Threads

Stories that run across eras: who writes the rules, the ball, the court, the serve and more. Each thread page follows one subject through the dated moments, with the sources and the gaps.

• One-wall becomes its own game 1889-2026 · 16 moments
  The New York code of 1889 already allowed for courts 'with boundary lines drawn, and no side walls' (H-105), but one-wall handball became a game of its own only when it got a name, a court and a federation: 'American handball'...
• Professionals and amateurs: the world title and the A.A.U. 1872-1951 · 22 moments
  American handball had two championships for thirty years. The older one was professional and press-conferred: stake matches for $1,000 (Chicago v Brooklyn, 1872), 'champion of America' and 'champion of the world' decided at...
• Who writes the rules: court keeper, newspaper, federation, board 1873-2025 · 30 moments
  American handball's rules were written in turn by whoever could make a stake match stand: the court keeper's custom (Casey's 1875 account), a sporting publisher (Ed. James's Manual of Sporting Rules, 1873, reprinted by Spalding...
• The Irish game abroad and at home 1867-2019 · 26 moments
  The Irish game is the parent of every code in this project, and for its first sixty years in the record this record sees it only from abroad: a Chicago Fenian paper urging hand-ball clubs (1867), alleys built by emigrants in New...
• Hinder: a word that changed meaning 1889-2025 · 12 moments
  In 1889 and 1893 a 'hinder' was a ball that hit a player: 'a hinder is when a ball strikes your opponent' (Deshong), replayed; getting in an opponent's way was something else, punished by an ace or hand out. The Irish rules of...
• The ball: from 'about two inches' to 1 7/8 in and 61 grams 1875-2025 · 18 moments
  The ball is the clearest line of descent and the clearest line of division. New York 1873-1889: 'about two inches' (James 1873, Spalding 1886, no weight given) and, in the Sun's 1889 printing, 1 1/3 oz; Deshong 1893: 1 7/8 in, 1...
• The court shrinks: 60 x 30 in Ireland, 65 x 24 to 20 x 40 in America 1874-2025 · 18 moments
  The Irish alley is a 60-ft floor, open at the back, and the GAA still plays 60 x 30; the New York courts of the 1880s were the same length (Degraw Street 65 x 24 ft with a 35-ft front wall; the Sun's 'regulation' 50-60 ft long...
• The serve: one ace line, then two lines, then the short line 1875-2025 · 19 moments
  The American serve went from a single 'ace line' in the middle of the court, behind which the server stood and over which the serve had to carry (James 1873, Casey 1875, the Sun 1889), through the Sun's 1890 reform that confined...
• The Y.M.C.A. and the gym game 1898-1968 · 13 moments
  The Young Men's Christian Association ran a parallel handball from the 1890s to the 1960s, in gymnasiums rather than saloon courts or athletic clubs, and it wrote its own rules. The Athletic League's handbook of 1899 prints a...