# The A.A.U. rule codes: four-wall, one-wall, hardball (1920-1950)

In: [Learn](https://handball.theperfectship.com/learn.md) > [History](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history.md) > [Eras](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/eras.md) > The A.A.U. rule codes: four-wall, one-wall, hardball (1920-1950)

Era, United States. 1920-1950. American four-wall, One-wall (small and big ball).

Status: Machine-reviewed. A person has not yet read this page through.

From the 35-rule text in force on 1 January 1920 to the 1950 championships, the A.A.U. was the publisher of American handball's rules: a four-wall code revised in 1922 (court 24 x 50 ft becomes 24 x 48 ft; 'covered ball' dropped), a one-wall code from 1922 (revised 1927), annual Spalding guides (1923-1928), O'Connell's How to Play Handball of 1931 with three A.A.U. codes (soft-ball four-wall, one-wall and hard ball) issued under the A.A.U. National Handball Committee, J. Rogers Flannery chairman, the hard-ball code being the 1922 four-wall text on a 65 x 25 ft court, an 'Official Rules, Handball' serial registered 1932-1942 and printed in 1949 whose titles name the third code 'four-wall hardball' from 1934, and a national four-wall championship every year from 1919 to 1950, with three-wall added in 1950. This record holds the 1920, 1922/23, 1928 and 1931 texts; 1932-1949 are copyright registrations and catalog records, and no newspaper year after 1923 has been swept.

## The take

Thirty years of the American game's rules are a shelf of guides this record does not hold. The two texts we have (1920, 1922/23) show the code was rewritten from scratch once and then tuned; what this record cannot yet show is how the 24 x 48 court, the hard ball and the one-wall game fared between the wars. This era is a reading-room request list, not a history.

