13th January: Frisbees

The Wham-O Company developed the first frisbee on this date in 1957. The word Frisbee is a registered trademark of the Wham-O company. Although it is generally used to describe any similar toy, unless they are made by Wham-O they should be referred to as "flying discs."

1. The first frisbees were Cake tins. The inventor, Fred Morrison, was playing on a California beach with a cake tin he had bought for five cents - he and his wife were throwing it back and forth to one another. It looked so much fun that people who had been watching them came up and offered him 25 cents for the cake tin. That was when he realised there was a business opportunity.
2. Early names for the toy were Whirlo-Way, Flyin’ Saucer, Pluto Platter and Flyin’ Cake Pans.
3. The name Frisbee was coined by students after the Frisbie Pie Company. Wham-O, who had bought the rights from Fred Morrison, quickly adopted the name. Fred Morrison hated the name at first, but changed his mind when the royalty payments started rolling in.
4. The name wasn't the only reason for the toy's success. Marketing was key as well. The man responsible for that was Edward Headrick, head of marketing a Wham-O. When he died, he was cremated and his ashes were made into frisbees for his family and close friends.
5. In the early days, people found it hard to believe that it was possible to make a frisbee hover by the skill of the throw alone, without using wires. Salesmen took advantage of that. When demonstrating it they would say, "The Flyin-Saucer is free, but the invisible wire is $1."
6. The longest recorded disc throw is by Simon Lizotte with a distance of 263.2 meters.
7. There is a team sport played with frisbees instead of a ball. It is called Ultimate, and it has been demonstrated that it requires a higher cardiovascular fitness level than any other field game.
8. The game was invented by a high school student in 1969. His name was Joel Silver - he went on to be a film producer and is known for producing the Matrix trilogy.
9. Other games played using a frisbee include Disc Golf (throwing a disc at a series of targets - there are 700 Disc Golf courses in the U.S.); guts (the oldest disc game where teams of people throw discs at each other - so called because according to legend, before frisbees were invented they'd use circular saw blades); Polish horseshoes (throwing a frisbee at a bottle on a stick - the rules state that while throwing, the players must hold a drink in one hand) and disc dog (humans throwing specially designed frisbees for their dogs to catch).
10. Flying discs made before 1964 are considered antiques by collectors.