Life

Horseshoes don't travel well; swimming holes are taken on their own terms; Jarts are verboten; balls are boring and playing cards blow away in the wind.

What's left, when the object is some easy, outdoor fun? The answer is simple, and that's putting it mildly. Outdoor games don't come much simpler than Frisbee, the 50-year-old flying disc invented by Walter Frederick Morrison, who was inspired by tossing a popcorn lid at a Thanksgiving day picnic — or so says Wham-O.

Truth is, there's a lot of controversy surrounding the invention of one of the world's most popular, mass-marketed projectiles. There are stories about the Frisbie Baking Co. and its penchant for pie-plate tossing; there are tales of gold prospectors in the Old West watching the airfoils fly during a break in the pan action; there are rumors of a Yale student named Elihu Frisbie, who tossed a cafeteria tray and got the ball rolling, so to speak.

The fact remains that Morrison secured the first patent, sealing the deal. He called his toy a Pluto Platter, playing off the country's obsession with flying saucers and alien aircraft.

Today, 50 years later, the flying disc is standard picnic equipment; Wham-O is re-issuing the old Pluto Platter, using the same mold, and aficionados are buying them up, tossing them around, marveling at how the game has changed.

Really.

Holly Williams, 26, president of the Dayton Disc Golf Association, started playing disc golf as a freshman at Wright State University back in 1999; now, he tours professionally and plays daily. He carries about 17 discs in his bag — long-range drivers, mid-range drivers, upshot discs and putters among them. Clearly, it's a specialty sport, and ironically, Williams said, "I don't know very many players who use Wham-O discs for disc golf."

"The number of players is increasing exponentially," Williams said. "When I first started, we had about 10,000 courses; now there are 30,000. It's phenomenal — disc companies are coming out with new technology, and it's just taking off."

Disc golf is comparable to traditional golf, with scores based on the number of throws it takes to get the disc in the specially designed basket.

"I grew up three minutes from Arthur O. Fisher Park — which has one of four courses in the area — and I never knew what those things were for. I thought maybe it was a deer feeder or something," Williams laughed. "My college roommate got me out and I was hooked immediately."

It's a part-time job for Williams, who says the best pro players on the circuit can make $80,000, and it's only part of Frisbee's serious side.

Ultimate Frisbee is another hot sport, played a little like football or rugby.

The University of Dayton has a highly competitive Ultimate Frisbee team that travels to tournaments — last year the team of 20 to 25 made the regionals for the first time in six years.

"We were pretty proud of that," said Dan Simon, 21, of Columbus, who's co-captain of the team with Evan Corcoran. "The game involves a lot of teamwork."

Simon got involved with Ultimate Frisbee during a pickup game his freshman year at UD: "It was just a lot of fun. You can't run with the disc — you get, like, three steps to slow down, and the object is to get the disc with one foot in the end zone.

"There are handlers, who facilitate the offense," Simon said. "They make most of the throws and you try to get the disc to them. Then there are cutters, who basically do most of the running, get open, get the disc and look for a handler."

The team plays with a 175-gram disc — a classic Frisbee, by comparison, weighs 90 grams.

That's plenty heavy for Brice, a shepherd/collie mix found playing another brand of Frisbee recently in the Xenia dog park over Memorial Day weekend.

"He's getting better," said Brice's Frisbee partner, Sheila Margorn of Beavercreek, as Brice laid the bright-green disc at her feet, backed up and barked.

"He won't touch a tennis ball, but all I have to do is make a Frisbee-throwing motion with my arm, and he's on red alert. It's an easy way to tire out a very active animal."

A high-flying timeline

Jan 23, 1957: Fred Morrison partners with Wham-O as the sole manufacturer, distributor and promoter of the Pluto Platter.

June 17, 1957: Wham-O first uses the Frisbee brand-name.

July 22, 1957: Frisbee design patent submitted.

May 26, 1959: Frisbee receives its trademark, No. 679186.

1964: Ed Headrick organizes the International Frisbee Association.

1968: New Jersey high schoolers develop a game with the Wham-O Master Disc and call it Ultimate Frisbee.

1974: The first International World Frisbee Championship is held at the Rose Bowl.

1974: Alex Stein and Ashley Whippet take over an LA Dodgers game and introduce the world to Frisbee Dog with Ashley's 9-foot jumps and Alex's 35-mph tosses.

1975: Ed Headrick introduces Frisbee Golf in Pasadena, Calif., and organizes the Professional Disc Golf Association.

1978: The Frisbee Hall of Fame opens in Houghton, Mich.

1979: The Ultimate Players Association is formed.

1993: The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports OKs flying disc sports as a new category.

SOURCE: WHAM-O

Frisbee Trivia

John Dwork, from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., was the first person to receive a bachelor's degree in Frisbee in 1984.

In 1968 the United States Navy spent nearly $400,000 to test the Frisbee as a vehicle for keeping flares aloft.

The Cub Scouts have an activity badge for participation in Ultimate Frisbee.

It would take about 150 million standard Ultimate Frisbee discs, side by side, to reach around the Earth.

Despite rumors, invention of the Frisbee had nothing to do with anyone's purported abduction by aliens in a flying saucer.

In 2001, Ultimate Frisbee was recognized as an official sport at the World Games in Akita, Japan.

In 1993, the Wham-O Frisbee Disc Max Flight became the farthest-flying Frisbee, thrown and flying more than 350 feet before being caught.

SOURCE: WHAM-O

Dayton-area

Belmont Park, Highridge Avenue (just off Smithville Road), Dayton

Judge Arthur O. Fisher Park, 5661 Dayton-Liberty Road, Dayton

Sycamore Trails Park, 214 Heincke Road, Miamisburg

Indian Riffle Park, 2801 E. Stroop Road, Kettering

SOURCE: Dayton Disc Golf Association; www.daytondiscgolf.org

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2403 or ldempsey@DaytonDailyNews.com.