## Moments in order

- **1 January 1920** (Documented): The 35-rule four-wall text is in force ([Hand Ball (1920)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1920.md), A.A.U. handbook): court approximately 24 x 50 ft, ceiling at least 25 ft, 'covered ball' defined, hinders to the referee without appeal, 'points' instead of 'aces'. A fresh draft, not a revision of 1903 ([H-83](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-83.md)).
  Source: Amateur Athletic Union, official athletic rules (Library of Congress digitised volume, 1920)
  Read the rulebook: [Hand Ball](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1920.md)
- **1 January 1922** (Documented): The handbook in force 1 Jan 1922 already prints the 1923 text ([Official Handball Rules of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (1923)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1923.md)): court 24 x 48 ft, 'covered ball' deleted except the leftover in R24 ([H-63](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-63.md), [H-64](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-64.md)).
  Source: [Robert L. Ripley (ed.), Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1923)](https://www.loc.gov/item/23002979/), p. 69
  Read the rulebook: [Official Handball Rules of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1923.md)
- **20 November 1922** (Documented): A.A.U. one-wall rules adopted ([A.A.U. One-Wall Rules (1922)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1923.md)).
  Source: [Robert L. Ripley (ed.), Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1923)](https://www.loc.gov/item/23002979/), p. 75
  Read the rulebook: [A.A.U. One-Wall Rules](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1923.md)
- **1923** (Documented): Spalding's Official Handball Guide (ed. Ripley) prints the four-wall rules, the one-wall rules, the GAA hardball rules and seven 'Suggested Rule Changes' (Suggested Rule Changes). The guide's own history credits the A.A.U. with rules 'especially drafted' for 1897.
  Source: [Robert L. Ripley (ed.), Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1923)](https://www.loc.gov/item/23002979/)
- **1928** (Documented): Spalding's Official Handball Guide 1928 prints A.A.U. playing rules (p. 31), one-wall rules (p. 34) and Irish handball rules (p. 37); the four-wall standard court is now 22 x 46 x 22 ft (Rule 1) and two short balls of any kind put the server out (Rule 11) ([Official Handball Playing Rules of the A.A.U. (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928) (1928)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1928.md), [One-Wall Playing Rules (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928) (1927)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1928.md); HathiTrust full view, not held).
  Source: [Google Books, Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1928), p. 31 text view (seen 30 October 2026)](https://books.google.com/books?id=9jNMAQAAMAAJ)
  Read the rulebooks: [Official Handball Playing Rules of the A.A.U. (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1928.md); [One-Wall Playing Rules (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1928.md)
- **1932-1949** (Documented): A.A.U. handball rules are registered for copyright in 1932, 1933, 1934 (the first registration naming four-wall, one-wall and four-wall hardball), 1935, 1936, 1939 and 1942 (the A.A.U. itself now the claimant), continuing as the serial 'Official Rules, Handball; four-wall, one-wall, four-wall hardball, codeball ...' (LC ca33000972) to the 1949 printing (Official rules handball : four-wall, one-wall, four-wall handball (1949), Official rules handball : four-wall, one-wall, four-wall handball (1949), Official rules handball, four-wall, one-wall, four-wall hardball; codeball, volleyball, horseshoe pitching (1949); [H-28](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-28.md)). Contents unseen except 1931.
  Source: [Internet Archive, Catalog of Copyright Entries 1953-1970, searched for handball (seen 30 October 2026)](https://archive.org/details/copyrightrecords). Also: [WorldCat, search for AAU official rules handball (seen 28 October 2026)](https://search.worldcat.org/)
- **1919-1950** (Documented): The A.A.U. national four-wall championship runs every year from 1919 (Los Angeles, Ranft) to 1950 (Chicago, Schneider); a three-wall national is listed for 1950 (AAU national four-wall handball championships, AAU national three-wall handball championships).
  Source: [Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 28 April 1919, p. 17](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1919-04-28/ed-1/?sp=17). Also: [US Handball Association, "National Champions" (seen 28 October 2026)](https://www.ushandball.org/about/national-champions/)
- **1950** (Documented): ushandball.org's champions list marks 1950 as the last A.A.U. year: 'All future years are USHA' ([H-101](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-101.md)). The A.A.U. went on printing rules (1955, 1957, 1960; [H-32](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-32.md)).
  Source: [US Handball Association, "National Champions" (seen 28 October 2026)](https://www.ushandball.org/about/national-champions/)
- **20 November 1923 to 26 December 1923** (Documented): The A.A.U. awards its 1924 nationals in four-wall (senior at Los Angeles, junior at Pittsburgh), one-wall (New York) and hard-ball: three codes under one federation at once. The era's defining moment (Highlights, rubric 4).
  Source: [The Seattle Star (Seattle), 20 November 1923, p. 13](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn87093407/1923-11-20/ed-1/?sp=13)
- **1926-1927** (Documented): Spalding's Official Handball Guide issues of 1926 and 1927 are registered (Spalding's Official Handball Guide (AAU rules) (1926), Spalding's Official Handball Guide (AAU rules) (1927); LC holds them, physical-only); expected to print the A.A.U. four-wall and one-wall rules of their year ([H-135](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-135.md)).
  Source: [Internet Archive, Catalog of Copyright Entries 1953-1970, searched for handball (seen 30 October 2026)](https://archive.org/details/copyrightrecords)
- **1931** (Documented): Charles J. O'Connell's How to Play Handball (the successor of the Spalding guide, 'including official rules for play') prints three A.A.U. codes: soft-ball four-wall (34 rules, now with an A.A.U. ball specification of 2.3 oz, [H-142](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-142.md)), one-wall (39 rules) and hard ball (37 rules), the last adapted from the 1920s four-wall text rather than from the Irish rules ([H-138](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-138.md)). The only transcribed American rule texts between 1928 and 1990. The three codes were issued under the A.A.U. National Handball Committee, J. Rogers Flannery chairman and O'Connell vice-chairman (the committee list is printed; no adoption act is), the first committee with a named chairman attached to a text state in this record. The hard-ball code is the 1922 four-wall text on a 65 x 25 ft court (minimum 50 x 22) with the 1931 tournament provisions added, and takes 3 of its 1,247 five-word runs from the Irish 1903 text printed beside it in the 1923 and 1928 guides ([H-138](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-138.md) supported; machine-reviewed).
  Source: [Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball (American Sports Publishing Company, 1931)](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435007267735), p. 65. Also: [HathiTrust Digital Library, catalog record 102896696 (seen 28 October 2026)](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102896696)
  Read the rulebooks: [A.A.U. Soft Ball Four-Wall Rules (in Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball, 1931)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1931.md); [A.A.U. Hard Ball Rules (in Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball, 1931)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-hardball-1931.md); [A.A.U. One-Wall Rules (in Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball, 1931)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1931.md)
- **20 November 1927** (Documented): The A.A.U. annual meeting of 20 November 1927 adopts revised one-wall rules ([One-Wall Playing Rules (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928) (1927)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1928.md)): short line 14 ft, a service line 9 ft behind it, preliminary matches best of three, semi-finals and finals best of five.
  Source: [Google Books, Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1928), p. 31 text view (seen 30 October 2026)](https://books.google.com/books?id=9jNMAQAAMAAJ)
  Read the rulebook: [One-Wall Playing Rules (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1928.md)

