Ultimate Frisbie
How Pie Tins Became A Childhood Staple
When trying to figure out why the hell I was compelled to research this topic, I drew blank after blank. So I started thinking about my current situation as a student, being away from home, actually pursuing my future. And I realized that I’m an absolute dumbass. I shouldn’t be as scared as I am about everything, and I shouldn’t act as though I’m going through something difficult, because I’m not. Yes, I struggle everyday with nuisances like mental health and anxiety and family issues, but I’ve learned to live with all that. I realized that I’m not living in an age of slavery and unequal opportunity like the Frisbies were. I don’t have to worry about working in hellish conditions, I don’t have to fight in World Wars, I don’t have to wonder when my next meal will be. I just don’t. I literally have all the resources I could ever dream of right in front of me. I have never been in a position comparable to this, and so it’s taken me some time to recognize the reality. The story of success in my lineage doesn’t necessarily make me want to go out and start my own company or anything like that, but it’s helped me reflect. The entire story of the frisbee told me that everything is going to be okay. I don’t have to be the first person to invent some huge new product or change the world entirely, I just have to devote myself to whatever it is I’m doing and do it the best I possibly can. Instead of wasting time wondering how to use plastic to make a frisbee, I just need to sell my goddamn pies and stay true to me. I think this story says that just because you aren’t the Walter Frederick Morrison (inventor of the frisbee), you can still be the Frisbie company (who received just as much recognition as Morrison).
The Setting
Bridgeport, CT, 19th Century. The largest city in the state is experiencing an insane industrial takeover. Population is rising by over 75,000 people. The very first ferry service is coming alive, connecting this hub to the rest of the world. Lives are transforming, industry is roaring, opportunities are abound.
Nationwide, the United States is in the midst of Reconstruction, working to abolish slavery and grant African-Americans the rights they deserve. There is massive populatory expansion as well as territory, industry, and wealth growth. The United States is inching towards the beginning of the Gilded Age. U.S. President, Ulysses S. Grant, signs the Civil Rights Act of 1871 in order to combat the Ku Klux Klan. Around the world, change is fostered. British trade unions are finally legalized. Otto von Bismarck is appointed as the first Chancellor of the German Empire and the Eiffel Tower is officially inaugurated in Paris, France.
William Russell Frisbie
Back home, chasing his dream, freshly relocated from the modest city of Branford, CT, William Russell Frisbie is humbly, and unknowingly, crafting the beginning works of what will one day come to be the all-famous “frisbee.” Surrounded by a dense, lung-scorching, floury haze, he tirelessly kneads the crust of his next big hit; sweet cherry pie.
His bakery is laden with failed attempts, but all the while he persists. Pie after pie, he works to perfect his dream and create a product that will prevail for years to come. It doesn’t take him long to develop his best-selling recipe and begin sharing it with the world. The business soon became so popular that in 1905, Frisbie crafted a personal power plant in his basement in order to meet the rising demand. Ten years later, his son erects him a whopping 3-story bakery for the official “Frisbie Pie Company.” And they begin producing over 9 tons, or 50,000 pies, per day in the early 1920s, selling them for 5 cents each.
As delectable as the pies were, however, they cannot be held responsible for the establishment of a household name and activity. But rather, the tins. Whilst on break, employees of the Frisbie Pie Company began messing around with the tins of their devoured pies, eventually discovering the aerodynamic capacities they held. They tossed the tins around to each other during their free time, and schoolchildren quickly adopted the same practice. Children could be found tossing the plates around and yelling “frisbie!” to alert passerby and prevent them from getting hit. Soon enough, the game made its way to Yale University, where students could be found playing on the famous New Haven Green.
Walter Frederick Morrison
A stone’s throw away in Los Angeles, CA, 1937, Walter Frederick Morrison and girlfriend, Lu, having just gorged on the family Thanksgiving feast, are tossing an old popcorn tin lid given to them by Lu’s uncle. The pair fall in love with the game and continued to use the lid until it became entirely worn-out, forcing them to now use a cake pan. On the beach, tossing their new replacement around, they’re offered 25 cents for the toy. Morrison is astonished and realizes the possible demand of such a product.
“That got the wheels turning, because you could buy a cake pan for five cents, and if people on the beach were willing to pay a quarter for it well — there was a business.”
-Walter Frederick Morrison
Morrison eventually started creating prototypes and applying for official patents, consuming himself entirely in the business and developing the “Pluto Platter,” and archetype of present-day throwing discs. On January 23, 1957, he sold the rights of his product to the company Wham-O. Co-founders of Wham-O soon learned that Yale college students were using the product, but by a different name: “Frisbie.” The company decided to name the once Pluto Platter, the “frisbee,” however featuring a slight spelling variation in order to prevent copyright commotion.
