George Hancock (softball)

George Hancock, at the time a reporter for Chicago Board of Trade, invented the game of softball in 1887. The first game was played indoors, inside the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago.[1] The first game of softball came from a football game between Yale and Harvard. When it was announced that Yale had won, Yale alumni, in excitement, threw a boxing glove at a Harvard supporter. The Harvard supporter playfully swung at it as spectators looked on in interest.

For other people named George Hancock, see George Hancock (disambiguation).

George Hancock shouted, "Let's play ball," and tied the boxing glove into the shape of a ball. The men chalked a diamond shape onto the floor and broke a broom handle to serve as a bat. This is credited as the first softball game which was played on Thanksgiving Day November 24, 1887 after a Harvard-Yale football game that had been followed by telegraph.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

Hancock's original game of indoor baseball quickly caught on in popularity, becoming international with the formation of a league in Toronto. That year, 1887, was also the premiere publication of the Indoor Baseball Guide. This was the first nationally distributed publication on the new game and it lasted a decade. In the spring of 1888, Hancock's game moved outdoors.[8] It was played on a small diamond and called indoor-outdoor. Due to the sport's mass appeal, Hancock published his first set of indoor-outdoor rules in 1889.[9]

See also

References
  1. The Farragut Boat Club is mentioned in a news item that appeared later. See: "Sports of the Athletes" (PDF). The New York Times. July 30, 1889. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
  2. "History of Softball". SoftballPerformance.com. Archived from the original on 2009-01-09. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  3. "The History of Softball". International Softball Federation. Archived from the original on 2006-12-12. Retrieved 2006-12-31.
  4. David Levinson & Karen Christensen, ed. (1996). Encyclopedia of World Sports. London & New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 371–73. ISBN 0-19-512778-1.
  5. "Ivy League Sports". Archived from the original on August 17, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
  6. "Harvard-Yale Football "The Game": History". Archived from the original on 2008-08-27. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
  7. "Hancock, George - World of Sports Science". Retrieved 2009-09-24.
  8. Plummer III, Bill (1998). "Slow Pitch Softball History Definition Page". Retrieved 2009-09-24.
  9. "History of Softball". Archived from the original on 2009-06-27. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
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