## What the sources do not show

- No American rule text between O'Connell 1931 and the USHA's 1990 rules is transcribed: the 1932-42 issues are copyright registrations, the 1949 printing a WorldCat record ([H-28](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-28.md)), the 1955/57/60 volumes search-only ([H-32](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-32.md)); the 1926-27 guides are LOC physical-only ([H-135](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-135.md)).
- Four of the seven 1923 'Suggested Rule Changes' appear in the 1928 text ([H-18](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-18.md)), but the year of adoption between the 1923 and 1928 guides is unknown; the court was 22 x 46 by 1928, and when it went from 22 x 46 to 20 x 40 (1932-1989) is unknown ([H-106](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-106.md)).
- The 'four-wall hardball' code (American four-wall hardball) has one text (1931, 37 rules adapted from the four-wall code, [H-138](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/open-questions/#H-138.md)) and no championship results; the hard-ball national awarded for 1924 has no report.
- The facts stop at the end of 1923 (H1b import); no newspaper year between 1924 and 1950 has been swept, so the era's events (champions, courts, the glass court, the depression and war years) are champion rolls only.
- The Y.M.C.A.'s parallel rules (leaflets 1929, revisions 1940 and 1952) are registrations and seller photographs; its nationals (from 1925, secondary) are undocumented ([The Y.M.C.A. and the gym game](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/the-ymca-and-the-gym-game.md)).
- No one-wall championship results before 1959 (the USHA list) are recorded; the A.A.U. one-wall nationals of the 1920s-40s are missing.
- The era is not split at 1931 (the gym game, three-wall's beginnings) because no dated fact falls in 1930-1949; the split test is recorded in the project's review of eras and threads, to be run once the later facts are added.

## Threads that run through this era

- [Hinder: a word that changed meaning](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/hinder-a-word-that-changed-meaning.md)
- [One-wall becomes its own game](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/one-wall-becomes-its-own-game.md)
- [Professionals and amateurs: the world title and the A.A.U.](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/professionals-and-amateurs-the-world-title-and-the-aau.md)
- [The ball: from 'about two inches' to 1 7/8 in and 61 grams](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/the-ball.md)
- [The court shrinks: 60 x 30 in Ireland, 65 x 24 to 20 x 40 in America](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/the-court-shrinks.md)
- [The serve: one ace line, then two lines, then the short line](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/the-serve.md)
- [The Y.M.C.A. and the gym game](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/the-ymca-and-the-gym-game.md)
- [Who writes the rules: court keeper, newspaper, federation, board](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/who-writes-the-rules.md)

## Neighboring eras in the United States

- [One-wall rises in New York (1915-1922)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/eras/us-one-wall-rises-in-new-york.md) (earlier, 1915-1922)
- [The USHA, the common rules and the end of A.A.U. handball (1951-1978)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/eras/us-usha-and-the-common-rules.md) (later, 1951-1978)

## Rulebooks cited here

- [Hand Ball](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1920.md)
- [Official Handball Rules of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1923.md)
- [A.A.U. One-Wall Rules](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1923.md)
- [Official Handball Playing Rules of the A.A.U. (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1928.md)
- [One-Wall Playing Rules (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1928.md)
- [A.A.U. Soft Ball Four-Wall Rules (in Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball, 1931)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1931.md)
- [A.A.U. Hard Ball Rules (in Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball, 1931)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-hardball-1931.md)
- [A.A.U. One-Wall Rules (in Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball, 1931)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1931.md)

## Sources

- Amateur Athletic Union, official athletic rules (Library of Congress digitised volume, 1920)
- [Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball (American Sports Publishing Company, 1931)](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435007267735)
- [Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 28 April 1919, p. 17](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1919-04-28/ed-1/?sp=17)
- [Google Books, Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1928), p. 31 text view (seen 30 October 2026)](https://books.google.com/books?id=9jNMAQAAMAAJ)
- [HathiTrust Digital Library, catalog record 102896696 (seen 28 October 2026)](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102896696)
- [Internet Archive, Catalog of Copyright Entries 1953-1970, searched for handball (seen 30 October 2026)](https://archive.org/details/copyrightrecords)
- [Robert L. Ripley (ed.), Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1923)](https://www.loc.gov/item/23002979/)
- [The Seattle Star (Seattle), 20 November 1923, p. 13](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn87093407/1923-11-20/ed-1/?sp=13)
- [US Handball Association, "National Champions" (seen 28 October 2026)](https://www.ushandball.org/about/national-champions/)
- [WorldCat, search for AAU official rules handball (seen 28 October 2026)](https://search.worldcat.org/)

## Corrections

Found a mistake, or a source we missed? Email perfectshipllc@gmail.com with the subject "History correction: The A.A.U. rule codes: four-wall, one-wall, hardball (1920-1950) (/history/eras/us-aau-rule-codes/)". Please name the page and, if you can, the source.