# One-wall: New York's own game

In: [Learn](https://handball.theperfectship.com/learn.md) > [History](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history.md) > [The Handball Record](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/record.md) > One-wall: New York's own game

Chapter 5 of 10. 1898 to 1923. Eras: One-wall rises in New York (1915-1922).

Status: Draft, machine-reviewed. A person has not yet read this chapter through.

On Monday, 26 April 1915, the sporting page of *the Evening World* described a tournament match played at Van Kelton Field, next door to the West Side Y.M.C.A. in New York. Fred Staddleberger, who had come forward as the West Side title holder, beat J. L. Verstraten of the Twenty-third Street branch, winning the three matches out of five that the tournament required and a silver cup. The paper's writer, explaining the game to readers, said the match was played outdoors on a one-wall court, the ball landing in the court "much in the same manner as tennis," with gloves instead of racquets. He added that handball had suddenly recovered its popularity and that clubs were installing extra courts indoors, on roofs and in vacant lots. The paper gives no date for the match itself. It is the earliest one-wall tournament report I have.

The Young Men's Christian Associations had a code for a court with a service wall sixteen years before. The Athletic League's handbook of 1899 printed a short set of rules, marked as approved by the Physical Directors' Conference in 1898, with a service wall, a service line and a tennis ball. A committee of the Conference revised the code at Thousand Island Park in June 1900, and the League's handbooks printed that text in 1904 (the Canadian issue), 1906, 1907 and 1910. The 1913 handbook headed its revision "Single Wall Court"; J. H. Scott revised it for that issue, and it recommended the Irish Ace ball, about an inch and seven-eighths across, in place of the tennis ball. The 1915 handbook printed the same text beside new four-wall rules. Whether the 1898 text is the parent of the 1900 one is not shown by the text read.

Open-sided play had also been written into a New York code. *The Sun* printed its set of rules on 17 March 1889, and rule 23 dealt with a court where "there are only boundary lines drawn, and no side walls": a ball rebounding outside the side line was foul. No report of such a court in the 1880s has been found, and nothing links the *Sun*'s rule or the Y.M.C.A.'s code to the outdoor game of 1915. The Y.M.C.A. is the nearer neighbor, since Van Kelton Field stood beside one of its buildings, but proximity is all the record offers.

A book on the game appeared the same year. A copy of James I. Brokaw's treatise "How to Play American Hand Ball," in Spalding's Athletic Library, carries a copyright-office stamp of 18 December 1915. Its 55 rules call for a board 20 feet wide and 10 high, a floor 20x26 feet with the service line exactly midway between the front line and the board, which puts it 13 feet from the board, and a rule that gloves must be worn. *The Sun* of 9 August 1916, answering a correspondent, gave 26-foot side lines, 20-foot front lines and 13 feet from service line to board, figures that agree with Brokaw's floor (the same answer put the whole court at 60 by 40 feet), and told him not to confuse American handball with the Irish four-wall game. The column does not name Brokaw or his book, and no newspaper I have read does. How his numbers reached the *Sun*'s columnist is not known.

The game appeared wherever there was a wall. On 17 February 1916 *the Norwich Bulletin* described the new Y.M.C.A. building at New London, Connecticut, whose street floor held a one-wall court. On Saturday, 26 February, Columbia beat Yale, 7-0, in the first match of the Intercollegiate Handball League on Columbia's own court; *the Tribune* headlined its report "One-wall court handicaps Yale," and said the New Haven men were used to four-wall courts. When Columbia took all seven matches at Princeton on 7 March, the *Tribune* noted that Princeton's courts had a back wall.

Handball was also reaching the schools. On 7 February 1916 *the Evening World* reported that 4,000 elementary schoolboys had entered a tournament, singles and doubles, played in school yards. The report does not say how many walls the yards offered. In December *the Sun* headlined that handball had been adopted as a Public Schools Athletic League sport. In February 1917 the *Evening World* reported the first tournament on the roof of the New York Athletic Club, where, the paper said, the sky was the ceiling.

