Did Brookfield Man

Help Invent the Frisbee?

Did Ames Poirier of Brookfield and his New Haven friends invent one of the world's most popular toys?

Yale University would say not. It has put forth the tale that in 1820, a Yale undergraduate named Elihu Frisbie grabbed a passing collection tray from the chapel and flung it out into the campus, thereby becoming the true inventor of the Frisbie and winning glory for Yale.

However, in a letter to The Herald this week, Mr. Poirier makes a very plausible case that he and his boyhood pals invented the popular toy and sport. Mr. Poirer's graceful letters are always a treat, but this one makes history, so we put it on the front page:

Letter to the Editor

Last week, while attempting to do a New York Times crosswords (not easy!), I came to number 3 down—eight letter word for "Makeshift Frisbee." Well, that one , for me anyway, was easy—I was once a thrower of pieplates years ago. The following is my version of Frisbee’s origin:

Several colleges (Middlebury and Yale are two, I believe) have made claims to inventing the "Frisbee." However, we former members of the State Street Gang of New Haven, Ct., survivors of the depression years and WWII, beg to differ.

We lived on streets just off State Street; the Frisbie Baking company was also just off State Street. Their pies, in the 1930’s were: small pies in cardboard containers, 5 cents; large pies-with metal pieplates, 75 cents.

On Saturdays week-old pies were returned to the company. If we kids of wealth could find another such person with 12 or 13 cents, then a large, old pie could be purchased and shared for only 25 cents.

When the pie was consumed, that left the pieplate to consider. It did not take long to discover that, holding the plate upside down, it could be sailed through the air quite a distance. It also did not take long for the inhabitants of our streets to notice that, pieplates, clattering on the pavement, made quite a racket. So, inevitably, we were banished to the playgrounds of East Rock Park.

There, the game of throwing and returning discus-like object was introduced to others, and the Yalies of New Haven threw the pie tins for many years. In 1957, a toy company, "Wham-O", began production of the "Pluto Platter", and in 1958, it was renamed "Frisbee"—after the Frisbie Baking Co. Nine flying-discs sports, along with Ultimate Frisbee (1968-a game similar to football) are now being played in more than 30 countries.

Ames Poirier

Brookfield

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