Frisbee. A customers’ invention.

Origins

What do you do when your girlfriend’s uncle invites you for a Thanksgiving Day Celebration, later decide to move the after party to the backyard and the host produces a popcorn can lid to toss about for fun? You can either create an errand that was never there to disappear from the scene. Or join in the fun, which is exactly what Fred Morrison did. In 1937 there was no social media, no Instagram to show your peers what a cool guy you are that you get invited by your girlfriend’s uncle, or Facebook to pinpoint your location and show the world and whoever cares that you are part of the family. No twitter hashtags for friends to come and rescue you from a boring party. Hashtag #comerescueme – just imagine.

Fred was in the right place at the right time. He’s always had a passion for trying out al sorts of flat objects to see how they would sail through the air, including paint can lids, pie tins, and cake pans. The party was not so boring after all. For the next few weeks, Fred and Lu, his girlfriend, continued to get together to flip that lid until it became beat up, sharp-edged, and dangerous. They had to get rid of it eventually before one of them loses their fingers. To continue their activity Fred borrowed his mom’s cake pan. After having moved their pan-tossing activity to the nearby shore, a beachgoer was so fascinated by this that he offered to buy their cake pan for a quarter. A lightbulb moment. Soon flying cake pans were available at beaches and parks all over Los Angeles. The proceeds funded dates and eventually a wedding ring.

Flying cake pans were the new craze. Fred and his father tinkered with the idea of producing better version of his new invention out of custom-formed sheet metal. But then along came World War Two. Fred enlisted in the Army Air Corp and flew missions over Italy in a P-47 Fighter Bomber. This experience gave him new insights on the aerodynamics of flight, and once out of service, a new inspiration kicked in.

In 1946 he drafted a brand new design for a flying disc and called it the “Whirlo-Way” – after the champion racehorse. At the time Fred was moving their growing family about while searching for work as a carpenter. He took a job working for Warren Franscioni who had a business installing butane heating systems in the California area. Warren was also a WWII pilot and took a liking to flipping cake pans with Fred.

After Fred shared his Whirlo-Way drawing with him, they decided to explore manufacturing the product but take advantage of the newly-developed plastic injection process instead of metal. A partnership was born and the agreement was that Warren would fund the development and they would both contribute to the sales and promotion of their new product. In the late 1947 their new business, PIPCO, was born. By March 1948 Southern California Plastics was molding the first colourful batches of the very first plastic flying discs. But instead of the Whirlo-Way, “Flyin-Saucer” was tooled into the mold to take advantage of the public’s fascination with the U.F.O reports that had begun grabbing headlines in early 1947. Cheesy. This is proof that using trends as marketing tools started long before smartphones were invented, let alone social media.

Despite relentless effort by the PIPCO duo, Flyin-Saucers didnʼt take off. Direct sales to the public at various fairs and events were effective, but limited, and not cost-effective. Attempts to promote sales through stores or wholesale representatives were unsuccessful and by February 1950, Fred had had enough. He gave up his half-interest in PIPCO and never again had any contact with Warren. The business idea had dismally failed. It was eventually shelved by Warren.

By 1954 Fred Morrison yearned to augment his income by selling saucers again in his spare time and decided to contact SCP to find out if Flyin-Saucers were still available. He learned they were and placed several orders, but soon discovered that producing his own disc from a brand new mold would be much more profitable than continuing to buy them from SCP.

In early 1955 Fred sat down at his kitchen table and designed the disc that would prove to be the archetype for the modern plastic flying disc. The media was all abuzz with talk of future space travel. Fred wanted a name that was “spacey.” Pluto was the last planet discovered…what would euphoniously go with “Pluto”? A platter was disc-shaped. “Pluto Platter” it was! Lu added the instructions: “Flat Flip Flies Straight–Tilted Flip Curves, Experiment!”

Pluto Platters began sailing at fairs on weekends promoted by Fred and Lu through their new business: American Trends Co. Sales were so vigorous over the next two years that they caught the attention of Rich Knerr and Spud Melin, owners of Wham-O, who manufactured slingshots, crossbows, and boomerangs, but were interested in breaking into the burgeoning popular toy market.

