Era · United States

USHA alone: one body, three codes, online rules (1978-)

from 1978 · American four-wall, One-wall (small and big ball), Three-wall

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

With the A.A.U. gone, the USHA governs four-wall, three-wall and one-wall under one rulebook family, publishes the rules on the web ('as of January 26, 2025', with board-minute changes marked in green), keeps a continuous national-champions record (four-wall to 2026, three-wall and one-wall to 2025) and, in its one-wall rules, admits the big ball ('gloves are optional ... big balls can weigh less'). The Irish bodies now borrow from it: the GAA's 2019 1-wall rules and its 40x20 'International 4-Wall' rules are USHA text (H-21, H-24 supported).

The take

What the USHA inherited from the A.A.U. is the game and a few phrases (the instruction to be liberal in calling hinders echoes the wording of 1920), not the text: the A.A.U.'s 1931 book and the USHA's 1990 rules share 5.7% of their five-word runs, and nothing in the borrowing layer links them. The text link, if there is one, runs through the unified rules of 1958-60, which are not transcribed (H-03). The USHA's authority now reaches Ireland by borrowing, not by treaty.

Moments in order

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

1978 · Hypothesis, not yet settled
Start by hypothesis (H-04, H-107): the USHA as sole US governing body.
Source for the whole era: US Handball Association, "Four-Wall Rulebook" (seen 28 October 2026)
about 2005 · Documented
A secondary page says the USHA's 'last complete rulebook' appeared in 2005 (a secondary source): rules move from print to the web page.
Source: US Handball Association, "Four-Wall Rulebook" (seen 28 October 2026)
January 2019 · Documented
GAA Handball's one-wall (Wallball) playing rules describe themselves as consistent with the USHA one-wall rules; 84.7% of its five-word runs (6,251 of 7,380) come from the USHA one-wall text of 2014-01, none of the 229 runs new in the USHA's revision of 27 January 2019 are in it, and 352 runs are Irish Handball Council wording of 2009 (H-21 supported; the edge is machine-reviewed). The GAA's 40x20 book of 2020 took 891 runs directly from the USHA four-wall text of 2015-17 (H-24 supported).
Source: GAA Handball Playing Rules: 1-Wall (Wexford GAA copy) (seen 28 October 2026). Also: Wexford GAA Handball, "Playing rules: 60x30 softball, 40x20, 4-wall" (updated March 2020) (seen 28 October 2026)
26 January 2025 · Documented
USHA Four-Wall Rulebook and One-Wall Rulebook 'as of January 26, 2025' (Four-Wall Rulebook (2025), One-Wall Rulebook (2025), Three-Wall Addendum - Changes from Four-Wall Rules (2025)): court 20 x 40 x 20 ft; one-wall 20 x 34 ft with a 16-ft wall and a 16-ft short line; ball 1 7/8 in, 61 g; gloves and eye protection compulsory; two fault serves; dead-ball and avoidable hinders; changes kept in board minutes.
Source: US Handball Association, "Four-Wall Rulebook" (seen 28 October 2026). Also: US Handball Association, "One-Wall Rulebook" (seen 28 October 2026)
Read the rulebook: Three-Wall Addendum - Changes from Four-Wall Rules
2026 · Documented
USHA national four-wall champions listed through 2026 (USHA national four-wall handball championships).
Source: US Handball Association, "National Champions" (seen 28 October 2026)
20 June 1990 · Documented
'The Official United States Handball Association Handball Rules With Interpretations', adopted 20 June 1990 and printed in 1991, in 46 pages by one catalog record (The Official United States Handball Association Handball Rules With Interpretations and One-Wall and Three-Wall Addendum Revised 1991 (1990); H-131): the earliest USHA rule text transcribed, from later web copies (the June 1972 magazine prints an earlier USHA four-wall text, The USHA prints 'Official USHA Four-Wall Handball Rules' in its June 1972 magazine, naming the rules chairman and a Seattle drafter of the first official USHA rules). It already uses 'avoidable hinder' and 'dead-ball hinder'.
Source: Colorado Handball Association, "The Official United States Handball Association Handball Rules" (Wayback snapshot of 19 May 1998)
Read the rulebook: The Official United States Handball Association Handball Rules With Interpretations and One-Wall and Three-Wall Addendum Revised 1991
14 October 1994 · Documented
'The New and Official' USHA One-Wall Rules, adopted 14 October 1994 (The New and Official United States Handball Association One-Wall Rules With Interpretations 1995 (1994)), on the USHA's web site by January 1997: the earliest USHA one-wall text held; gloves compulsory, no big-ball exception yet.
Source: US Handball Association, "Current Rules" (Wayback snapshot of 31 January 1997). Also: US Handball Association, "USHA One Wall Handball Rules Master Page" (Wayback snapshot of 31 January 1997)
Read the rulebook: The New and Official United States Handball Association One-Wall Rules With Interpretations 1995
31 January 1999 · Documented
The Official USHA Handball Rules, 1999 (The Official USHA Handball Rules, 1999 (1999)); the one-wall rules were revised between January 1998 and August 1999 (H-146). From here the four-wall text is held in a near-annual series to 2025.
Source: Colorado Handball Association, "Part 1" (Wayback snapshot of 14 September 2000)
Read the rulebook: The Official USHA Handball Rules, 1999
December 2004 to 16 January 2005 · Documented
A Three-Wall Addendum, 'changes from four-wall rules' (Three-Wall Addendum - Changes from Four-Wall Rules (2004)), and the 2005 rules (The Official USHA Handball Rules, 2005 (2005)), the year a secondary page calls the last complete printed rulebook.
Source: US Handball Association, "Four-Wall Rulebook" (Wayback snapshot of 13 October 2007). Also: US Handball Association, official rules page (Wayback snapshot of 4 January 2006)
Read the rulebooks: The Official USHA Handball Rules, 2005; Three-Wall Addendum - Changes from Four-Wall Rules
20 June 1990 · Documented
Eye protection, timeouts (three in a 21-point game, two in an 11-point game) and the 11-point tiebreak are first in the texts held in the USHA's rules of 1990 (The Official United States Handball Association Handball Rules With Interpretations and One-Wall and Three-Wall Addendum Revised 1991 (1990)). The Council took all three by 2009, the USWA the timeouts by 2018, the GAA all three by 2020 and the CIJB by 2023.
Source: Colorado Handball Association, "The Official United States Handball Association Handball Rules" (Wayback snapshot of 19 May 1998). Also: Wexford GAA Handball, "Playing Rules" PDF (uploaded August 2016) (seen 28 October 2026); Wexford GAA Handball, "Playing rules: 60x30 softball, 40x20, 4-wall" (updated March 2020) (seen 28 October 2026); CIJB Wallball Rules (English), file dated 23 March 2023 (seen 28 October 2026)
Read the rulebook: The Official United States Handball Association Handball Rules With Interpretations and One-Wall and Three-Wall Addendum Revised 1991
31 January 1999 · Documented
664 of the 1,526 five-word runs new in the four-wall text of 1999 were already in the one-wall text of 1994 (96 shared clauses in Parts 2 to 5); whether the one-wall book led cannot be decided without a four-wall text of 1991-98.
Source: Colorado Handball Association, "Part 1" (Wayback snapshot of 14 September 2000). Also: US Handball Association, "Current Rules" (Wayback snapshot of 31 January 1997)
Read the rulebooks: The Official USHA Handball Rules, 1999; The New and Official United States Handball Association One-Wall Rules With Interpretations 1995