By 1920 the papers were carrying announcements. In September *the Washington Times* announced an exhibition with the leather handball between Jim Kelly, who played for the Business Men's Club, and Pete Burke, from Phil Casey's old court in Degraw Street, Brooklyn. In October *the Herald* announced that entries were closing for an open handicap singles championship on the courts of the Van Kelton Stadium, 57th Street and Eighth Avenue, and listed Kelly, "world's champion," among the scratch men. I have found no report of either event, and neither notice says how many walls the courts had. In May 1921 *the Tribune* announced that the Brighton Beach Baths at Coney Island had built twelve regulation courts, to be opened free to the public, and the A.A.U. held outdoor tournaments there that summer and the next. The papers of those years do not state the walls. A 1923 Spalding guide article, undated in the lines read, says almost two thousand men used the one-wall courts at Brighton on a Sunday, but whether the twelve of 1921 were among them is not shown. *The Herald* of 12 December 1921 reported that Jack Byrne of the West Side Y.M.C.A. had beaten William Sakman of the Trinity Club, Brooklyn, in five games the day before, in the final of the Van Kelton championship, played under the A.A.U.'s auspices.

In March 1922 forty-two teams started play at the Crescent Athletic Club in Brooklyn in what *the Herald* called the first New York State doubles one-wall championship; Robert Powers Jr. and William F. Wigmore, an unattached pair, won it on 17 March. The national championships at the Milwaukee Athletic Club that month were previewed by *the Tribune* as four-wall, but the *Tribune*'s year review of 24 December said the doubles, like the singles, had been played on a one-wall court. Which was right is not settled. In October *the Evening World* announced a Metropolitan one-wall singles championship under the Van Kelton Handball Club, and on 13 November the *Tribune* reported Jack Byrnes of the West Side Y.M.C.A. winning the 1922 Metropolitan title in straight games over Powers. That report does not name the type of court; the identification rests on the venue and the dates, and the *Tribune*'s review of 24 December says the Metropolitan District decided its championship at four-wall, with William Sakman crowned, so whether Byrnes won on a one-wall court is open. On 13 December *the Evening World* ran a feature on handball played on roofs, in basements and on streets. Harry J. Kelton, who kept five public courts near Columbus Circle, put the growth at 300 percent in a year, and the paper wrote: "Nine years ago the sport was little known in New York."

The A.A.U. adopted its one-wall rules on 20 November 1922, and they are not Brokaw's rules revised. Spalding's guide of 1923 prints them under the line "Adopted at Annual Meeting, November 20, 1922." They share little wording with Brokaw's 55 rules and use other terms: the A.A.U. has a short line, a rear line, a tally and a hand out where Brokaw has a service line, a front line and a putout, and the two codes penalize a ball that strikes an opponent differently. They follow instead the Union's own four-wall text as revised in 1922, adapted to the one-wall game, with many rules carried over nearly word for word. The rule on a hinder called intentionally is word for word the four-wall rule; so are the coin toss, the 21-point game and the referee's final decision. The court is 20x34 feet with a wall 16 feet high and a short line at least 13 feet from the board, the same distance as Brokaw's service line, though whether the drafters took it from him is open. Brokaw's book may still be the game's parent; it is not the text's. A Y.M.C.A. code for a service-wall court is older than both. The evidence is the comparison of the printed texts; who drafted the rules is not known.

What the papers show of the revision is thin. An Associated Press item of 12 November 1922, printed in *the Birmingham Age-Herald*, listed "numerous minor changes" in handball among the amendments sought at the A.A.U. convention of 19 to 21 November. The *Tribune*'s review on 24 December said that, with more than fifty new courts in the New York district, the present set of rules was to be revised and added to by the national committee on handball. The next year's guide printed seven changes to the four-wall rules suggested by the guide's editor, Robert L. Ripley, several of which match rules of the one-wall code, the two-fault hand out among them. That the younger game was already shaping the older one is plausible, but no adoption of the changes has been found.

