People always remember their firsts – first word spoken, first step, tooth, love, and many other firsts. This is also true with the many inventions of man. If you’re into Frisbee, then you’re probably wondering about its history. Who invented Frisbee? When was it first played and by whom?
The Frisbee that many people know today was not exactly the same Frisbee that was thrown and played years ago. The design is incredibly ingenius and it started not as a plastic toy. Back then, it was believed that students played Frisbee using pie tins. The design of the Frisbee evolved through the years until it finally settled with the plastic design.
Back then, Frisbee has a different spelling but it was pronounced the same way. It was spelled Frisbie and it was derived from a company name and a person’s name. The Frisbie Baking Company was a very popular pie-producing company which supplied to most of the school and university campuses in New England. The pie company operated from 1871 to 1958 and the pies were put in pie tins with the name of the company at the bottom of the tin.
Since the students loved their pies, many were eating it and so they were left with lots of pie tins. The students were able to come up with a game they called ‘frisbie-ing’ and the pie tins were in turn called ‘frisbie’. In one of the campuses, there was also a student named Elihu Frisbie which played with tray collections (using it like Frisbee) on the school grounds. Some say that Frisbee was already coined from his surname.
Walter Frederick Morrison made a new version of the pie tins and made a plastic Frisbee but he did not call it by the name coined by the college students. Instead, he called it Pluto-platter because during that time, UFOs were very popular and intriguing. Indeed, his Pluto-platter was a sure hit and many people patronized it. Later on, he had it patented by the name Morrison Slope.
The Pluto-platter became extremely popular as a toy and Wham-O took an interest in it. They convinced Morrison to sell his rights and after that, the company produced the toy and called it by the same name. The sales declined after several years and the company wanted to re-introduce it to the market. They conducted thorough research about the toy until they finally came to know that it was originally called Frisbee.
When they finally decided to re-introduce Pluto-platter, they called it Frisbie and it was popularized as a sports or recreational game. They called the game ‘frisbei-ing’ but at present, it is already called ultimate Frisbee. Wham-O was also the one who changed ‘frisbie’ to Frisbee so that they can avoid possible lawsuits or any legality in the future.
If you try to analyze it, there is no specific date or a certain inventor. The years mentioned and the companies and individuals involved are all part of the sport’s improvement. The history tells so much about the Frisbee and you will learn a lot from it. You can’t disregard any of the companies or individuals involved in the Frisbee evolution because if one of them is missing, Frisbee will not exist today.
In order to better understand Frisbee, you must first know about its history. Now that you know its colorful history, you will surely enjoy playing it with your friends.
