to the University.
In 1948 a young American just out of the army, Walter Frederick Morrison, applied for a patent for a similar disc in plastic. It is said the idea originated when Morrison and his wife began flinging pie tins to one another on the beach.
On January 23, 1957 Morrison sold the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, (inventors of the hula- hoop). Called at first the “Toy Flying Saucer”, they changed its name to the Frisbee disc, having heard about the origins of the game,
A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc's surface--called the Rings--to stabilize flight.
After Headrick died in 2002, he was cremated and turned into several frisbees. It was his dying wish. One was thrown on the roof of his memorial museum as a sign of respect.
Three students at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball in 1968, initially as a joke. One of the students was Joel Silver, who later became producer for some of the greatest action movie franchises of all time (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Matrix, etc).
By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O had sold over 100 million of its famous toy by 1977.
In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets; there are now hundreds of courses in America with millions of devotees.
When a flaming object fell on a picnic table in Mississauga, Ontario on June 16, 1979, it drew worldwide attention and speculation as to its true nature. It was eventually revealed that the object, described as a flat, dark green rock with a diameter of 8 inches was a frisbee thrown by the neighbor as a prank.
The official Frisbee is now owned by Mattel Inc. who purchased it from Wham-O in 1994.
In 1948 a young American just out of the army, Walter Frederick Morrison, applied for a patent for a similar disc in plastic. It is said the idea originated when Morrison and his wife began flinging pie tins to one another on the beach.
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| Walter Frederick Morrison promoting his Pluto Platters, forerunner of the Frisbee. |
On January 23, 1957 Morrison sold the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, (inventors of the hula- hoop). Called at first the “Toy Flying Saucer”, they changed its name to the Frisbee disc, having heard about the origins of the game,
A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc's surface--called the Rings--to stabilize flight.
After Headrick died in 2002, he was cremated and turned into several frisbees. It was his dying wish. One was thrown on the roof of his memorial museum as a sign of respect.
Three students at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball in 1968, initially as a joke. One of the students was Joel Silver, who later became producer for some of the greatest action movie franchises of all time (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Matrix, etc).
By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O had sold over 100 million of its famous toy by 1977.
In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets; there are now hundreds of courses in America with millions of devotees.
When a flaming object fell on a picnic table in Mississauga, Ontario on June 16, 1979, it drew worldwide attention and speculation as to its true nature. It was eventually revealed that the object, described as a flat, dark green rock with a diameter of 8 inches was a frisbee thrown by the neighbor as a prank.
The official Frisbee is now owned by Mattel Inc. who purchased it from Wham-O in 1994.
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