This summer, countries from around the globe have gathered on fields across North America for the world’s most closely watched soccer tournament. As the United States welcomes players and spectators from far beyond its shores, America’s 250th anniversary offers another reason to look back: What did sport and recreation look like here in 1776?
The games were less standardized, the playing fields far less formal, and the equipment often fashioned from whatever materials were at hand. Yet the enthusiasm for competition (and the occasional dispute over it) would be perfectly recognizable today.
In the Journal of Sport History, Bonnie Ledbetter, suggests “Fighting the American Revolution consumed a relatively small percentage of the eight years stretching from the Battle of Lexington to the end of the war. There were long intervals between battles when life was exceedingly hum-drum. Many men could have shared Quartermaster Sergeant Simon Griffin’s dispirited comment written in 1778, ‘Nothing to do But Play Ball in Ouer Regiment.’ Although camp routines and housekeeping chores took part of each day, there was ample time left which the soldiers filled with a variety of recreation.”
When it comes to military recreation, much of the known information comes from journals and letters written by officers, especially those of New England, so the record does not show the full variety of sport that soldiers undertook during this time. It is clear from the documents that the officers didn’t always appreciate the rough nature of some of the games. “Orderly books contain dictums against all sorts of rowdy and wasteful behavior, including some of the sporting activities which the officers felt did not enhance the discipline or the public image of the army.”
We do know that the “inhabitants of early Virginia and other English colonies, like Plymouth, loved folk games that required bats, balls, and base running. They played enthusiastically, sometimes in the face of disapproval,” Colonial Williamsburg Official History & Citizenship Site.
In the northern colonies the Pilgrims, who believed in work above all else and felt idleness was a sin, were especially reluctant to embrace game playing, but they did appreciate the pursuit of physical strength, so some games prevailed.
Game playing in the colonies did gain momentum during the colonial years. It is said that the pilgrims allowed their children, especially the boys, to play “informal football, bat and ball, and stool-ball matches.”
Moving south from New England you could also find cricket played by the elite during this era in Virginia. Also, there was a very informal game called trap-ball, which was played by all levels of society with any number of players. It featured a “trap,” which is a wooden box, and a bat and ball.
One reason this game was popular is the easy construction of the implements. Balls could be made with wrapped rags or from bound leather and bats from sticks and tree branches.
Most of these games would be informal events, but some were more structured involving dozens of players. Just as the Revolutionary Soldiers engaged in rough game play, it was true for the Native Americans at the time as well.
Tribes such as the Lenape used oral traditions to pass down information; so, historians have sparse direct information, but written accounts by colonial settlers at the time described large playing fields filled with Native American men engaging in rough ball sports.
“Native American football games would be familiar to colonists who brought with them their own football traditions, with each side having scores, if not hundreds, of players engaged on massive fields of play that might be a mile or more in length, with melees featuring plenty of physical—if not physically damaging—contact, and different rules in terms of handling and/or kicking the ball,” ussoccerhistory.
So, as we celebrate the Nation’s 250th and welcome countries from around the globe to our shores—we can point back to a history steeped in the tradition of sporting rivalry that has been in place for centuries.
A Cold Cup for Match Day
From the opening whistle to the final score, a full pitcher makes match-day refreshments easy. Steep one of our fruit-filled iced teas or cold brews, chill, and pour over ice whenever the competition calls for another round.
