On January 23, 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs—now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.
The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
In 1958, a year after the toy’s first release, Wham-O—the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle—changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company. 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. By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million units of its famous toy by 1977.
High school students in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball, in 1967. In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets; there are now hundreds of courses in the U.S., with millions of devotees. There is also Freestyle Frisbee, with choreographed routines set to music and multiple discs in play, and various Frisbee competitions for both humans and dogs–the best natural Frisbee players.
Today, at least 60 manufacturers produce the flying discs—generally made out of plastic and measuring roughly 20-25 centimeters (8-10 inches) in diameter with a curved lip. The official Frisbee is owned by Mattel Toy Manufacturers, who bought the toy from Wham-O in 1994.
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Greynolds park was the weekend hangout. We’d get stoned in the tree lined trails and toss the frizz in the open grassy areas for hours. 168g, yeah!
Just reminiscing about a distant fun filled youth.
Tanks for the mammaries…
Specific to this topic, a few thoughts.
Frisbee is one of the greatest sporting projectiles to ever be invented, IMHO.
The cheap knock offs don’t sail nearly as well as an authentic Wham-O brand.
Like a football, it takes a skill set, to become proficient using one.
It’s all in the wrist action. . . snapping, at the point of release, at just the right moment, and the angle is crucial, for long distance.
Man, when I was in my early 20’s, some 35 years ago, we would throw those things around at a park, while enjoying Summer picnics, drinking, bar-b-cue-ing, and it was a hoot.
Being a decent athlete with good speed and coordination, I used to run down and catch long throws, and often leapt high in the air to snag an errant throw.
Couple of weeks ago I was browsing through some old photos, and I have one of me in that setting, at the top of a vertical jump, extended arms, catching a disc, with sun rays raining down, and me wearing nothing but a pair of skimpy gym shorts.
Alas, that was the setting, in a captured moment in time, before the accident.
We were doing that in a local county Park that had multiple lakes, beaches, and picnic areas. The area we were in was lakeside, but was specifically posted as no swimming allowed, for some reason. It wasn’t a dedicated beach.
After too many cans of suds, and Frisbee throwing, running around, I was hot and sweaty. The water beckoned, for a quick dip.
Have you ever gone running and charging into a lake, high-stepping over the water surface until about knee level, and then you dive forward?
I did one of those maneuvers, but, the dive ended with a violent thud. Full stop. Head first. Knocked me for a loop. Hurt like a MFer.
I stood up, dazed and confused, wondering WTF I ran into.
The water was dark and murky. Couldn’t see anything, and so had to feel for it.
What I felt, and lifted out of the water was a full size wooden and steel braced picnic table.
I speculated that on a previous sweltering hot day, that 3 or 4 drunk fat asses dragged it from the picnic area, sank it in the shallow part of the water, then sat down to lazily relax, and cool off a bit.
They never removed it, and pulled it back out of the water.
Might have been waterlogged, and too heavy. Who knows.
What I do remember is, I had one helluva neck singer for three days, besides a headache. But, by the grace of God, I walked away, and am extremely lucky to not be a quadraplegic.
Later on,
For the last 35 years, I’ve had lower back pain, and found a good chiropractor.
When I was still playing competitive softball, as an outfielder, I used to have a rocket arm, for throwing out runners headed home, from deep left center field defensive position.
At 40 years old, all of a sudden, I couldn’t throw a ball like that anymore.
A strong heave would go 20 feet, and fall well short of my target. And, it felt like an ice pick was buried in my throwing shoulder.
Back to the chiro.
Original diagnosis: a dislocated shoulder or torn rotator cuff.
“Let’s take an x-ray of your neck”
OK.
Clips the pic to a viewing screen, his jaw drops, and he asks me what the hell happened to my neck?
I tell him the diving accident story about the lazy wader drinkers who sank a picnic table below the surface.
His exact words: “them fuckers”
Then he showed me the damage.
Cervical vertebrae C3,C4,C5 have compact damage, distortion from the natural form.
He did a neck adjustment, and I returned to form, with throwing skills.
I had a pinched nerve in that area that affected my throwing shoulder function.
Epilogue:
Still active with sports to this day, approaching sixty.
Not as fluid, or as strong, but still at it.
A bit more rickety, with more aches and pains, but generally speaking, am in pretty good health.
And express gratitude to the man upstairs, every time I lace up a pair of skates or running shoes.
Oh, and can still throw a Frisbee around, with decent enough skill.
Near my current residence, there is a city park that has a disc golf course.
I’ve never tried playing it.
Maybe should try it one day.
Ain’t getting any younger, but am a bit slower.
Thanks for reading.
The sharp ones round here will know who I am.
~Cheers, and carpe diem, y’all
A neighborhood buddy I’ve known since 1969 and I used to throw the Fris back and forth across the street. Traffic was infrequent enough for that. We’d use one of the bigger ones – glow in the dark. Perfect for the summer dusk. Beats the hell out of Snapchat.
Dogs love ’em. Plastic version of the discus so not a new concept,was around long before 1957.