Inventor of the modern Frisbee dies

His/her elder son, Ken Headrick, declared with the newspaper that no ceremony is provided and that ashes of his/her father will be moulded in commemorative frisbees, which will be distributed to the family and the friends.

What's up with that?

What's up with that?

It must have been translated from Armenian by Bablefish.

The absolute best Frisbee ever is the canine competition. If you ever get a chance to see one of the field trials in person...take it..it's a MUST SEE.. the dogs are awesome...

This is California after all, there is considerable confusion there on the whole "his/her" thingy.

ashes of his/her father will be moulded in commemorative frisbees, which will be distributed to the family and the friends.

"Hey, wanna go toss Dad around in the back yard?"

Heck, that was much too clear. Let me run it though Babelfish a few more times.

The inventor frisbee of the modern is died

Wednesday August 14,2002 - GMT 10 o'clock 34

WASHINGTON, August 14 (AFP) - the inventor frisbee of the modern, OD Headrick, called "regularly" (stable), dead Monday in its California domicile of the elvastrandes, on the 78 years ages after the electronic publication of the daily guard Wednesday Santa Cruz of the newspaper.

Its older, Ken Headrick, confessed with the newspaper than no ceremony, is supplied with to threads and that an ash of their father in memory frisbees is formed, which is distributed to the family and to the friends.

Headrick had improved the pattern frisbee, which is added to this machine in 1964, those from the end 19. Century of the grooves dates, which permit, in order to lead the flight path.

History frisbee begins in 1871 at Bridgeport (Connecticut) in the depots of the society with the rough taste of William Russell Frisbie. The drivers of the trucks of the society would have drawn use from tracing, in order to introduce outside of the crates of the packing of tinplate of the famous cakes.

In the year 1948 frisbee was invented by plastics by walter Frederick Morrison, and Warren Franscioni in San seem Obispo (California). In this new material it could fly and further with a better accuracy, but it always missed stability.

He finds only in the year 1964 instead of with adding the grooves in the center of the plate by OD Headrick that frisbee is started, in order to fly highly and well. In the year 1970 Headrick A creates a new sport gulf with the plate, in the frisbees in a camp made of metal is started.

Headrick died at the consequences of two heart crises, which occurred in July, and which left the gelaehmte left side to it. The physicians have let had in his place turn, consciously that its situation would not improve.

The family house had opened Saturday, its close relations, in order to celebrate its life. "we made a very beautiful celebration for him (...) that it was aware" said to its threads of young Gary Headrick.

Here's the NY Times obit:

August 14, 2002
Ed Headrick, Designer of the Modern Frisbee, Dies at 78
By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Ed Headrick, who designed and patented the modern Frisbee, died Monday at his home in La Selva Beach, Calif. He was 78.

The cause was a stroke, said Scott Keasey, national sales manager for the Disc Golf Association. The association governs and supplies equipment for disc golf, a variation of golf invented by Mr. Headrick.

Mr. Keasey said that when Mr. Headrick accepted a job in 1964 as head of research and development for the Wham-O Manufacturing Company in San Gabriel, Calif., he was assigned the task of figuring out what to do with a warehouse full of unused plastic that had been intended for Hula-Hoops, another Wham-O product that came and went quickly.

His idea was to modify the Pluto Platter, a disc toy originally intended for children, into a sport for teenagers and adults. Walter Frederick Morrison had invented the disc and sold it to Wham-O in 1955. Mr. Morrison's name is on the patent granted in 1957, and he became rich from Frisbee royalties.

Mr. Headrick added the rings surrounding the top of the Frisbee to enhance stability in flight, as well as perfecting the shape to make it more aerodynamic. His name is on patent No. 3,359,678, dated Dec. 26, 1967.

His so-called professional model became the modern Frisbee, although the patent document called it a flying saucer. The game of Frisbee had its roots on the campuses of New England colleges, where the Frisbie Baking Company of Bridgeport, Conn., sold pies, and students liked to toss the empty tins.

But Richard Knerr, president of Wham-O, said in an interview in late June that the similarity of the name of Wham-O's disc to the name of the student game was a coincidence. He said the name came from a comic strip called Mr. Frisbie.

Edward Early Headrick was born in South Pasadena, Calif., on June 28, 1924. He served in the Army infantry in Europe during World War II and later worked as a deep-sea welder and water heater salesman, among other things.

He knew Arthur Melin, one of the owners of Wham-O, and offered to work free for three months to prove his worth. He evaluated ideas for new products — some good, like the ultrabouncy Super Ball, and some failures, like Instant Fish, actually a kind of shrimp, which would not lay eggs fast enough.

"We have to review, say, 100 ideas to find one that even has interest," he said in an interview with Popular Science magazine in 1966. "We have to look at 1,000 before we turn up one that seems worth the cost of testing. We have to run through 50 to 100 tests of different ideas before we come up with something as good as the Super Ball."

