Conference hbahba::cam_sports

Capture the Flag:

	Essentially, as I remember, a variant of Tag.

	There were two halves of the field, yours and theirs, and
	deep in each sides territory was a circle containing the
	Flag.

	The object was to get the flag and carry it back to your
	side without getting tagged.   Folks who got tagged went
	to prison, which was behind the rear line of the other
	team's zone.   To get out of prison you had to get tagged
	by a member of your own team.


	So, the strategy was to have your fast people up front
	to make forays into the opponent's zone.  Your slow
	people would stay back to guard the flag and the
	prison.

	if you got short of folks, you made a raid to free the
	prison.  Smart prisoners would join hands when the
	prison raid came cause one tag would get you all out then.
	(can't remember if you got free passage back to your own
	side -- I think you did).

	
	Toughest part was getting the flag BACK to your side.   so
	many times out team would get the flag out, but get tagged
	on the way back......


'Saw

Another variant of Dodge Ball:

	Played in the gym on inclement weather days.

	
	Gym divided in half, with a rear zone in each half.
	
	Bunch of ball (like 5) given out.  It was essentially
	Dodge Ball, where if you got hit you had to go back
	behind the rear line of the other team's zone.

	You could only get OUT of the zone if someone from
	your own team threw the ball to you and you caught it
	in the air (kinda like a hail mary).

	So again there was strategy, in that you'd have some
	folks firing balls at the other team, and some folks
	protecting the prison against Hail Marys......


Made for a good afternoon when you couldn't get out to recess....


'Saw

    re -1
    
    How did you prevent the hail mary?  If you touched the ball didn't you
    have to go to the rear of the other teams zone?
    
     - Bob

>    
>    How did you prevent the hail mary?  If you touched the ball didn't you
>    have to go to the rear of the other teams zone?
    
Wow, I'm going back 24-26 years here.  8^)


I think it was something on the order of:

	You were out if the ball was fired at you and it hit you.

	The hail marys were more like lobs, than line drives, and
	you could defend against them by trying to catch them or
	bat them away.....





The other inclement choice was to go to the Game Room.  I learned how
to play setback there, and got in trouble for "gambling" too.


'Saw

    We used to play Kill the Kid.  It was kind of like rugby.

 7 card stud, blackjack, jacks are wild, acie ducie, kitty wihst, injun joe,
 7 card no peak and rock fights are the games I remember. With Rock fights
 naturally being the coolest....

 ;^)

 

In dodge ball if you caught the bal the guy that threw it had to go into your
prison but if you tried to catch it and dropped it you were hit and had to go 
into prison. 

The game got real fun when there was 1 guy left on one team and he had 5 
guys with balls winging them around his head.

We had a great touch football league in 5th grade. One cool teacher was the QB
and he had a round robin tourney that went throughout the fall and spring with 
the winning team taken out for ice cream. Went through a lot of jeans in that
league...

Other stuff (during field day) Tug of war, and my favorite gym activity was
jousting (sort of like american gladiators)...

Good stuff...


Metz

    
    We had recess during grade school and we played two games. 
    
    Fall Football
    
       and
    
    Spring Football
    
     After the fourth grade we put pads on. 
    
    Cadzilla

      There was this indoor game we played on bad weather days.
    
      It was called crab ball or crab soccer.
    
      It was this huge bean bag type of ball, and the object was to
    walk/scoot/run on all fours with your back towards the floor while you
    were kicking the ball towards the other teams goal,  which was set up
    kinda the size of a hockey net, but just a foot or so higher and maybe
    wider.
    
      If you ended up letting any part of your body (except hands and feet)
    touch the floor,  then you were out!  This is how they would "recycle"
    the kids so everyone had turns to play and rest!
    
      Used to get these floor burns from scooting so fast across the floor
    and missing a kick 'cause someone else kicked it right before you or if
    I would just plain bite it.
    
      It was actually a manly sport,  alot of kicking in the head with feet
    and ball not to mention kicking in other parts of the body!  Some nose
    bleeds weren't uncommon!
    
      I heard they actually have get togethers at Rampart High School for
    adults and kids to do this at night.  A freind of mine was involved a
    couple of years ago.
    
    
      I guess my memory isn't as volatile (sp?) as I thought!
    
