Pie Before Frisbee

Be thankful for... pilgrims pie. Eating dessert pie = historically accurate way to honor the Frisbee popularity.

Frisbie, a piemaker in Connecticut in the late 1800s, supplied pies to Connecticut retailers and restaurants, including the Yale University campus. Students there learned the empty metal pie pans made excellent throwing discs, and began tossing them to each other outside on the campus lawn.

Fred Morrison's flying disc invention was patented and eventually marketed in 1957 under the name of Pluto Platters.

Students, however, still called the discs, Frisbies, after the pie company name stamped into the bottom of the tin. Recognizing the built in name recognition, the co-founder of Wham-O, Richard Knerr, changed the name to Frisbee. With the spelling slightly altered, "Frisbee" sales soared.

Related Post: History Lesson.