And thus, a landmark toy was born
January 23, 2017 by Steve Hill in Livewire, News with 0 comments
Sixty years ago today, on January 23, 1957, Wham-O acquired the rights to Walter Morrison’s Pluto Platter, paving the way for flying discs to become one of the world’s most popular toys.
But where did the name “Frisbee” come from? As the World Flying Disc Federation’s history of today’s significance tells it, Wham-O heads heard the term being tossed around during a tour of Ivy League colleges, and in June 1957 they changed the name to the Wham-O Frisbee. Now, more than 100 million of those flying discs have been sold, and a culture surrounding disc sports — including disc golf, ultimate, and freestyle — looms large in our culture.
In a bit of serendipity, today is also National Pie Day. With the sport of Frisbee originally tracing some of its origins to those same east coast college students tossing around empty tins from Connecticut’s Frisbie Pie Company, it all lines up quite nicely.