After weeks of negotiation, Fred and Lu reached an agreement with Rich and Spud on January 23, 1957 (Fredʼs birthday) to allow Wham-O full control of manufacturing and sales promotion of the Pluto Platter in exchange for royalties on all future sales.

A few months later,apparently Rich Knerr learned that college students back on the East Coast were calling the Pluto Platter a different name: Frisbee. Being a passionate sportsman, it seems likely that Rich read about this in a May 13, 1957 article in Sports Illustrated about the new fad of flying discs. The article doesnʼt mention the Frisbie Pie Company at all. In fact it states, “Nobody at Princeton seems to know who named the Frisbee, or why.” Regardless of the unknown source, Rich liked the name, and, if it would help sell more of his new Pluto Platters, what the hell, heʼd call them Frisbees, too! By June 17th Wham-O did.

The rest, as they say, is history.

 

Frisbee Games

1.  Ultimate Frisbee – a competitive non-contact team sport where the object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a team member in the opposing team’s end zone. Players may not run while holding the disc. Catching is done with one hand or both hands on the rim or with hands simultaneously on the top and bottom, sometimes referred to as a clap-catch. When one-hand catching on the rim, care must always be taken in hand placement and making sure to catch on the correct side of the disc, according to which way the disc is spinning. One side will tend to spin out of your hand, while the other side will spin into your hand, making for a more secure catch. Many players avoid this problem by catching with both hands when possible.
2. Disc Golf – Disc golf is a game based on the rules of golf (referred to by disc golfers as “ball and stick golf”). It uses discs smaller and denser than an ultimate disc. The discs are thrown towards a target, which serves as the “hole”. The official targets are metal baskets with hanging chains to catch the discs.
3. Urban Disc Golf – Before there were standardized targets called pole holes, disc golf used to be played in parks and urban settings using natural objects as targets. In some cases courses were created by the players themselves as they played, with each player taking turns determining targets and throwing designations (mandatories and out of bounds).
4. Freestyle Play – Disc freestyle, also known as freestyle Frisbee in reference to the trademarked brand name, is a sport and performing art characterized by creative, acrobatic, and athletic maneuvers with a flying disc. Freestyle is performed individually or more commonly in groups, both competitively and recreationally. In the early 1970s before the invention of the “nail-delay”, freestyle catching possibilities would depend on the throw you were given; it was always spontaneous and unpredictable. Play with this type of freestyle was performed with two players standing 30-40 yards apart. The throws were fast and varied, and the catches were right off the throw, except for the occasional kick or slap-up and rarely a pause between the catch and the throw back. At advanced levels, the throws and catches would become a flow that was created once you mastered the basics. It was fast and fluid and visibly would resemble martial arts and dance.
5. Guts – Guts or Guts Frisbee is a disc sport inspired by dodgeball, involving teams throwing a flying disc (rather than balls) at members of the opposing team. One to five team members stand in a line facing the opposing team across the court, with the two teams lined up parallel to each other. Which team begins play is determined “flipping the disc”, an action similar to a coin toss, but using the disc itself. One member of the team is then selected to start play.
6. Double Disc Court – Double disc court (DDC) invented and introduced by Frisbee Hall of Fame inductee Jim Palmeri of Rochester, NY, is a sport played with two flying discs. Two teams of two players each stand in their own courts. The goal is to defend a court from an attack by the opposing team.
7. Canine Disc – Canine Disc (or dog disc) is a dog sport and a disc sport. In canine disc competitions, dogs and their human flying disc throwers compete in events such as distance catching and somewhat choreographed freestyle catching. The sport celebrates the bond between handler and dog, by allowing them to work together.

 

The Frisbee, though may be a simple invention, has embraced the essence of toy-making, which is to create what people want. As a result of that, many other sporting events have been born out of it. People have been throwing things at one another since time immemorial but Frisbee took a popular fad and turned into a safe product that would later sell millions of units. A fun outdoor activity that will keep rising. Frisbee is not about to come crashing down, not anytime soon.

 

References:

http://www.flatflip.com, http://www.wikipedia.com