New haven fun facts : Frisbees!

A flying disc is a disc-shaped gliding toy or sporting item that is generally plastic and roughly 20 to 25 centimetres (8 to 10 in) in diameter with a lip, used recreationally and competitively for throwing and catching, for example, in flying disc games. The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to fly by generating lift as it moves through the air while spinning. The term Frisbee, often used to generically describe all flying discs, is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company.

The  Frisbie Baking Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, made pies that were sold throughout New England. Hungry college students soon discovered that the empty pie tins could be tossed and caught, providing endless hours of game and sport. Many colleges claim to be the home of ‘he who was first to fling’ what became the Frisbee, but many attribute it to Yalies making a game of throwing the pie tin on The Green.

Another tale of the first frisbie fling – in 1827, a Yale undergraduate  grabbed a passing collection tray from the chapel and flung it out into the campus, thereby becoming the true inventor of the Frisbee. This student’s supposed name? Elihu Frisbie.  This tale is often disputed because the pie tins had “Frisbie” stamped on them.

The inventor of the Frisbee, Walter Frederick Morrison (always known as ‘Fred’) was born on January 23, 1920.On his 37th birthday, on January 23, 1957, he sold the rights to his invention to the Wham-O toy company, which later gave it the name ‘Frisbee’.

Morrison had the frisbee idea as a teenager throwing lard popcorn tin lids with his girlfriend.He later discovered that cake pans were better than lard can lids and he developed a business called “Flyin’ Cake Pans”.Later names he gave to the disc were Whirlo-Way, Flyin’ Saucer and Pluto Platter.

The Wham-O company changed the name when it learnt that students were calling them ‘Frisbie’ after pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Company.Morrison, who died in 2010, was the uncle of Colonel Steve Warr, who is the fifth highest-ranked pole-vaulter in the world aged 70-74.

The worldwide database of the European Patent Office lists 84 frisbee-related patents.These include an Underwater Frisbee Golf Disc Locator and a Multipurpose Frisbee for Dogs.At his own request, Morrison was cremated and his ashes moulded into frisbees for his family.

• Ultimate Frisbee ( International Game )

Now, they are many kind of activities that can be held with frisbee. One of it is Ultimate Frisbee which is kind of competition mainly held in US.Ultimate has come a long way since it's days as being perceived as a counter-culture activity bore during the 1970's.

It's now a sport with an international governing body, several tournaments, and it is likely to be added to the Summer Olympics.

• The end zones in Ultimate are twice as big as those in football

While covering almost the same amount of area as a football field, the actual playing field of ultimate is thirty years shorter because each end-zones being twenty-five yards deep.

On the international level, the end-zone size is shortened to about twenty yards. Both fields are forty yards wide, whereas a football field is around fifty-three and a half yards wide. 

• Some cool tricks you can do with frisbee