It’s How The Frisbee Was Invented

On this day in 1957, the Wham-O Toy Company began production of what we know today as the Frisbee. Within 20 years they had sold 100 million.

It was a time when kids found a way to use everyday things as a toy. And it starts with the Frisbie Pie Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut in the late 1800s. College students in town found another use for the empty pie tins – throwing them at each other and yelling “Frisbie!”

Mattel Toys owns the official rights to the name Frisbee after buying Wham-O Toys in 1994, but at least 60 companies produce basically what is a Frisbee. Legally they have to call them something else...usually they call them flying discs.

There’s a World Flying Disc Federation, and the World Ultimate Championships will be held in Italy in July. It’s a game that was invented by high school students in Maplewood, New Jersey in 1967.

Ultimate Frisbee is a non-contact, team sport. It’s played on a field about the same length as a football field, but narrower. Seven players on a team. The only way you can advance down the field is by throwing the Frisbee to another player on your team. You score when the Frisbee is caught in the other team’s end zone. If you throw the Frisbee and a teammate doesn’t catch it, possession goes to the other team.