Nothing in the New York papers on outdoor play between *the Sun*'s rule of 1889 and the Van Kelton report of 1915 has been looked for, so the gap between them is unmeasured and not empty. The newspapers of 1917 and 1918 were swept thinly, and *the Brooklyn Daily Eagle*, the paper of the boroughs where the game was played, has not been read. The minutes of the convention of 20 November 1922 and the names of the drafters have not been found. A tribute to Charles J. O'Connell in the USHA's magazine of December 1971 credits him with helping build the first one-wall court at Brighton Beach in 1909. That is earlier than any other one-wall date the record holds, and no source from 1909 has been found.

The A.A.U. convention at Detroit closed on 20 November 1923, and *the Seattle Star* reported that day that the senior and junior handball nationals had been awarded. A month later *the Washington Times* printed the Union's list of national awards, and among them was "Handball (one wall), at New York on dates to be announced later," beside the four-wall nationals at Los Angeles and Pittsburgh and a hard-ball championship at Brooklyn.

## Where to next

- Previous: [Amateurs and world champions](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/record/04-amateurs-and-world-champions.md) (Van Kelton Field, April 1915)
- Next: [Codes on paper: the A.A.U. rule books and the gym game](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/record/06-codes-on-paper.md) (the 1923 guide)

## What this draws on

### Eras

- [One-wall rises in New York (1915-1922)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/eras/us-one-wall-rises-in-new-york.md)

### Threads

- [One-wall becomes its own game](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/threads/one-wall-becomes-its-own-game.md)

### People

- [Fred Staddleberger](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/people/fred-staddleberger.md)
- [J. L. Verstraten](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/people/j-l-verstraten.md)
- [Charles J. O'Connell](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/people/charles-j-oconnell.md)

### Organizations

- [Amateur Athletic Union of the United States](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/organizations/aau.md)

### Courts and places

- [Brighton Beach Baths handball courts](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/places/brighton-beach-baths-coney-island.md)
- [Phil Casey's court](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/places/phil-caseys-court-brooklyn.md)

### Rulebook editions

- [Hand Ball Rules](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/ymca-onewall-1900.md)
- [Hand Ball Rules: Single Wall Court](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/ymca-onewall-1913.md)
- [Rules of American Hand Ball](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/brokaw-american-1916.md)
- [The set rules of the game](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/sun-fourwall-1889.md)
- [A.A.U. One-Wall Rules](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-onewall-1923.md)
- [Official Handball Rules of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States](https://handball.theperfectship.com/rulebooks/aau-fourwall-1923.md)