The Physics of the Spin
Frisbees operate under two main physical concepts, aerodynamic lift and gyroscopic stability. There are two primary forces that work together in order for a frisbee to fly: Lift and drag. Lift is what keeps the frisbee airborne, and works against the force of gravity while airborne. Due to the curved shape of the frisbee, flow of air above the disk must be traveling at higher velocities than those underneath. This allows for the creation of low pressure on top, and high pressure below. The difference in pressure on the sides of the frisbee is what creates the lift. Drag is the resisting force that acts on the disk whilst airborne. Both lift and drag are primarily affected by the angle at which the frisbee is thrown.
A Hollywood Debut
In Back to the Future Part III (1990), main character, Marty McFly, discovers a Frisbie pie tin while time-travelling to the Wild West. He eventually ends up throwing the tin like a frisbee in order to stop an attempted attack.
“Marty looked down at the pie plate still in his hands. He whipped it at Tannen with his best frisbee toss. And the plate sailed straight and true, right into Tannen’s gun hand! The gun went off. Buford’s gang backed off as the bullet sailed through Doc’s hat.”
-Back to the Future Part III by Craig Shaw Gardner (page 128)
Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate Frisbee is one of the worlds fastest growing sports. Thanks to the pie company as well as Morrison and Wham-O, over 70 million people, in 80 different countries, are able to practice a sport that they love, some even making careers out of it.
Joel Silver, the world-famous producer of The Matrix, first introduced ultimate frisbee to his friends at Columbia High School in 1968. A year later, the first ever game took place in a nearby parking lot with the light poles acting as the goal markings. By 1970, Joel and friends began constructing official rules for the game and just 5 years later, 8 teams made their way to the inaugural National Collegiate Championship of ultimate.
One very unique feature of ultimate frisbee is the practice of self-officiating through the “spirit of the game.” Players have the power to call their own fouls and ne’er dispute against it. Most teams will play without a referee, but some have employed “observers” to aid in the case of disagreement.
Spirit of the Game
This is the expectation that each and every ultimate frisbee player will be good sports and play fair, as well as follow and enforce the rules.
Ultimate has traditionally relied upon a spirit of sportsmanship which places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of the bond of mutual respect between players, adherence to the agreed upon rules of the game, or the basic joy of play. Protection of these vital elements serves to eliminate adverse conduct from the ultimate field. Such actions as taunting of opposing players, dangerous aggression, intentional fouling, or other ‘win-at-all-costs’ behavior are contrary to the spirit of the game and must be avoided by all players. — The Official Rules of Ultimate, 11th Edition
THE RULES
- The Field: A rectangular shape with end zones at each end. A regulation field is 70 yards by 40 yards, with end zones 25 yards deep.
- Initiate Play: Each point begins with both teams lining up on the front of their respective end zone line. The defense throws (“pulls”) the disc to the offense. A regulation game has seven players per team.
- Scoring: Each time the offense completes a pass in the defense’s end zone, the offense scores a point. Play is initiated after each score.
- Movement of the Disc: The disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. Players may not run with the disc. The person with the disc (“thrower”) has ten seconds to throw the disc. The defender guarding the thrower (“marker”) counts out the stall count.
- Change of Possession: When a pass is not completed (e.g. out of bounds, drop, block, interception, stalled), the defense immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes the offense.
- Substitutions: Players not in the game may replace players in the game after a score and during an injury timeout.
- Non-contact: No physical contact is allowed between players. Picks and screens are also prohibited. A foul occurs when contact is made.
- Fouls: When a player initiates contact on another player a foul occurs. When a foul disrupts possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player committing the foul disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.
- Self-Officiating: Players are responsible for their own foul and line calls. Players resolve their own disputes.
- Spirit of the Game: Ultimate stresses sportsmanship and fair play. Competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of respect between players, adherence to the rules, and the basic joy of play.
I think that having many accomplishments is a recurring theme in the Penick side of my family from that point forward. They were, and are, extremely resilient. They fear nothing. That’s the epitome of who my grandpa was, too. A Vietnam War Brigadier General, flying in bomber planes, and later a judge who instrumentally helped to re-write many of Florida’s probate laws, earning himself the name: “Father of Florida Probate.” Not that these two people are the only examples of greatness in the lineage, but I do believe that they serve as a phenomenal depiction of who and what the Penick family are and will do in their lives. And I’m extremely scared yet excited to see where I will fall in this story. What I am going to make of myself.
My Sources
Allen, Paul Brent, and Dan Taggart. “Ancestry.com Family Tree.” Ancestry, Permira, 1983, www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/162351326.
Ancestry.com can be credited with building up my entire project and laying down the framework. It was used to trace family lineage back as far as the 1500s. It pooled all available information on my ancestors and provided more than just names. I spent hours following different lineages and was able to find some pretty cool sources of information for ancestors. It provided accurate census records, draft cards, wills, and more. The website would provide hints for people when they found any information across the entire site regarding the person. It gives you access to so many sources and outside information that you would likely struggle to find if not using this website.
