You're welcome to correct me.
Here is a little search result from Wikipedia :
Morrison began producing a new disc, which he called the Pluto Platter. He sold the rights to Wham-O on January 23, 1957 (his 37th birthday),[5] and the following year, Morrison was awarded U.S. Design Patent D183,626 for his flying disc.
In June 1957, Wham-O co-founder Richard Knerr decided to stimulate sales by giving the discs the additional brand name "Frisbee" (pronounced "FRIZ'-bee") after learning that Connecticut college students were calling the Pluto Platter by that name,[6] the term "Frisbee" coming from the name of the Bridgeport, CT pie manufacturer Frisbie Pie Company.[7] "I thought the name was a horror...terrible", Morrison told The Press-Enterprise of Riverside[cite this quote] in 2007. In 1982 Morrison told Forbes magazine[cite this quote] he had received about $2 million in royalty payments and said "I wouldn't change the name of it for the world".[8]
The man who was behind the Frisbee's phenomenal success however was "Steady" Ed Headrick, hired in 1964 as Wham-O's new General Manager and Vice President in charge of marketing. Headrick soon redesigned the Pluto Platter by reworking the rim thickness and top design, creating a more controllable disc that could be thrown accurately.[9]
Sales soared for the toy, which was marketed as a new sport. In 1964, the first "Professional Model" went on sale. Headrick patented the new design as the Frisbee patent, highlighting the "Rings of Headrick" and marketed and pushed the Professional Model Frisbee and "Frisbee" as a sport. (U.S. Patent 3,359,678).[10]
They made the first Frisbees. They had Headrick. If Innova hadnt stolen their triangular rim patent, they would still be making Discs to this day. They organised the first big tournaments that drew big crowds and had big prices.
They got it all rolling.
Saying that they didnt do anything for our sport is ignorant on so many levels, I dont even know where to begin. It's like saying the inventor of the ball didnt do much for soccer or basketball.
The only thing WhamO has really done is make discs and advertise disc golf. That doesn't make them deserve to change the name of the sport.
Also, apart from all the historical mumbo jumbo, it is the reality nowadays that everybody knows what a Frisbee is, but when you use the term "flying disc", people get all sort of weird ideas. The general public calls em "Frisbees". So if we rename our sport to Frisbee Golf, it's not because of Wham-o, but to bring it closer to the perception of our sport.
opcorn:
