In 1937 when Fred Morrison was seventeen years old, he and his girlfriend began tossing the lid of a popcorn container to each other. Even after Fred and Lucile got married, they continued playing with the popcorn lids. Then they discovered that metal cake pans flew better and began tossing those.
One day the couple was playing with a cake pan on the beach when a stranger saw them and offered them a quarter for it. That got them thinking. Morrison had paid five cents for the cake pan and the stranger bought it for a quarter. That meant it could turn into a business. He tweaked the cake pan’s design and renamed it the “Whirlo-Way.” Then he called it the “Flyin’ Saucer.” He finally settled on the “Pluto Platter.” He sold it to toy manufacturer Wham-O and marketed it at fairs. It was an immediate hit.
Wham-O changed the name of the toy to “Frisbee,” a nod to the popular New England pastime of tossing around pie plates from the Frisbie Pie Company. The toy company sold the first Frisbie on this date in 1957.
Morrison hated the new name. He said, “I thought the name was a horror. Terrible.” But after the royalties began pouring in, making him a millionaire, he changed his mind. He later said he wouldn’t consider changing that name he had hated.
From casual play at family picnics, the Frisbee evolved into an organized sport. In 1965, George Sappenfield was playing golf when he thought that kids on playgrounds could play golf using Frisbees. A Frisbee golf tournament was the beginning of organized disc golf. The Professional Disc Golf Association started up in 1975.
Disc golf has become popular in North Dakota, which is ranked as a good state for the game, with many courses across the state. And with the minimal expense for equipment, it’s easily accessible for beginners. And for those who really get into it, there’s the North Dakota state championship, which was first held in 2001.
Dakota Datebook by Carole Butcher
Sources:
- Time Magazine. “How the Frisbee Got Off the Ground.” https://time.com/3667058/frisbee-history/ Accessed 12/7/2023.
- Professional Disc Golf Association. “Brief History of Disc Golf and the PDGA.” https://www.pdga.com/history Accessed 12/7/2023.
- UDisc. “North Dakota, United States.” https://udisc.com/places/north-dakota-united-states#! Accessed 12/7/2023.
- OK Disc Golfer. “North Dakota’s Best Disc Golf Courses.” https://okdiscgolfer.com/best-disc-golf-courses-in-north-dakota/ Accessed 12/7/2023.
