Frisbee
by Edward B!au
Newsweek Feature Service
When the Frisbee sailedl
onto the scene in the late
1950s, few people thought if
would be anything more than
another short-lived fad on the
heels of the hula hoop and
Davy Crockett. No one could
have predicted it would not
only survive but go on to '
become the hottest pastime of
the Aquarian Age.
The saucer-shaped discs
have proved so enduringly
popular that the Wham-0 Co.,
a San Gabriel, Calif., firm
which owns the Frisbee
trademark, will turn out some
12 million of them this year.
(Hundreds of thousands more
will be made by such Wham-O
competitors as Saucer Tossers
and Flying Saucers.) There is
now even an International
Fisbee Association (IFA)
which is sponsored, by Wham-O
and which has more than
65,000 members in 70
countries around the world.
What accounts for the
Frisbee's remarkable longevity?
To one Wham-O official, it's
the fact that "the Frisbee
allows everyone to do his own
thing. Some like to compete
determinedly. Some like to
participate with great skill and
plenty of style. But most just
find it a welcome relief from
the rigid, regimented
competition that other sports
seem to generate."
Basically, there are only two
things that can be done with a
Frisbee-throw it and catch it.
But it is not, of course, quite
all that simple.
In the hands of a skilled
Frisbee-ite, it can be made to
soar and dip and curve in
infinite variation-a gyroscopic
wonder of the air, defying all
traditional laws of flight. The
experts can also perform trick
catches behind the back and
through the legs, sail, it up to
100 yards, skip it off the
ground like a stone in a lake or
boomerang it in the wind.
Once predominantly used
by kids, Frisbees are doing
their aerodynamic acrobatics
from grassy knolls to city
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streets, college campuses to
Vietnam firebases. And
virtually anyone can
participate without having to
worry about size or age or
crowds or regulations or
teammates.
"Flying a Frisbee gives rr.e a
sense of freedom," says one
young Frisbee f linger who
turns up regularly at the center
of Frisbee activity in New
York City--the Bethesda
Fountain in Central Park.
Even the IFA, which hosts
tournaments and puts out a
Frisbee newspaper, is dedicated
to minimizing organization.
Says Irv Lander, assoebi.
rlirector: "The IFA does not
cater to the militant or fiercely
competitive types who
represent a tiny fraction of the
multitudes who enjoy Frisbee
informally."
Still, some organization has
inevitably come to the Frisbee,
via tournaments and teams.
The IFA hosts an international
Frisbee championship every
summer at Copper Creek on
Michigan's isolated Upper
Peninsula, a Frisbee flick from
Lake Superior. Teams and
individuals come from near and
far to compete and also to
indulge in the tourney's main
tradition-beer drinking.
Other contests and Frisbee
festivals are being held across
the country and Frisbee
competition in school sports
programs is on the rise. On the
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other hand, Frisbee
organization, or
"Frisbeezation" as it's known,
suffered a setback last year at
the University of Oregon when
a 2-credit course in the Frisbee
was de-credited.
The Frisbee frenzy is still
mounting, however, and even
spilling into the world of
politics-- at least in
Sacramento, Calif. There,
Geoffrey Wong, of the Wong's
Wenches Frisbee team, entered
a mayoral race recently by
flipping a Frisbee into the ring
rather than tossing the
proverbial hat.
There is much legend
surrounding the origin of the
Frisbee. One tale has it that a
19th-century churchgoer, tired
of depositing coinage in the
plate, began throwing the disc
around in protest. Others date
the sport's birth from the time
when some irate Colonial
husband started flinging the
good china at his mate during a
domestic tiff. Still others think
the flying saucer scare of the
1950's played a part.
The name of the game
probably stems from the
now-defunct Frisbie Baking Co.
of Bridgeport, Conn., where
employes evidently took note
of the aviational abilities of the
tin pie-plate. In any case, the
plastic version was designed in
the 1950s by Fred Morrison, a
Los Angeles building inspector,
who sold the rights to Wham-O
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from it.
While Frisbee is generally
not a strenuous activity, it has
its dangers. The most widely
feared is the Frisee finger, an
injury that occurs when a
speeding Frisbee comes into
painful contact with the finger
rather than the inside of the
hand. While not a fatal wound,
the injury could impair a
competitor's effectiveness at a
torunament-especially if it's
on the beer-drinking hand.
Despite such hazards, the
Frisbee is t lying nigner man
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from the placid '50s through
the tumultuous '60s and into a
new decade.
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PAGE 8
THE DAILY NEB RASKAN
