Frisbee Creator Dead at 90

Walter Frederick Morrison, the creator of the Frisbee, died at his home in Monroe, Utah, on Tuesday. Though Morrison had cancer, his son believes that it was his father's age that was responsible for his death. He was 90.

"That simple little toy has permeated every continent in every country, as many homes have Frisbees as any other device invented," Utah House Rep. Kay McIff, Morrison's former attorney, told The Salt Lake Tribune. "How would you get through your youth without learning to throw a Frisbee?"

Morrison, a pilot in World War II, began making Frisbees, which he called "Pluto Platters" in 1948. The original disc was based on a tin cake pan that he and his wife threw back and forth on the beach in California. After his days flying in the war, he honed the disc's shape and dimensions to make it as aerodynamic as possible.

Once the disk was perfected, Morrison sold them at local fairs, attracting the attention of Wham-O Manufacturing, which bought the rights to the discs in 1957. Wham-O then manufactured them as Frisbees, the name New England college students, who had previously tossed empty tins from the Frisbie Pie Co., used for the discs.

In the last decade, Ultimate Frisbee, a non-contact sport, has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. Similar to football, Ultimate Frisbee pits two teams of seven players each against each other. They pass their Frisbee from person to person moving closer to the other team's goal line. Once a player receives a disc, he or she stops running and has 10 seconds to pass it to a teammate. Ultimate Frisbee is played in 42 countries and is extremely popular among college students.

The Ultimate Players Association, the governing body for the sport in the United States, has more than 27,300 members and hundreds of volunteers. Unlike most sporting organizations, the men's and women's divisions are showcased equally in all U.P.A. events. The number of women involved in Ultimate Frisbee has increased exponentially in the last few years. Between 2003 and 2008, the number of female U.P.A. members doubled.

Athletes who participate in these games must have superior aerobic fitness, explosive strength and the agility to outmaneuver their opponents.

Morrison could not have predicted when he designed his Frisbee that it would be such a hit. Instead, his son simply described him as an entrepreneur who was always looking for something to do when speaking with reporters from The Salt Lake Tribune.

Phil Kennedy, a historian and frisbee enthusiast who co-authored a book with Morrison in 2001, released a brief biography on Thursday, wishing his friend "smoooooth flights."

Check out this Frisbee video to see if the sport is for you!