HISTORY

On The Frisbee®

It might be interesting to know something of the background of the sport.

In 1871 William Russel Frisbie of Bridgeport, Connecticut took over an existing bakery and renamed it ‘The Frisbie Pie Company’. Soon after he was selling about 80.000 pies a day! Over the years, a large number of the tin platters the pies came with were not returned to the bakery. It turned out later that the platters came to be used as a throwing device by people considering this a fun pastime.

This pastime became so popular that a man called Walter Fred Morrison started to produce the discs in plastic as this material would not dent like the tin discs did. This ‘Morrison’s Flying Saucer’ was the predecessor of the present day frisbees®.

In 1955 these discs came to be considered of such interest by two employees of the ‘Wham-O Manufacturing Company that they took over the production rights of the discs and started producing them under the name ‘Pluto Platter’. Fred Morrison patented the name frisbee®, changing the ‘ie’ into ‘ee’, and just like many other brand names ‘frisbee’ became the generic name for all existing discs. In the end the original name ‘Frisbee disc by Wham-O’ came into existence, a Fastback disc that was by then used in the frisbee® sport that had developed in the mean time. This game, played by two (human) teams, exists in a number of forms:

-           Ultimate, a team sport of seven against seven, in which the aim is to catch the frisbee® in the opponent’s square, relaying the disc from player to player;

-           DDC (Double Disc Court), a version of the game played by two teams of two persons playing with two discs. The aim is to throw in such a smart way the opponent is forced to end up holding two frisbees® at the same time or having one disc lying on the ground in his square;

-           Freestyle, a performance of body and frisbee®. This version is uncommon in the Netherlands;

-           Individual forms like Distance, TRC  (Throw Run Catch, throwing over a distance and catching yourself with one hand), MTA (Maximum Time Aloft, including throwing and catching with one hand)

      -         Discgolf  (Golf with frisbees® instead of golfballs and clubs)

On The Frisbee® Dog

It is unclear how it ever started. It is however clear who popularized frisbeeing® with a dog. The honour goes to Alex Stein, owner and trainer of the legendary Ashley Whippet. He was born as Whippetin Oxford, Ohio on October 2, 1971 and given as a present to Alex. He was a world champion for years on end. Ashley was so proficient in catching frisbees® from whatever position and with such agility that Alex imagined he could take hem to show business. He called an agency in Hollywood, but the organization did not believe him when he told them his little dog could do 35 miles / 55 kms an hour, jump 9 ft. / 3 meters high and catch frisbees® in a somersault at that.

Alex wasn’t put off and contacted Wham-O, the maker of the frisbees®. They were only slightly interested, which wasn’t what Alex was looking for at all. Luckily both Alex and Ashley had a lot of courage, so in August 1974 Alex smuggled his Ashley into a stadium where a baseball game was being played that was aired nationwide. Between the 7^th and 8^th inning Alex rushed onto the pitch with his dog and staged a dazzling performance that lasted for 8 minutes until he was arrested. What was much more troubling was the fact that all of a sudden Ashley was nowhere to be found. Coincidentally Irv Lander, the then president of the International Frisbee® Association, was present in the stadium at the game. He paid Alex’s bail. Three days later Ashley still hadn’t been found and both men were seriously worried. Luckily, a boy who had seen Ashley run off had taken hem into his care. He contacted Mr. Stein and reunited Alex and Ashley. Alex and Ashley went on to become celebrities and performed at baseball games. They appeared on TV several times, including in the David Letterman show. They even once visited the White House! Ashley laid the foundation for the disc-dog sport and led an active, athletic life until her death on March 11, 1985 at the age of 14. By then, they had together left their marks everywhere.

 

Source: Picture of Ashley Whippet: AshleyWhippet's official biography by Irv Lander