    
       Tim 

    I remember playind in-door baseball with a leather ball that was
    filled with rags... Out door, king of the hill... Kill the QU___
    who happened to have the football. A form of baseball with a kickball
    that you had to hit it out of your hand...
    
    REK

HOw could I have forgotten crab soccer!

I remember one day I got so frustrated (like William Webb Ellis) that
I jumped up and started playing normal type soccer.   Another kid
jumped up and tackled me and we had this free-for-all for about 10 
minutes before the gym teacher could get us settled down....


And of course touch football ruled.....


'Saw

I wonder what kind of games lEe played in school.  I've always wondered
what the schoolyard games were like in Abe Lincoln's day.....


8^)

    
    I'm suprised ya didn't mention "Buck-buck" or "Johnnie ridesda pony" - 
    ya remember where a buch of fellasform a line by hugging the guy in
    front of ya and creating a chain.  The the other teams guys run and hop
    on yo back and try to weigh ya down so the "pony" collapses.  Of
    course, losers went "under the mill" for a spanking!
    
    Naturally the game was immortalized by Bill Cosby's rendition which
    included the "hay hay hayyyyy Fat Albert" scene!
    
    I remain,
    remembering "dirt bomb" fights too!
    Kev
    

    
    We played international handball when it got too cold outdoors.  One
    spring the gym teachers taught us an outdoor version called speedball. 
    It was a short-lived game.  After the second ambulance came during my
    first period class to take away another kid with a broken leg, the
    teachers decided to play something else.
    
    Brews

    
    True story - I couldn't have made this up and those who have met me
    face-to-face will verify that this probably did happen  :*(
    
    During my second sophomore year at college, I had a part-time job as a
    phys ed teacher at a nearby Catholic grammar school.  I "taught" the
    7th and 8th grade boy's class 1x a week.  During the year we had a lot
    of fun, they ran around a lot and I liked the money.  Of course, being
    the kind of guy I am, I think every 8th grader but two had to look down
    to see me  :*(
    
    Gym consisted of doing all sorts of things in the schoolyard which
    (naturally) was asphalt covered and on Sundays doubled as the church
    parking lot.
    
    
    Anyway, it was the last week of school and my buddies in the 8th grade
    decided that they wanted to play a game they invented.  The name of the
    game was:
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    "Let's pick up Mr. Farley and toss him in the Dumpster"
    
    
    
    
    
    ......the little b*stards......
    
    
    :*(
    
    
    I remain,
    drawing the line at the 4th grade from now on!
    Kev
    
    

    Your second sophmore year at college?  How many did you have?
    
    brews

     well, it was a j c and I had 3.5 great years there until the ever
    so friendly Hempstead Selective Service (draft board) reclassified me
    1-A.
    
    So, I actually had 2.5 sophomore years!
    
    I remain,
    rivalling Belucci in _Animal House_
    Kev
    

re: .16

This from a guy who believes Volleyball should be a contact sport.

The Crazy Met

    yabbut, that's for other reasons.  It all depends who is on your team
    to contact wif.
    
    brews  

    I can relate to that
    
    Dodge ball: best way to play: each team got 1 ball and 3 were lined up
    at midcourt.  You had to try to get to the ball and bring it to your
    side before getting hit.
    
    Played hoops where if you got the rebound you could pass it to the
    sideline and they could pass it up the sideline and to the front court.
    That was weird.
    
    Played kickball, kill the guy with the ball, crab soccer too... floor
    hockey...
    

There was always "Steal the Bacon", where an eraser was placed in the
center circle of the hoops court.  Forget all the rules, because we
played another version of this game (one-on-one) in HS, on Friday nights
in our cars, at various secluded areas of town.....


'Saw

    Hey Kev, How's about nexted time I'm up in the Mass. area, we rent a
    bowling alley fer an evening, you wear a motorcycle helmet, loose
    shirt, and we'll ge the lanes oiled up REAL good and I'll be able to do
    something the New Yuck outlawed a few years back, and my note about
    that outlawwing got the excrement into the fan at break-neck speed.
    