In 1967, Mr. Headrick founded the International Frisbee Association. In the early 1970's, he created disc golf, which involves throwing a Frisbee-like disc at a metal cage. About four million people play the sport.

He is survived by his wife, Farina Headrick; a daughter, Valerie Headrick, of Quincy, Calif.; three sons, Ken, of San Juan-San Ramon, Costa Rica; Daniel, of Laguna Beach, Calif., and Gary, of San Clemente, Calif.; and 11 grandchildren.

Mr. Headrick asked that his ashes be molded into a limited number of memorial flying discs, which will be distributed to his family and friends, his son Ken told The Santa Cruz Sentinel.

"We used to say that Frisbee is really a religion — `Frisbyterians,' we'd call ourselves," Mr. Headrick said in an interview with the newspaper in October.

"When we die, we don't go to purgatory," he continued. "We just land up on the roof and lay there."

Ah, yes. The man ultimately responsible for "Ultimate Frisbee", and therefore responsible for bringing the joy of sport to assorted nerds, stoners, hippies, and other non-athletic types...

Counting down to the inevitable flames from Ultimate Frisbee players ;)

"When we die, we don't go to purgatory," he continued. "We just land up on the roof and lay there."

You missed the theology!

Some of these descriptors applying to me in my college days.... I mourn the passing of this man. For some reason, I couldn't master throwing a baseball or a football, but I could fly a frisbee for 100 yards. Ultimate was never my game; I was a Guts frisbee man.

Two lines of participants face off about 10 or 15 yards apart. You take turns throwing the frisbee to the other line. If it's within someone's reach, and they don't catch it (one hand only), the throwing team has the honor (you can actually keep score, but we never did). We used to play on the paved jogging/bike path down the middle of the Commonwealth Avenue mall in Boston, in front of my fraternity house, taking on all comers, from our school or others, or locals. I must immodestly say that I was the undisputed star. I could flat whip that thing. Backhand, crosschest, forehand, all the throws.

We used to allow skips off the path, and we'd try to skip it right at your feet. Get a good angle and you could get it to skip sharp and hit the guy who was supposed to catch it. Forehand throws are especially tricky because the spin is the reverse of what you're used to, and unless you're prepared for it (or use your left hand to catch) it pops out of your hand.

Or, if you could throw it completely flat and had the wind at your back, it would dip like a split-finger fastball right at the end. Throw that about waist high to a guy who hadn't seen one before and watch him "catch" it.

Two years ago, at the age of 40+, I visited the University of North Carolina. I was in town for a week taking a training course, and I had some free time. My daughter is a Michael Jordan fan, and she wanted a T-Shirt. When I left the campus store some of the frat boys had a game going. Thought they were hot stuff. One of them missed and the frisbee landed at the feet of this old man. Turns out I can still throw a hard skip. Turns out none of them had seen one. I had a fun hour. The good old days were back for a bit, although I was sweating at the end.

You missed the theology!

And canis domesticus.

My college, Swarthmore, had all the assorted nerds, stoners, and hippies playing Ultimate. I always wanted to play just once and lay out some hippie when he went to catch the disk. It would have been so easy to lay a shoulder into one of those beans and rice shoot eating fairyies.

I've played frisbee for years.In my circle of friends, the disc players were all mostly conservative types ( OK we had long hair).In fact,it is a truely right-wing game in my opinion.There are no ref's in an ultimate game.If you foul,you forfeit possession on your own. It is based on a code of HONOR and in real world practice it works well.As the crack smoking wife beaters of pro sports (especially that Spanish game "baseballo")continue to slide into irrelevance, I'll take an American game of disc any day.Sports don't build charecter,they reveal it.If you want to cheap shot someone with with a blind-side shoulder,I'd guess that you were maybe second string,inside linebacker?Watch the news this year and see who ends up in trouble this year, skateboarders and frisbee types or the "real team players".I think last year there about 3 gang rapes by high school and collage football teams. My favorite was the team that assulted the retarded girl with the plastic basball bat.It'll happen again this year, it always does.OJ Simpson and his kind are just the final result....

I actually played four years of college lacrosse, no football for me. And anyways, at my college, you would have wanted to lay out these liberals. Swarthmore college read about it. The Professors would laugh at our College Republican booth and say, "Its good that you are here, so that we have something to make fun of." They were not laughing when we brought Ward Connerly to speak. Also, there is a difference between doing something and thinking about it. Funny that you mention skateboarders, I have been a serious surfer my whole life. I also disagree with your comment that sports do not build character. I learned about competition, drive to succeed, teamwork, unselfishness (I had alot more assists that goals), losing with grace, and sportsmanship.

I was visiting my brother and Dad on Sunday, and we played frisbee for a while. The first time any of us had done so together in many years...

The very next day, the father of frisbee's didn't "go to purgatory..." he just landed "up on the roof and lay there."

Kinda funny how things happen like that, eh?

modern frisbee

What was the old style frisbee - a brick?

The inventor of the modern frisbee died