What the sources do not show

USHA rulebooks 1978-1989: none held; from 1990 the four-wall text is held (1990, 1999, 2005, then near-annual 2012-2025) and the one-wall text from 1994, all from web copies; the printed 1991 book (H-131) is unseen.
USHA board minutes (the stated home of rule changes) are not saved; the green-text change markers are lost in the text extract; the one-wall big-ball exception is dated only to after 1994 and by 2025.
Three-wall rules before the 2004 addendum and the three-wall game's own history: nothing beyond the champions list and the 1959 Forest Park court (H-128).
The USHA magazine 1971-2005 (vols 21-55) is in a dark Internet Archive collection; the rest of 1973-2016 is not online.
The era's start (1978) is a secondary claim (H-04, H-107); the 1968 unified booklet without the USHA and the A.A.U.'s 1983 rules citation (H-133) suggest the real boundary is a process, not a year.
Adopting acts: of the USHA's 49 text states, 12 have an adopting body and 2 a chair (Pete Tyson, 1990 and 1999, inferred from his printed interpretations); only the states of 2006-07 name the USHA Board. No committee is named for the revisions of 1999 or 2005, and the board minutes that would hold them are not saved.

Threads that run through this era

Neighboring eras in the United States

The USHA, the common rules and the end of A.A.U. handball (1951-1978) earlier, 1951-1978
Wallball organizes: the big ball finds its bodies (1996-) later, from 1996