Do you know what this sport is called?
Hello, PCMC members! We need your help with identifying the sport represented in these photographs. Our best guesses are Rugby and Gaelic Football, but we are hoping someone who have played the sport or knew someone that did can give us a certain answer. Please click photos to enlarge and comment your answer below. Thank you!
9 Comments
Lee Paris
Looks like a basketball and those are basketball positions? Be who you are And say what you mean. Those that matter don’t care And those that care don’t matter.
On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 9:11 AM The Panama Canal Museum Collection at UF wrote:
> ufpcmcollection posted: “Hello, PCMC members! We need your help with > identifying the sport represented in these photographs. Our best guesses > are Rugby and Gaelic Football, but we are hoping someone who have played > the sport or knew someone that did can give us a certain answer. ” >
bkarrer2013
Maybe it is soccer???? Our daughter played female rugby at BHS in the early 1980s but I have never heard of this other one. Bob karrer
Mimi Stratford Collins
…following…
d. nulik
Even with the photos taken outside, they look like basketball players to me?
Bob Dillon
My guess is… this is American football. Did a google search for round ball football. Led me to history of football search. Led me to Wikipedia History of American Football. Found this picture…and others. Those old balls are much rounder than contemporary balls. snicker.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Unknown_Early_American_Football_Team.jpg.
dlfrench05@aol.com
I’m thinking it might be kick ball, but not sure. The size of the ball makes me think that!!!! Diane Sparks French Balboa 63
Bob Dillon
The Evolution of the Football
From round to watermelon to its present familiar shape, the football has been stoking the passions of fans for over 100 years.
From Round to Not
The football has evolved steadily since the first game was played at Rutgers University in New Jersey on Nov. 6, 1869. But even though the forward pass was legalized in 1906, until the ball took on its present size and shape in 1935, the pass was a nonplay. The ball used in the very first game was round, like a soccer ball. It was tough to carry, and awkward to throw. Then, in 1874, a rugby-type ball was used in a contest between McGill University Foot-Ball-Club and Harvard University Football Club. This new ball looked like a watermelon and wasn’t much easier to throw. But laterals and short flips were becoming common.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/sports/a240/1283226/
Bob Zumbado BHS-1955
Photos posed for in 1925. By then the football had taken to the oval shape, not as pointed as into later years and the present so I don’t think it’s football. Rugby ball is also oval so that’s not rugby in the photos. Ball is bigger than a soccer ball or a ball used for dodge ball. Dodge ball basically was a school yard kids game so I would rule out that these adult men, apparently military, are dodge ballers. The positions named in the photo are essentially basketball positions so I would opt for basketball, but why pose outside instead of the gym and even if they had an outdoor basketball court, why not put the goals in the background? Well,I’m puzzled but the discussion is fun and the research others who commented did was worthwhile and well done. Any other ideas? Another thought is that since they are soldiers as shown by unit names on the photo (Signal Company and Headquarters Company) they could have been playing a made up Army game. I think there used to be an Army fitness manual that had imaginative games outlined for soldier’s units to compete in field meets with tugs of war and other physical games. Just a thought, there may not be anybody alive who really knows.
Dale Clarke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland_national_rugby_union_team#/media/File:Ireland-First-Team-1875.jpg