### Dated facts

- [1915: Open handicap handball tournament at the Van Kelton field, finals Thanksgiving afternoon](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1915.md)
- [1915: Outdoor single-wall handball tournament match with gloves, Van Kelton Field next to the West Side Y.M.C.A., New York: Staddleberger beat Verstraten](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1915.md)
- [1916: 4,000 New York elementary schoolboys enter a handball tournament, 'the famous Irish game'](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1916.md)
- [1916: Columbia beats Princeton, all seven matches, at Princeton in the Intercollegiate Handball League; Princeton's courts have a back wall](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1916.md)
- [1916: Columbia beats Yale 7-0 in the opening Intercollegiate Handball League match on Columbia's single-wall court; the Tribune headlines 'One-wall court handicaps Yale'](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1916.md)
- [1916: Handball adopted as a Public Schools Athletic League sport, classed among championships](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1916.md)
- [1916: The new Y.M.C.A. building at New London, Conn., has a one-wall court on the street floor (and a five-wall court in the basement), as printed in the Norwich Bulletin](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1916.md)
- [1916: The Sun answers a reader: American handball court, 26-ft side lines, 20-ft front lines, 13 ft from service line to board; hinder defined; not Irish four-wall](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1916.md)
- [1917: Rex Beach plays 'snowbird handball' on the New York Athletic Club roof; first roof tournament, sky for a ceiling, back wall](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1917.md)
- [1920: Jim Kelly and Pete Burke (of Casey's old Degraw St. court) are to play a leather-ball exhibition; the Van Kelton Stadium (57th St. and 8th Ave.) open singles handicap championship, in a Herald item, lists Kelly as 'world's champion'](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1920.md)
- [1921: A.A.U. outdoor handball tournaments on the Brighton Beach Baths' seaside courts, July-October 1921 (first major tournament 23 July; second from 11 September, finals 25 September; Sakman winner of singles and doubles in the first)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1921.md)
- [1921: Metropolitan Association A.A.U. handball championship at the Van Kelton Stadium courts (57th St. and 8th Ave.): Jack Byrne (West Side Y.M.C.A.) beat William Sakman in five games on 11 December](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1921.md)
- [1921: Tribune: the Brighton Beach Baths (Coney Island) has constructed twelve 'regulation' handball courts, to be opened free to the public; 'American handball' to be revived on a pretentious scale; July tournament planned](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1921.md)
- [1922: A.A.U. national convention (19-21 Nov 1922): amendments sought included 'numerous minor changes' to handball rules; 1923 national handball championships awarded to St. Paul (senior) and Pittsburgh (junior)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1922.md)
- [1922: A.A.U. national handball championships at the Milwaukee Athletic Club: Art Schinner beat William Sakman for the singles; Gold and Laswell (Los Angeles) won the senior doubles; format reported as four-wall (preview) and one-wall (year review)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1922.md)
- [1922: A.A.U. tournaments on the 'new courts' of the Brighton Beach Baths, Coney Island, May-September 1922 (singles/doubles, New York v. Boston intercity match 29 July, invitation tournament at Manhattan Beach Baths); Murray Vernon the leading player](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1922.md)
- [1922: Evening World feature: handball played on roofs, basements, clubs, colleges and streets; Kelton's five public courts near Columbus Circle up 300% in a year; 'Nine years ago the sport was little known in New York'](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1922.md)
- [1922: First New York State doubles one-wall handball championship at the Crescent Athletic Club, Brooklyn: 42 teams; won by Robert Powers Jr. and William F. Wigmore](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1922.md)
- [1922: Metropolitan Association A.A.U. singles one-wall championship at the Van Kelton Handball Club courts (58th St. and 8th Ave.): Jack Byrnes (West Side Y.M.C.A.) beat Robert Powers 21-12, 21-14, 21-12](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1922.md)
- [1922: Tribune annual review: with more than fifty new courts in the New York district the 'present set of rules is to be revised and added to by the National A. A. U. committee on handball'](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1922.md)
- [1923: A.A.U. awards its 1924 national handball championships: four-wall senior at Los Angeles, four-wall junior at Pittsburgh, one-wall at New York, hard-ball at Brooklyn (convention at Detroit closed 20 Nov 1923)](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1923.md)
- [1971: The USHA's December 1971 tribute to Charles O'Connell lists his handball diary from a first one-wall court at Brighton Beach in 1909 to the world championship of 1964](https://handball.theperfectship.com/history/years/1971.md)

