Era · United States

Racket courts and saloon alleys: New York before the clubs (1860s-1887)

1860-1887 · American four-wall

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Before any club or printed code, American handball was a money game played in a handful of New York racket courts and saloon alleys (McQuade's and Regan's on Madison Street, Sweeny's at 159 East 35th), by Irish-born professionals who challenged each other for stakes and called the winner 'champion'. The rules were custom: Phil Casey could describe them to a reporter in 1875 (21 aces, an ace line about 30 ft out, three failed serves count out), but no newspaper of the era printed a code; the one written code, the 23 'Hand Ball Rules' in Ed. James's Manual of Sporting Rules (New York, 1873; Hand Ball Rules (1873), H-111), sat in a sporting publisher's manual, and the one attempt at organization, the 1876 Metropolitan Committee, left no trace after its first notices.

The take

The 'saloon court' is not a slur: it is where the game lived, and the keeper of the court (McQuade, Regan, Sweeny) was the nearest thing to a governing body. Every later institution, the club, the newspaper code, the AAU, grew out of the need to settle stake matches between men who each had their own house rules.

Moments in order

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

by 10 April 1860 · Documented
Earliest report found: an advertisement line in the New-York Daily Tribune for the New York Clipper lists 'Hand Ball in Philadelphia' (10 April 1860). The start of the era is the earliest witness, not a beginning (H-100).
Source: New-York Daily Tribune (New York), 10 April 1860, p. 1
about 3 May 1861 · Documented
A hand-ball match at the Bowery Racket Court, 333 Bowery, admission 25 cents: the game lives inside the racket courts.
Source: The New York Herald (New York), 2 May 1861, p. 12. Also: Chicago Tribune (Chicago), 26 April 1867, p. 2
1867 · Documented
Outside New York the game travels with the Irish: a Memphis alley game on Christmas Day 1867 and a Chicago Fenian paper urging young Irishmen to form hand-ball and hurling clubs.
Source: Public Ledger (Memphis), 23 December 1867, p. 3. Also: The Irish Republic (Chicago), 5 October 1867, p. 13
19 June 1872 · Documented
Inter-city money matches: Casey and Everett of Brooklyn v O'Brien and Foley of Chicago for $1,000, first five games at Chicago.
Source: Chicago Tribune (Chicago), 14 June 1872, p. 6
1874-1875 · Documented
McQuade's Racket and Hand Ball Court, 404 Madison Street, is 'the only place of the kind now in the city'; in December 1875 Casey tells the Herald how the game is played and lists the courts.
Source: The New York Herald (New York), 4 September 1874, p. 5. Also: The New York Herald (New York), 9 December 1875, p. 10
1873 · Documented
The first printed code found: Ed. James's Manual of Sporting Rules (New York, 1873), pp. 76-77, 'Hand Ball Rules', 23 rules: 21 aces, a ball about two inches, an ace line 'supposed to be in the centre of the court', the foot allowed on a short serve, a referee chosen by the players (Hand Ball Rules (1873), H-111). A publisher's text; no club or court is named, and no newspaper of the decade refers to it.
Source: Ed James, Manual of sporting rules (1873), p. 76
Read the rulebook: Hand Ball Rules
22 February 1876 · Documented
The Metropolitan Committee: New York handball and racket players elect a provisional committee at McQuade's to hold an international tournament and form a permanent national organization (H-88). Nothing further has been found.
Source: The New York Herald (New York), 5 March 1876, p. 6
1880-1885 · Documented
Stake matches at Madison Street and Sweeny's Murray Hill court; Casey, now a Brooklyn alderman, plays four-handed games; a court keeper is shot dead on a Sunday night in 1883.
Source: The Sun (New York), 24 November 1880, p. 1. Also: The Sun (New York), 27 October 1880, p. 1; The Society News (Wilmington), 15 December 1883, p. 3; The Sun (New York), 11 June 1883, p. 1; The Sun (New York), 13 March 1884, p. 3; The Sun (New York), 10 October 1884, p. 1; The Sun (New York), 27 November 1885, p. 3
29 November 1887 · Documented
Casey opens his own court in Brooklyn, 297 Degraw Street, the night the first international match (Casey v Lawlor of Dublin) is decided in it, per the Sun's 1890 anniversary note ('Three years ago to-day'): the end of the saloon-court era and the start of the club era. Casey had had a Brooklyn court since at least 1875 (H-90).
Source: The Sun (New York), 29 November 1890, p. 4

What the sources do not show

Pre-1860 New York: no Clipper, Herald or Brooklyn Eagle issue before 1860 has been read (H-100).
The 1870s were swept from Chronicling America only (about 180 of several thousand pages read in the 1890s sweep; the 1870s less); the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the paper of Casey's own city, is unread for the whole era.
What happened to the 1876 Metropolitan Committee (H-88): no later report found.
The 1875 Casey interview is the only newspaper description of the rules in this era. A written code did exist: Ed. James's Manual of Sporting Rules (New York, 1873) prints 23 'Hand Ball Rules' (Hand Ball Rules (1873), H-111 supported; proofed against page images), reprinted by Chadwick 1884 and Spalding's Hand Book of Sporting Rules 1886 (Hand Ball (1886)) and near-verbatim as the Sun's 1889 'set rules' (a collation of the two texts). Who wrote the James code, whether the Clipper printed it earlier, and whether the courts of the 1870s played by it are unknown; no newspaper of the era mentions it.
Courts outside New York (Chicago 1872 and 1881, Memphis 1867, St Louis, Cleveland) are known from single reports each.

Threads that run through this era

Neighboring eras in the United States

Casey's court, the Brooklyn Handball Club and The Sun's rules (1887-1896) later, 1887-1896

Rulebooks cited here

Hand Ball Rules