Era · United States

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

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

12 moments. Each shows its status in words and its source.

1 January 1920 · Documented
The 35-rule four-wall text is in force (Hand Ball (1920), 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).
Source: Amateur Athletic Union, official athletic rules (Library of Congress digitised volume, 1920)
Read the rulebook: Hand Ball
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)): court 24 x 48 ft, 'covered ball' deleted except the leftover in R24 (H-63, H-64).
Source: Robert L. Ripley (ed.), Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1923), p. 69
Read the rulebook: Official Handball Rules of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States
20 November 1922 · Documented
A.A.U. one-wall rules adopted (A.A.U. One-Wall Rules (1922)).
Source: Robert L. Ripley (ed.), Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1923), p. 75
Read the rulebook: A.A.U. One-Wall Rules
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)
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), One-Wall Playing Rules (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928) (1927); HathiTrust full view, not held).
Source: Google Books, Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1928), p. 31 text view (seen 30 October 2026)
Read the rulebooks: Official Handball Playing Rules of the A.A.U. (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928); One-Wall Playing Rules (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928)
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). Contents unseen except 1931.
Source: Internet Archive, Catalog of Copyright Entries 1953-1970, searched for handball (seen 30 October 2026). Also: WorldCat, search for AAU official rules handball (seen 28 October 2026)
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. Also: US Handball Association, "National Champions" (seen 28 October 2026)
1950 · Documented
ushandball.org's champions list marks 1950 as the last A.A.U. year: 'All future years are USHA' (H-101). The A.A.U. went on printing rules (1955, 1957, 1960; H-32).
Source: US Handball Association, "National Champions" (seen 28 October 2026)
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
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).
Source: Internet Archive, Catalog of Copyright Entries 1953-1970, searched for handball (seen 30 October 2026)
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), 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). 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 supported; machine-reviewed).
Source: Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball (American Sports Publishing Company, 1931), p. 65. Also: HathiTrust Digital Library, catalog record 102896696 (seen 28 October 2026)
Read the rulebooks: A.A.U. Soft Ball Four-Wall Rules (in Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball, 1931); A.A.U. Hard Ball Rules (in Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball, 1931); A.A.U. One-Wall Rules (in Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball, 1931)
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)): 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)
Read the rulebook: One-Wall Playing Rules (in Spalding's Official Handball Guide, 1928)

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), the 1955/57/60 volumes search-only (H-32); the 1926-27 guides are LOC physical-only (H-135).
Four of the seven 1923 'Suggested Rule Changes' appear in the 1928 text (H-18), 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).
The 'four-wall hardball' code (American four-wall hardball) has one text (1931, 37 rules adapted from the four-wall code, H-138) 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).
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

Neighboring eras in the United States

One-wall rises in New York (1915-1922) earlier, 1915-1922
The USHA, the common rules and the end of A.A.U. handball (1951-1978) later, 1951-1978