### Open questions it touches

- H-97 (open): By April 1915 one-wall handball, played outdoors with gloves, was a tournament game in New York City: the Evening World (26 Apr 1915 p.12) reports a match at the 'Van Kelton Field, next door to the West Side Y. M. C. A.' between a West Side and a 23rd Street branch Y. M. C. A. player that 'had but one wall to the tournament court' and was played with gloves, and the paper says the sport has 'suddenly recovered all its former popularity' with courts installed 'indoors, on roofs and even in vacant lots'. This precedes Brokaw's book (copyright 1915, deposit stamp 18 Dec 1915) and fits the game described in it (gloves, R50); it does not show that Brokaw's rules were used
- H-105 (open): The Sun's 1889 code already provided for courts 'with boundary lines drawn, and no side walls' (The set rules of the game (1889) rule 23: a ball rebounding outside the side boundary line is foul), so open-sided handball was played under the New York rules in 1889, a generation before the first one-wall tournament reports of 1915 (H-97)
- H-50 (supported): The 1923 A.A.U. one-wall rules (35 rules, A.A.U. One-Wall Rules (1922)) were not drafted as a revision of Brokaw's 1915 "Rules of American Hand Ball" (55 rules, Rules of American Hand Ball (1916)): they share little wording and use different terms (A.A.U. "short line", "rear line", "tally", "hand out", linesman/referee/scorekeeper vs Brokaw "service line", "front line", "putout", referee and umpire) and different penalties (A.A.U. R18: ball hitting an adversary before the wall is dead and replayed; Brokaw R13: a "hinder", two hinders = point or putout). If H-05 holds, the descent is of the game, not of the text. Narrows H-05
- H-51 (open): The A.A.U. 1922 short line "at least 13 feet from the board" (A.A.U. One-Wall Rules (1922) R1) keeps Brokaw's service-line distance: Brokaw's 26-ft floor has the service line "exactly in the middle between the front line and the board" (Rules of American Hand Ball (1916) R54), i.e. 13 ft, while the court grew from 26 to 34 ft long and the wall from a 10-ft board to 16 ft
- H-62 (supported): Same claim as the second row headed "H-57" (R15, Brokaw review: the A.A.U. one-wall rules of 1922 were drafted by adapting the A.A.U. four-wall rules, with one-wall-specific changes matching Brokaw R1, R6-R9, R44). That row was appended under an ID already taken by the Deshong 1903 row a moment earlier; it is renumbered H-62 here. Cite it as H-62
- H-05 (narrowed): The one-wall rules descend from Brokaw's "American hand ball" (1915/16), via the A.A.U. one-wall rules printed in Spalding 1923, to USHA one-wall
- H-16 (supported): LOC item 16024697 (cataloged 1916) is a copy of the 1915 first edition of Brokaw's How to Play American Hand Ball (it prints "Copyright, 1915"), so it may be the same edition as LOC 16001736
- H-113 (open): The March 1922 A.A.U. national handball championships at the Milwaukee Athletic Club were played one-wall, not four-wall: the New-York Tribune of 24 Dec 1922 says the singles and doubles titles were 'played at one wall' (page image checked), whereas the Tribune of 15 Mar 1922 previewed them as 'four wall' championships and the USHA list says 'AAU Four-Wall, Milwaukee'
- H-114 (open): The twelve 'regulation' handball courts that the Brighton Beach Baths (Coney Island) opened free to the public in May 1921 (Tribune 1921-05-15 p20) were one-wall courts, the nucleus of the 'no less than twenty' one-wall courts described in the 1923 Spalding guide; the newspapers of 1921-22 never state the wall count
- H-136 (open): The 'Y.M.C.A. Hand Ball Rules' indexed in 1909 (Y.M.C.A. Hand Ball Rules (index entry) (1909)) are the YMCA single-wall-court rules 'Revised by a Committee of the Physical Directors' Conference at Thousand Island Park, June, 1900', printed in the YMCA Athletic League handbooks 1904 (Canada) to 1913; the YMCA four-wall court rules first appear in the 1915 handbook ('Adopted by Physical Directors' Society, Asilomar, Cal., May, 1915'). If so the 1909 edition is a one-wall (single wall) code, not four-wall.
- H-139 (open): The YMCA single-wall 'Hand Ball Rules' revised at Thousand Island Park in June 1900 (Hand Ball Rules (1900); printed 1904-1910) replaced an earlier YMCA code headed 'Approved by the Physical Directors' Conference, 1898' (13 numbered rules; committee W. E. Day, H. H. Wikel, C. H. Carey) printed in the 1899 YMCA Athletic League handbook, so the 1898 text is the parent of the 1900 edition.
- H-148 (open): The USHA magazine's 1971 tribute to Charles J. O'Connell (Handball, Dec 1971 p.17) credits him with 'instrumental construction' of the first one-wall court at Brighton Beach in 1909 and with the first printed handball rules book in 1930; the 1909 date is earlier than any one-wall evidence we hold (1913-1915, H-97) and the Brighton Beach courts we hold date from 1921 (H-114), and the 1930 book claim is contradicted by printed rule books of 1893-1928, so the 1909 claim is at best an early date for outdoor courts at Brighton Beach Baths
- H-65 (open): The seven 'Suggested Rule Changes' of the 1923 guide (p. 73) aimed to bring the four-wall rules into line with the A.A.U. one-wall rules adopted 20 Nov 1922: P1 = 1W R9 (two faults = hand out), P3 = 1W R18 (ball hitting adversary dead), P4 first half = 1W R13 (receiver cannot play a short), P7 in part = 1W R7, P2 in part = 1W R35