    Needing a "fix"
    
    JaKe
    

	We played whiffleball in a friend's back yard.  Yard was surrounded by
	a 4 foot chain link fence.  A strike was if the ball hit the vertical 
	pole on the chain link fence, otherwise a ball.  In the outfield there
	was a 6 foot wooden fence right behind the chin link fence (probably 
	a 6 inch gap between the two).   Homer if you got the ball in between 
	the fences, triple if you hit the chain link fence in the air, double 
	if one bouncer that hit the chain link fence, single if it got past 
	the pitcher, an out if the pitcher got it before the chain link fence.
	Automatic three outs if you hit it over the wooden fence (plus you 
	had to get the ball from the neighbor's yard; she was the type that 
	didn't like youngsters hopping into her yard).  Many a summer afternoon 
	passed that way.

	Kevin

    
    	Nuttin' like a good, rough game of floor hockey.  Got the
    	scars to prove it.  One boundary was a brick wall, the end
    	boundaries were retracted bleachers.  The other side boundary
    	was a huge curtain.  If properly body checked, we would land
    	smack in the middle of the girls on the other side of the
    	curtain.......
    
    Claybroon

Well, it wasn't really a sport, but this is a schoolyard tale...

Our school was in the country, with a large (extremely large) yard for
recess, part of which was right up on the edge of a forest.  There
was chain link fence all around the yard.

Well, in fourth grade at recess, and enterprising bunch of us (maybe
about five) climbed the fence by the woods, and we scavenged some downed
limbs and logs, and pine boughs, and we made a "fort", by using the area
in the corner of the fence.   It took us all of recess.  It was pretty
big (oh probably 10' wide at the widest part) and we even had a little
door opening.

Well, at that point, all of the "boys" gang declared that the fort
was OURs and that no girls were allowed.

Well, when the girls got wind of that, they started trying to
beat us out to recess each day to claim the fort.  Well, a couple of
days they did, and we'd have to drive them out (mainly by digging up
worms and throwing them at the girls).

This went on for about a week, until one day the girls got smart and
came back at us with dirt bombs.   We were holding on pretty good from
inside the fort (there must've been about 10 of us in the fort and
another 15 outside the fort) and scavenging our own dirt bombs when
one guy got hit with a dirt bomb that didn't break up.



He went crying to the teacher's aide, and we all got told to stop.

That afternoon, while we were back in school the janitors dismantled
our fort.....


It was fun while it lasted......



'Saw

    
    Pretty good story 'saw, what are you doing _next_ week for fun?  8^)

    Anyone else think that 'Saw uses SPORTS as a substitute for a
    headshrinker's couch?

Sheesh, I was just relating a story that happened years ago, one that
came to mind when the focus was turnedon recess games, and now everyone's
jumping in the middle of my sh*t.


Some days, it just don't pay to get outta bed in the morning......


8^)

> Some days, it just don't pay to get outta bed in the morning......


Not necessarily bad, depends on the reason.

The Crazy Met

    
  >> Sheesh, I was just relating a story that happened years ago, one that
  >> came to mind when the focus was turnedon recess games, and now everyone's
  >> jumping in the middle of my sh*t.                              ^^^^^^^^^

     Maybe Mac was right, 'Saw. Two people commented on your story. I 
     don't think that quite translates into 'everyone jumping in the 
     middle of your sh*t'. If you want my professional opinion (you're 
     gonna get whether you do or don't), I'd say you're suffering from 
     paranoid delusions brought on by fort deprivation as a child. You 
     labor under the belief that everyone's out to get you. It's you 
     against the world. You have difficulty dealing with authority
     because you associate authority with the janitor who tore down 
     your fort as a child. You're a walking time bomb, pal.

>     your fort as a child. You're a walking time bomb, pal.


Don't push me Tommy.  Don't anyone push me....


Just put the replies in here, one after another, nice and slow.


Don't nobody try any tricky moves with time stamps or anything.

Everyone cooperate and nobody's gonna get hurt.


I never worked for the Post Office, but I know plenty of folks that
did, and I've seen them on the Street delivering the mail.  I know how
Post Office workers get when they're pissed off, so don't anybody
push me.............

  >  focus was turnedon recess games
    
    'saw, throwin dirt at girls is not a "turnedon recess game",in my
    school, turnedon recess games meant a forced stay in the principal's
    office if'n you got caught.
    
    brews

    that's cause he  ordered the gun mail order, a year ago.  

