What do you think of this fact?
A plastic disc, a park, a dog sprinting after it. The Frisbee looks like something straight out of a toy lab. But its name comes from a bakery.
Pies from Bridgeport
According to the New England Historical Society, William Russell Frisbie founded the Frisbie Pie Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1871. Business was good: according to the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), at its 1956 peak the company baked 80,000 pies a day. The pies came in metal tins that carried a 10 cent deposit, according to the New England Historical Society.
And here’s where the legend comes in: students at Yale and other colleges are said to have thrown the empty tins. To warn the catcher, they shouted “Frisbie!”. The New England Historical Society explicitly calls this lore, and WFDF tells the story the same way.
Plastic instead of tin
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Walter Frederick “Fred” Morrison was working on a plastic flying disc. According to Sky History, he developed it in 1948 with Warren Franscioni. Morrison later sold an improved version called the “Pluto Platter”, riding the UFO craze of the time.
In the mid-1950s, the toy company Wham-O bought the rights from him. Sources give 1956 or 1957. According to Sky History, Wham-O’s first discs came off the line on 23 January 1957.
One name, one letter off
In 1958, Wham-O renamed the disc “Frisbee”. Sky History says explicitly that this misspelled the pie company’s name: “Frisbie” became “Frisbee”. According to the New England Historical Society, the Frisbie Pie Company closed its doors that same year. WFDF says the “Frisbee” trademark was registered in 1959.
Bonus fact: In 1972, Rutgers and Princeton played the first intercollegiate Ultimate Frisbee game, and Rutgers won 29 to 27.
According to WFDF, more than 100 million flying discs have been sold worldwide. The bakery didn’t live to see it, but its name is still flying.