Speedball is a modern team game that combines soccer, basketball, and football skills, using the catching
and passing skills of basketball, the kicking and punting tactics of soccer and football, and drop-kick skills.
Speedball is safe and inexpensive and holds a large element of interest because of the different ways to score
points. Soccer (association football), hockey, or football
fields can be used, with goalposts added.
History
Speedball was originated in 1921 by E. D. Mitchell, the
director of intramural sports at the University of
Michigan, who sought a fall sport less dangerous than
football and interesting to students of average athletic
ability.
Speedball was successful and was adopted at colleges and universities nationwide, but primarily in the
Midwest, as well as in secondary schools. In the 1930s,
city recreation departments used it in their programs.
However, by the end of the 1950s, speedball for men
had died out at all levels; many schools started to play
flag football or soccer, and speedball was a forgotten
sport.
By this time, the game had proved particularly suitable for girls and probably had a larger following
among women players than among men. By the 1950s
it had become a very popular sport for girls and women
in colleges and high schools throughout the Midwest.
Speedball remained an important game for girls and
women until the 1960s, when soccer took over.
Rules and Play
The game, played with 7 to 11 players, has incorporated
the most desirable feature of soccer, the kicking element, and combined with it the passing aspects of basketball as well as allowing one dribble step. Touchdowns are scored by catching forward passes in the end
zone. Players can’t run with the ball.A player is not permitted to touch a ground ball with his or her hands and
must play it as in soccer. A fly ball, defined as one that
has risen into the air directly from the foot of a player,
may be caught with the hands provided the catch is
made before the ball strikes the ground again. In advancing the ball, the player may use one overhead dribble, that is, may throw the ball in the air ahead and run
forward and catch it before it strikes the ground.
The rules vary for high school versus college and intramural versus varsity competitions, but the game is
played in four periods of 10 minutes each (8 minutes at
the high school level), with the object of scoring points
by kicking the ball into the goal or though the goalposts, catching it in the end zone, or kicking out of the
end zone. Play involves moving the ball toward the
other team’s end zone. Running with the ball is not permitted, nor is contact between the players, although
they may guard each other and try to kick the ball away
from the offensive player.
The three types of kicks allowed are punting (kicking the ball while it is in the air), drop kicking (kicking
the ball after one bounce), and place kicking (kicking
the ball while it is stationary).
Today speedball as a sport for women has largely
disappeared, replaced by soccer, basketball, softball,
hockey, and other formerly mostly or exclusively male
sports.
—JOAN HULT