Having 3 sons that are Cowboy fans and a daughter who thinks Phil Rizzuto 
is a good announcer could push someone over the edge :-) :-)

The Crazy Met

    Don't worry 'Saw,
    Tain't nuttin' wrong wif ya.
    And this little fort deprivation twist? A mere glitch that nature takes
    care of for ya.
    You'll be fort-eeeee soon right?  Glitch gone by natural causes.
    
    I'll send you my bill,
    Dr. Freud Ian S. Lipp
    

Good topic...

Piggy-move-up - a baseball game played when you didn't have enough guys to
field 2 teams. Played like baseball only if you were out, you had to go tthe
field and work your way back to bat. You also had to score by your nextat-bat
which made for some pretty daring baserunning.

Pickle-in-the-middle - 2 bases, 2 fielders, and a bunch of guys trying to get
from base to base.

Cage ball - played in the gym with some huge ball made of wire and canvass.
Everybody sits in a circle with one half belonging to one team and the other
half the other team. I think the object was to kick it out of the circle (the
boys didn't play it often, it was mostly a girls thing).

Spud - everybody has a number. a ball gets heaved in the air and a number is
called. Everyone scatters except the person with that number who gets the ball.
As soon as the person with the number gets the ball, they holler "spud". They
then get to take 3 steps (usually running leaps) and then try to hit someone
with it. If hit, you get a letter (s-p-u-d) unless you catch the ball and then
the thrower gets a letter instead. The letter getter then does the heaving of
the ball, calling then number, goto top.

And re .0, at a block party last summer, we all got drunk and played 4-square.
The competion got pretty cut-throat.

Bruce

re: .0

Red Rover.

people on one team link arms and someone from the other team tries to 
break through the chain. 

The Crazy Met

    
    UP AGAINST THE WALL YA MOTHERs!!!!!  STICK 'M UP!!!!!!
    
    Last week I filled my kid's pinewood derby car fulla lead and I'm
    itching to do it again!!!!!!!
    
    (how'd I do 'saw?)
    
    I remain,
    Mr. Cagney's understudy,
    Kev
    
    
    

Hey Kev,

how did that pinewood derby go??

The Crazy Met

Just like in Dirty Harry, I gotsta know

>Pickle-in-the-middle - 2 bases, 2 fielders, and a bunch of guys trying to get
>from base to base.

I know it's friday and all but "Pickle-in-the-middle"? A bunch of guys?

Inquirying minds and all that...

    Geez, Tom, I figured living in the Bible-Belt and all you'd have gotten
    your mind out of the gutter by now.

We played the regular games:

	handball
	dodge
	red rover, etc

On interesting twist to our tag games...

The person who was "it" when the bell rang would have "coodies" for the day, 
unless he/she tagged someone before going in the building.  Sounds easy, 
except for one thing.  A person couldn't get coodies if they held their thumbs
down (the old Roman "off with his haid" thang).  As a result, we used to walk 
around school for the first hour or so with our thumbs down.  Drove the teacher
nuts.

=Bob= 

    re wayback
    
    I cain see the headlines Monday.
    
    "Rough Friday causes Connecticut resident to hack 43 to death with dull
    butter knife."
    
    Remain calm, 'Saw, and have a beer or two on me this weekend.
    
    JaKe
    

>    I cain see the headlines Monday.
>    
>    "Rough Friday causes Connecticut resident to hack 43 to death with dull
>    butter knife."
>    
>    Remain calm, 'Saw, and have a beer or two on me this weekend.
    

Too funny.  Actually, I will have a beer or two, and I'll have them
send ya the bill.


I'm calm, and I'm gonna get outta here pretty quick....8^)


'Saw    

    I won't pay the bill, but, I'd rather owe it to ya than cheat ya out of
    it!!
    
    (8^)*
    
    JaKe
    

    
    
       The game GAUNTLET..
    
                 2 lines of people about 65 feet apart. Person runs threw
    in the middle the 2 lines preceed to try to cake him with balls
    (soccer,kickballs,rubberballs...etc). Well this was fun so we'd try it
    at recess but this time with snowballs on slippery cement, well it led
    to multiple contusions and a broken leg on the same day and the game
    was nevermore.
    
        Something else that happened one day was a girl who was very
    friendly with the boys (we were 9) wanted to play chase so about 12 of
    us started chasing us around the playground, well one dundahead in the
    heat of battle yells out rape her (jokingly). Well she gets scared and
    we all get pulled in and suspended cuz of one dumb smuck.
    
