Who Invented Frisbee?

Who invented the Frisbee? Many inventions only have one or two creators but in the instance of Frisbee, there are multiple claims or stories underlying its creation. Today’s Frisbee evolved from ’s pie tins. Many say that university students in New England had fun with the unused pie tins by flinging and catching it. For a more suitable history of Frisbee, here are some of the highlights.

1820 – There was an undergrad Yale student named Elihu Frisbie who tinkered with tray collections by flinging them around the campus. According to some people, ‘Frisbee’ was coined from Elihu’s last name; the ‘ie’ of Frisbie was modified to ‘ee’ and became Frisbee. Even though this was the most agreed claim, still it met a lot of disapproval.

1871-1958 – as mentioned earlier, Frisbee seemed to be considered to have came from . The name of this company had been engraved on the pie tins they dropped off at the grounds of New England. Frisbee is then derived from the name of the pie business. Scores university students cherished the pies and once they consume the pies, they practice with the used tins by hurling and catching them. A lot of students found the overall game enormously funny and interesting and so it grew to become very popular in lots of campuses in New England.

1948 – 2 of the fans of the ‘pie tins’ made a plastic material version and they referred to it Pluto-platter. It was distributed as a toy in the market and it acquired a lot of sales since UFOs were also quite fashionable that time. The individuals responsible for making the plastic material variety of the Frisbee were Warren Franscioni and Walter Frederick Morrison. Though, Franscioni quit and it was only Morrison who went after the plan. Several people thought that the Pluto-platter was far enhanced than the pie tins and so they patronized it. Besides, the new toy flew higher than the pie tins and it exhibited speed and accuracy. Soon, Morrison had his toy patented and named it the ‘Morrison Slope’.

1955 – A hula hoop manufacturer, Wham-O, convinced Morrison to sell his design and rights to the toy.

1957 – By this year, Wham-O started to produce the Pluto-platter

1958 – The pie company, Frisbie Baking Company, closed or shut down; in the same year, Morrison was able to collect millions of dollars for his design

1964 – The sales of the Pluto-platter went down and so Wham-O decided to rename it and then re-introduce it to the market as a new toy. The company found out about the story of the Frisbee and so they decided to introduce the toy as a new sports game and called it ‘frisbei-ing’. The players of the game called it Frisbee.

At present, there are already different many kinds of Frisbee and Ultimate Frisbee is just one of them. Ultimate Frisbee came from ‘frisbei-ing’.

So you see, Frisbee has gone through a lot of changes and modifications. There is no specific inventor of the game or sport because it was generated through the joint efforts of a mixture of individuals and companies. The years 1820 to 1964 are quite significant because it is within these years when Frisbee was being conceptualized.

Frisbee is a very exciting game and it helps to know who created or invented it. The game would not exist today if one of the companies or individuals is missing. Thanks to their joint efforts, people today have a healthy and challenging sport to play.