or use Game Finder

10 Ways to Have Fun with a Frisbee

It's an aerodynamic wonder, an international sporting phenomenon -- and one heck of a dog toy. It's the flying disk, of course, and your family's ticket to high-flying fun.

In This Article

Learn the History of the Flying Disk

708 B.C.: The discus throw becomes an Olympic event in ancient Greece.

300 B.C.-300 A.D.: An ancient Indian text describes chakrams, weapons shaped like an Aerobie. bottom, clockwise from left: corbis sygma; bettman/corbis; mptv.net

60 A.D.: Warrior princess Xena develops her own unique chakram style.

1920: American college students begin flinging the tins their Frisbie pies came in.

saucer

1947: A rash of UFO sightings begins a national obsession with what quickly became known as flying saucers.

1948: The first flying plastic disk is molded into shape over a water heater in a California basement. It's called the Flyin' Saucer to cash in on the new public craze.

1950: A Flyin' Saucer appears in the Li'l Abner comic strip and gets a publicity boost.

1955: A Flyin' Saucer creator refines the toy and calls his improved model the Pluto Platter.

1958: The Wham-O company buys the rights to the Pluto Platter and renames it Frisbee©.

Oddjob

1964: The James Bond movie "Goldfinger" introduces Oddjob, whose steel-rimmed bowler hat gives new meaning to Frisbee© guts.

1967: A group of bored New Jersey high-schoolers invents the Frisbee© game known as Ultimate. Team captain Joel Silver goes on to become a hotshot Hollywood producer, making the Matrix movies, among others.

1984: Hampshire College in Massachusetts awards John Dwork a bachelor of arts degree in "Flying Disc Entertainment and Education"--in other words, the science, economics, and culture of Frisbee© playing.

2002: Ed Headrick, Wham-O executive and guts champ, dies. Referring to devout Frisbee© players, he once commented, "When we die, we don't go to purgatory. We just land up on the roof and lie there."