    Chappy

Chappy,

Now I understand how you can be a Yankees fan. Sounds like your
school was a precursor to what now exists in the South Bronx.

The Crazy Met

    >"Rough Friday causes Connecticut resident to hack 43 to death with
    >dull butter knife."
    
    >Remain calm, 'Saw, and have a beer or two on me this weekend.
    
    That's one, who were the other 42 8^)
    
    Marc
    

    Two favorites of mine -
    
    King-of-the-hill   Our schoolyard was hot-top, with a hill on one side. 
    The object was to get to the top, and stay there by repelling anyone
    who tried to displace you.
    
    Half-ball  -  We used to buy a pink rubber ball, a little smaller than
    a tennis ball.  We'd cut it in half.  The bat was a sawed-off
    broomstick.  The ball would be skimmed to the plate, with the rounded
    side up.  Depending on the wind, you could really get that sucker to
    rise or drop, and some great curves could also be thrown.  The good
    parts of this game was that it really improved your batting eye, and
    that no matter how hard the half-ball was hit, it wouldn't break any
    windows.  If you hit it just right and at the very end of the bat, it
    would travel about half as far as a tennis ball hit the same way.
    We played this a lot because the schoolyard wasn't very big and had the
    school buildings on 3 sides.
    
    Lee

>    Half-ball  -  We used to buy a pink rubber ball, a little smaller than
>    a tennis ball.  We'd cut it in half.  The bat was a sawed-off
>    broomstick.  The ball would be skimmed to the plate, with the rounded
>    side up.  Depending on the wind, you could really get that sucker to
>    rise or drop, and some great curves could also be thrown.  The good
>    parts of this game was that it really improved your batting eye, and
>    that no matter how hard the half-ball was hit, it wouldn't break any
>    windows.  If you hit it just right and at the very end of the bat, it
>    would travel about half as far as a tennis ball hit the same way.
>    We played this a lot because the schoolyard wasn't very big and had the
>    school buildings on 3 sides.
    
I've heard of this game before.....  A very good friend of mine played
it, and for the longest time I thought he was making it up, as kind of
a gag.  But I guess this proves it....


'Saw

Half ball - yep played that in da Bronx.   Along wif stick ball and 
acey duecy.

Ring a Lario. 

"Red Rover Red Rover I call [name] over"

Kill the guy with the ball. (an all-time favorite)

Stealing bases.

Trash can lid tag (A city sport if there ever was one.  You flung the
top of a metal trash can like a frisbee, trying to hit someone, and if
you did, they were it.   Can usually ended when garbage can lid either
hit someone not playing or the owner of said can came out and threatened
to kill us.)

Street dodge ball using a spalldeen.

JD

    JD,
    
    on Lawn guyland, Ring a Lario was called Ring-a-leevio
    
    and  
    
    Spauldeen is the correct spelling of the pink ball.
    
    
    hth,
    
    I remain,
    substituting for the spelling cadet,
    Kev
    

    
    Suprised nobody mentioned "SPUD".
    
    A gang of ya gathered around.  The one with the ball tossed the sucker
    as high up as possible and at the same time, called out the name of a
    "victim".  Usually, the victim was either the slowest runner or the
    worst catcher or thrower.  Everybody else ran away like the wind.
    When the victim caught the ball, they's yell "SPUD" which was the
    signal for everybody to freeze in their tracks.
    
    Victim was allowed 3 giant steps towards the closest person.  Our
    house rools allowed the ball to be put down to mark the spot and
    the victim was allowed to take as big a running start as they wanted
    and long jump type "steps" were allowed.  Once the 3 steps were taken,
    the ball was thrown at the closest one.  If they were hit, they got a
    letter.  If'n it missed, the thrower got a letter.
    
    First one to get "S-P-U-D" got to go under-the-mill and git their
    butt spanked!
    
    Of course, under-the-mill is another story.....
    
    
    I remain,
    now explaining why I run so fast!
    Kev
    

    wail,
    mebbe they did but certainly without such a fine explaination
    as *I* did!!!

    Probably asked him about if Mr. T is really gone from the company or
    not.

    
    btw - he's officially gone.  I checked earlier.
    
    I remain,
    curiously ahead alot
    Kev
    

    How many times did I have to say that?  Hey, I haven't pulled any MrT
    Indianigans...
    
    
    Spud