## Sources

- [Athletic League of the Young Men's Christian Associations of Canada, Official Handbook (1904)](https://archive.org/details/cihm_85174)
- [Athletic League of the Young Men's Christian Associations of North America, Official Handbook (1913)](https://archive.org/details/officialhandbook05athl)
- [Charles J. O'Connell, How to Play Handball (American Sports Publishing Company, 1931)](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435007267735)
- [CIJB Wallball Rules (English), file dated 23 March 2023 (seen 28 October 2026)](https://cijb.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/wallball_eng-1.pdf)
- [eBay listing 206605328625: seller photographs of the unified handball playing rules (Y.M.C.A., 1960) (seen 30 October 2026)](https://www.ebay.com/itm/206605328625)
- [eBay listing 800810243429: seller photographs of "Handball Official Unified Playing Rules" (A.A.U., J.W.B., Y.M.C.A., 1968) (seen 30 October 2026)](https://www.ebay.com/itm/800810243429)
- [GAA Handball Playing Rules: 1-Wall (Wexford GAA copy) (seen 28 October 2026)](https://wexfordgaahandball.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Playing-Rules-1-wall.pdf)
- [GAA Handball Playing Rules: 4-Wall, Wallball, 60x30 Softball and Hardball (Wexford GAA copy), file dated 29 May 2025 (seen 28 October 2026)](https://wexfordgaahandball.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Playing-Rules-4-Wall-Wallball-60x30-Softball-Hardball-2025.pdf)
- [Google Books, Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1928), p. 31 text view (seen 30 October 2026)](https://books.google.com/books?id=9jNMAQAAMAAJ)
- [Handball (USHA), December 1971](https://archive.teamusa.com/-/media/usa_racquetball/documents/magazine/archived-issues/handball-magazine/1971/1971_hb_dec24fa.pdf?la=en&hash=ACEEF2D04DD71FFF1E5D5CB043508DFA62593534)
- [James I. Brokaw, How to Play American Hand Ball (1915)](https://www.loc.gov/item/16024697/)
- [Maurice W. Deshong, The Game of Hand Ball and How to Play It (1893)](https://www.loc.gov/item/ca05001384/)
- [New-York Tribune (New York), 10 September 1922, p. 16](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1922-09-10/ed-1/?sp=16)
- [New-York Tribune (New York), 13 November 1922, p. 10](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1922-11-13/ed-1/?sp=10)
- [New-York Tribune (New York), 15 March 1922, p. 14](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1922-03-15/ed-1/?sp=14)
- [New-York Tribune (New York), 15 May 1921, p. 20](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1921-05-15/ed-1/?sp=20)
- [New-York Tribune (New York), 23 July 1921, p. 8](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1921-07-23/ed-1/?sp=8)
- [New-York Tribune (New York), 24 December 1922, p. 12](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1922-12-24/ed-1/?sp=12)
- [New-York Tribune (New York), 27 February 1916, p. 15](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1916-02-27/ed-2/?sp=15)
- [New-York Tribune (New York), 6 September 1921, p. 13](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1921-09-06/ed-1/?sp=13)
- [New-York Tribune (New York), 8 March 1916, p. 14](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1916-03-08/ed-1/?sp=14)
- [Norwich Bulletin (Norwich), 17 February 1916, p. 8](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014086/1916-02-17/ed-1/?sp=8)
- [Robert L. Ripley (ed.), Spalding's Official Handball Guide (1923)](https://www.loc.gov/item/23002979/)
- [The Birmingham Age-Herald (Birmingham), 13 November 1922, p. 6](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85038485/1922-11-13/ed-1/?sp=6)
- [The Birmingham Age-Herald (Birmingham), 16 November 1920, p. 10](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85038485/1920-11-16/ed-1/?sp=10)
- [The Evening World (New York), 13 December 1922, p. 25](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1922-12-13/ed-1/?sp=25)
