Frisbee

Give it a spin and watch it fly! A Frisbee, some open space and somebody to throw it back are all you need.

Throw it flat, put a little spin on it and watch it sail. Throw it badly and watch it turn sideways, shoot straight up in the air, or roll across the ground while whoever you're playing with wonders exactly where you expected them to catch it.

In the late 1940s, Walter Morrison began selling a plastic flying disc toy, calling his version the Pluto Platter during the flying-saucer craze that was sweeping the country. In the late 1950s, Wham-O bought the rights and renamed it Frisbee.

The name itself has an even older connection to flying discs. Students at New England colleges had tossed pie plates made by the Frisbie Baking Company, and the “Frisbie” name became associated with tossing the discs around. The name stuck - Wham-O changed the spelling slightly, improved the product, and the rest is history.

A Frisbee is one of those toys where a little practice makes a huge difference. Get the angle and spin right and you can send it sailing surprisingly far. Then you start perfecting curved throws, catching techniques, and throwing it behind your back. Or even convincing your dog that the Frisbee is supposed to come back to you after he catches it.

Somewhere along the way, throwing a Frisbee around turned into actual sports play. Ultimate Frisbee and disc golf grew out of the same flying-disc idea, although you don't necessarily need a course, teams or rules to participate in those - two people and an open patch of grass still work just fine.