Frisbie Pie Company. “The Original Masters of Pie.” Frisbie Pies, American View Productions, www.frisbiepie.com/.
This is the website for the entire Frisbie Pie Company. It serves as the hub for anything and everything regarding the company itself and other logistical information such as contacts, inventory, and other related information. It is the public website and is geared towards customers as well as historians looking for more about their origin. A humble and jovial source, their company website provides more than you would find on your everyday site like Target. Rather than only including their products and a brief history, they added an extensive background story as well as present day news regarding the company. The basic story of how William Russell Frisbie started the pie practice in his basement is further touched on and connected to later happenings and successes of the business. It has more of a personal approach to its storytelling which is very refreshing.
Schiff, Judith Ann, and Yale Alumni Publications, Inc. “The Frisbee Files.” Yale Alumni Magazine: Old Yale, Yale Alumni Magazine, June 2007, archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2007_05/old_yale.html.
As simple as a story it may seem, the true and exact origin of the Frisbee has long been disputed. This article was written to address the false claims that have arisen over the years and serve as a sort of reiteration of the true story origin. Official credit has been given to Walter Frederick Morrison and Wham-O, however a 1996 article titled “Original Frisbie” claimed that Sam Carr Polk was taught a pie-tin tossing game by his cousin in Texas, 1946. He then states that it was later brought to New Haven. Polk was using a Wearever aluminum pan and the game quickly caught on. Another, more persuasive, claim was made by Stephen I. Zetterberg. He wrote to the Yale Alumni Magazine in 1971 saying that he first started playing Frisbie in 1939 at the Law School. He wrote this story again to the New York Times in 1989 and they in turn wrote an article called “The Pie Tin that Flew Around the World.” Not done yet, there have been many claims from colleges such as Middlebury and Harvard that they were actually the first to participate. Zetterberg states, though, that “Some years ago, I wrote about this in the Yale Law Report and received a call from Mrs. Frisbie of Bridgeport, Connecticut, home of the Frisbie Pie Company, whose tins we threw, confirming that Yale students had started Frisbee throwing.” It has been confirmed in the recent book Spinning Flight: Dynamics of Frisbees, Boomerangs, Samaras, and Skipping Stones, by Ralph D. Lorenz, that the Frisbie pie tins were for sure a great weight and overall size for throwing. “The deep lip…permitted the spin axis to remain stable for a flight of a few seconds. When asking Wham-O’s co-founder, Richard Knerr, where he came upon the name “frisbee,” you will be given various answers. In 2002, he claimed the name was from a comic book called Mr .Frisbie, but in his 1974 interview, he can be quoted in the 1974 book Frisbee, by Stancil E. D. Johnson, saying that the name spawned from a promotional trip that he took through Ivy League campuses where he heard the Harvard students calling the act “Frisbie-ing.” Another testimony states that the first “frisbeeesque” practice dates back to 1827, when an annoyed Yale student grabbed the collection tray at church and skimmed it over 200 yards across the Green. The name of this student; Elihu Frisbie.
Herrmann, Michele. “The Return of the Pie Company That Gave the Frisbee Its Name.” Atlas Obscura, Atlas Obscura, 24 Apr. 2019, www.atlasobscura.com/articles/frisbee-history.
This article shares loads of new information that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else. For one, the Frisbie Pie Company has been re-licensed to Frisbee connoisseur, Dan O’Connor. He began collecting the old Frisbie pie tins from various estate sales and auctions across the country. Soon he found that the company trademark was still alive, but not being put to good use. With his experience as a trade marketing manager for Pepperidge Farm and a sales manager with Campbell Soup Company, he began prep for the restart of the iconic business. O’Connor, having the old Frisbie Pie recipes, began to seek out help from people who actually ate the pies during original operations.
William Russell Frisbie, a Civil War veteran, was moving to Bridgeport, Connecticut in order to manage a new branch of the Olds Baking Company. Eventually, he ended up renaming the bakery after himself. Following his death in 1803, his son, Joseph Peter Frisbie, gained ownership and spread the business to Hartford, Poughkeepsie, and Providence. He also created a pie rimmer that he modeled after a pottery wheel, and a cruster that had the capability of processing 80 pies per minute. Business was booming, and by 1940 the company was producing over 200,000 pies daily and staffing an incredible 800 workers. After Joseph’s death, the Frisbie Pie Company began to decline greatly, eventually stopping production in 1958. Now, there is the Frisbie-Frisbee Family Association of America, a diverse group of people from across the world who have bonded over their interests in their Frisbie family heritage. They have dedicated themselves to preserving, as well as sharing, the histories of Frisbie, Frisbee, Frisby, and Frisbe families in America. They have accounts dating back to the 1600s in Branford, Connecticut.
Journals
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1smWPd_YJHQd3NJLwZ7IGu3KeC00P51PItbv03y3n12o/edit?usp=sharing
