![]() ![]() “The pandemic has definitely led to an uptick in the sport's popularity,” he said. Lyndon Cura, a veteran Ultimate player hailing from New Zealand who also helps with the training of the F1 Frisbee Club, attributes the soaring interest in the sport to two things. “When F1 Frisbee Club was first founded in 2021, there were only four or five members who would play regularly, and most were boys, but it didn't take too long for the club to attract more than 300 people. With about 30 active members today, and there are even a few more women than men who play today,” Wang told us. Since then, Wang never actually played Ultimate much as the sport remained highly niche in China until about last year, when she noticed that there was a sudden explosion of interest. Hillary Wang, the club's current events organizer, recalled that it was about ten years ago when she first laid fingers on a frisbee after a group of Americans attending a summer camp at her university introduced the sport to her. This high-cardio that takes elements from Rugby and American football and throws a frisbee in the mix has a history dating back to American universities in the 1960s, so why is it suddenly having its moment here? We spoke with three members from F1 Frisbee Club to learn more. ![]() Heck, you may have even played a few games back in the day. Whatever the case, ultimate frisbee is seeing a resurgence in China as of late. At the time, the company stamped all their pie pans with the phrase, “Frisbie’s Pies.” Melin and Knerr had heard college students using the term “Frisbie” to refer to the cake pans and realized they could use a similar term for their flying discs.You might've seen it pop up on your WeChat moments. Where did Wham-O get the name Frisbee? It comes from an unlikely source! College students in New England used to toss around pie pans from the Frisbie Baking Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut – similar to the way Morrison and his wife used to toss a cake pan back and forth on the beach. Sales skyrocketed, reaching 100 million before Mattel eventually bought out Wham-O. ![]() Wham-O changed the name to “Frisbee” and began selling the rebranded toy in 1958. In 1957, they purchased the rights to Morrison’s toy. In 1955, the founders of the Wham-O toy company, Arthur “Spud” Melin and Richard Knerr, saw Morrison’s flying disc. By 1948, Morrison had created his first product, which he called the “Flyin’ Saucer.” By the 1950s, he had reworked the design again and renamed his toy the “Pluto Platter.” He chose space-themed names in hopes of capitalizing on the UFO craze happening after the 1947 sightings in Roswell, New Mexico.Ī strong salesman, Morrison went around to fairs and shows and demonstrated his flying discs to attendees, but it wasn’t until the late 1950s that the toy really took off. Since UFOs were a hot topic at the time, Morrison modelled his first plastic disc after a flying saucer. ![]() He joined up with a business partner, Warren Franscioni, and began to work on creating a plastic version. At the time, cake pans only cost five cents, so Morrison realized that there was a profit to be made. A stranger saw them playing and offered Fred a quarter for the cake pan. Image credit: Image Credit: Julia Bujalski An Idea Is Bornįred Morrison and his wife Lu often made a game of tossing upside-down cake pans between them on the beach. ![]()
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