As you may have heard, Walter Frederick Morrison, the inventor of the Frisbee recently died.
When I read about the Frisbee’s birth, I realized that we actually have our old friend pie to thank for the toy.
It apparently dawned on Morrison that people may want to buy a saucer-like toy to throw around when he was throwing a pie tin with his girlfriend on the beach (some sources say it was a cake pan, but whatever, if it’s round and aluminum, it’s a pie tin).
While they were throwing around the pie tin, a man approached Morrison and offered him 25 cents for the pie tin (which only cost him 5 cents).
Further proof that we would not have the Frisbee without pie is found in the fact that the brand name “Frisbee” actually comes from a Connecticut pie-maker – the Frisbie Pie Company.
Like Morrison, and far before his official invention, college students in New England (some attribute it to Yale) would use empty pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Company to toss around.
Wham-O would eventually adopt the Frisbie-name and change the spelling to what it is today.
So, next time you’re playing Frolf with your friends, take a moment to thank Mr. Morrison, bored New England college students from the 19th century… and most of all, pie.
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