Origin of the Name: Frisbee

The name may have a modern ring to it, but even if we ignore the fact that the Ancient Greeks were throwing spinning discs at the Olympics well over two thousand years ago, the Frisbee turns out to have been around for longer than you might think.

Back in the late nineteenth century, college students at Yale and other New England universities took to playing catch with pie tins made by the Frisbie Baking Company, based nearby in Bridgeport, Connecticut. To alert their fellows of the imminent risk of decapitation, the students would shout out the name of the product as it sailed through the air.

They were still doing this in 1948 when Walter Morrison and Warren Franscioni created a plastic version called the Pluto Platter and started selling it at country fairs. The toy fitted in perfectly with America’s growing fascination with UFOs. In 1955, Morrison and Franscioni sold their company to Arthur ‘Spud’ Melin and Richard Knerr, the inventors of the Hula Hoop. Three years later, the new owners renamed the product the Frisbee in homage to its roots. By the time they sold their Wham-O company to Mattel, sales had exceeded 100 million units.