Shocking Truth! The Inventor of the Frisbee is Buried in One!

The story of the ubiquitous flying disc begins not with a meticulously engineered design, but with a simple pastime. Walter Frederick Morrison, known as Fred, and his future wife, Lucile, first discovered the joy of tossing a popcorn tin lid in 1937. They soon upgraded to more durable cake pans, and the spark of an idea ignited when a stranger offered them a quarter for their five-cent pan on a beach in Santa Monica, California, revealing a clear commercial potential for a flying toy.

After serving as a pilot in World War II, Morrison applied his understanding of aerodynamics to refine his flying disc. He developed several prototypes, initially calling his plastic creation the "Whirlo-Way" and later the "Pluto Platter," capitalizing on the 1950s fascination with flying saucers. In 1957, Morrison sold the rights to his invention to the Wham-O toy company. It was Wham-O that eventually rebranded the "Pluto Platter" as the "Frisbee" in 1958, a name inspired by college students who tossed pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Company.

Morrison passed away in 2010 at the age of 90. In a truly unique tribute to his lasting legacy, a portion of his cremated remains was, at his request, molded into memorial flying discs. These special Frisbees were not produced for mass sale but were distributed among his family and close friends (Review), ensuring that the man who gave the world this iconic toy would, in a symbolic and literal sense, continue to fly.