Codeball is an individual sport combining the gameplay of

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

and football.

Rules

Codeball is played on a fairway consisting of usually 14 bowls, similar to the holes in golf. A six-inch rubber ball is kicked from a marked kickoff area, and once the ball comes to rest, it is kicked again. The process is repeated until the ball is sunk into the bowl. The goal of codeball is to reach the bowl using as few kicks as possible.

History

Codeball was invented in 1929 by a Chicago doctor named William Edward Code, who developed the game for his friend. At the time, Code's friend sought an inexpensive outdoor game suited to large playgrounds. Almost forgotten today, the game reached its peak of popularity in the 1930s. By summer 1932, at least 12 codeball courses were in existence, chiefly in the upper Midwest. It was officially sanctioned by the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

in 1929.''Golfdom''
"Codeball on the Green" (Michigan State University archive)
September 1932, p. 32. Retrieved 14 February 2015. The first codeball championship was won by Bert Gates, with a score of 69 for 15 bowls, at

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China * Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Fo ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, in 1935.

Variations

Code invented later on codeball-on the-court, a combination of

American handball American handball, known as handball in the United States and sometimes referred to as wallball, is a sport in which players use their hands to hit a small, rubber ball against a wall such that their opponent(s) cannot do the same without the bal ...

and association football. It is a two-person sport played with a six-inch ball on a playing court. The ball is kicked against a wall, and the opposing player must return the ball on the second bounce. The original sport is sometimes called Codeball-on-the-Green to distinguish it from the newer game.

References

{{Reflist Ball games Individual sports Games and sports introduced in 1929

Rules

History

Variations

See also

References