- [The Evening World (New York), 14 February 1917, p. 12](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1917-02-14/ed-1/?sp=12)
- [The Evening World (New York), 17 October 1922, p. 20](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1922-10-17/ed-1/?sp=20)
- [The Evening World (New York), 22 November 1915, p. 16](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1915-11-22/ed-1/?sp=16)
- [The Evening World (New York), 26 April 1915, p. 12](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1915-04-26/ed-1/?sp=12)
- [The Evening World (New York), 3 May 1922, p. 23](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1922-05-03/ed-1/?sp=23)
- [The Evening World (New York), 7 February 1916, p. 10](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030193/1916-02-07/ed-1/?sp=10)
- [The Milwaukee Leader (Milwaukee), 25 March 1922, p. 14](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045293/1922-03-25/ed-1/?sp=14)
- [The New York Herald (New York), 12 December 1921, p. 12](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045774/1921-12-12/ed-1/?sp=12)
- [The New York Herald (New York), 13 March 1922, p. 12](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045774/1922-03-13/ed-1/?sp=12)
- [The New York Herald (New York), 18 June 1922, p. 51](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045774/1922-06-18/ed-1/?sp=51)
- [The New York Herald (New York), 18 March 1922, p. 13](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045774/1922-03-18/ed-1/?sp=13)
- [The New York Herald (New York), 22 November 1922, p. 16](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045774/1922-11-22/ed-1/?sp=16)
- [The New York Herald (New York), 24 October 1920, p. 81](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045774/1920-10-24/ed-1/?sp=81)
- [The New York Herald (New York), 26 March 1922, p. 56](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045774/1922-03-26/ed-1/?sp=56)
- [The New York Herald (New York), 30 July 1922, p. 50](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045774/1922-07-30/ed-1/?sp=50)
- [The Seattle Star (Seattle), 20 November 1923, p. 13](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn87093407/1923-11-20/ed-1/?sp=13)
- [The Sun (New York), 13 December 1916, p. 14](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030431/1916-12-13/ed-1/?sp=14)
- [The Sun (New York), 17 March 1889, p. 7](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030272/1889-03-17/ed-1/?sp=7)
- [The Sun (New York), 9 August 1916, p. 11](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030431/1916-08-09/ed-1/?sp=11)
- [The Washington Times (Washington, D.C.), 24 September 1920, p. 18](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1920-09-24/ed-1/?sp=18)
- [The Washington Times (Washington, D.C.), 26 December 1923, p. 18](https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1923-12-26/ed-1/?sp=18)
- [United States Wall Ball Association, "Meet the Champions | 2026 World Wallball Championships" (seen 28 October 2026)](https://uswallball.org/champions-2026.html)
- [United States Wall Ball Association, "Wall Ball Rules" (Wayback snapshot of 11 April 2021)](https://web.archive.org/web/20210411163601/https://uswallball.org/wall-ball-rules)
- [US Handball Association, "Current Rules" (Wayback snapshot of 31 January 1997)](https://web.archive.org/web/19970131180607/http://www.ushandball.org:80/handball/RULES.html)
- [US Handball Association, "National Champions" (seen 28 October 2026)](https://www.ushandball.org/about/national-champions/)
- [US Handball Association, "One-Wall Rulebook" (seen 28 October 2026)](https://www.ushandball.org/learn-handball/one-wall-rulebook/)
- [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: One-wall: New York's own game (/history/record/05-one-wall-new-yorks-own-game/)". Please name the page and, if you can, the source.