In 1951, Morrison improved his model, removing the vanes and dubbing the UFO-like result the Pluto Platter. He hawked them around Southern California, Wham-O came calling and in 1957 the company began mass production of what would eventually become 200 million Frisbees sold around the globe.

Workman spokesman Jim Braden remembers going to the 1954 Orange County Fair in Pomona, Calif., as a boy and seeing "these guys in sports coats and ties in this cage throwing the Pluto Platter. They were making it spin and curve and we all wanted one."

A Wham-O representative on the east coast contributed to the lasting name. Ivy League college students had long flung pie pans through the air to each other. The most popular pans held pies baked by the Frisbie Pie Co., which had its name embossed on the bottom.

A slight misspelling later and the Frisbee name was born.

Morrison later moved back to Utah, bought a motel, ran a quarterhorse ranch and for a while owned the Richfield airport, "all on Wham-O money," said his friend Ron Tische, with whom Morrison plays penny-ante poker. "He's always looking for something to do."

Time passed until, two years ago, Colonial Flag President Paul Swenson, a Frisbee enthusiast (he once threw a Frisbee into the Nile River), learned that the inventor of the Frisbee lived in Sevier County.

"I thought, no one's really honored this guy," Swenson said, and he set to work. The result, today's ceremony, will be a surprise to Morrison, whose friends are keeping him away from TVs and newspapers to preserve the secret.

"Walt will be pleased as punch," Tische said. "He's got a little bit of a rough exterior, he's kind of crotchety, (but) I think the biggest problem he's going to have is not to cry. This is going to mean a great deal to him."

The ceremony is 2 p.m. at Creekside Park, 1660 E. 4800 South, during a break in a disc golf competition. There will be food and 200 free Frisbees, which Swenson hopes to have signed by Morrison himself.

"This is a busy time for Colonial (Flag)," Swenson said. "A couple of my employees look at this as a big distraction. But I don't care. I've not told anyone about this who didn't think it was cool."

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com