The origins of kickball stretch back to 1910 when Dr. Emmett Dunn Angell published his book Play: Comprising Games for the Kindergarten, Playground, Schoolroom, and College: How to Coach and Play Girls’ Basketball. That said, kickball draws inspiration from much older games, and its inclusion in Dr. Angell’s book suggests that kickball itself, known at the time as “kicking baseball,” was already being played by American schoolchildren.
Dr. Angell’s book included an illustration and description of the playing field, closely resembling how the modern game is played. He noted that the game is exciting for children and provides a good level of exercise without a high risk of injury. He also praised kickball for providing children with “a better understanding of the national game (Baseball).”
Seven years after Dr. Angell’s book was published, Nicholas C. Seuss, the supervisor of Cincinnati Park Playgrounds, authored an important document for the sport of kickball. The Playground Book document served as the first official overview of the game. It featured a detailed field diagram and 12 sports rules, alternately referred to as “kick baseball” and “kick baseball” throughout the document.
By 1921, “kickball” was a favorite of physical education teachers in public schools. Again, the game was valued, above all else, as a teaching tool for the more complex and popular sport of baseball. Gym teachers also used the sport to help children develop important baseball mechanics, such as throwing and catching. The game was played using a soccer ball or volleyball, with teams of 10 and 30 players.
Kickball may seem simple, but the early version featured many different rules than the modern game. For example, Seuss’s version of kickball featured a “neutral zone” that no players could enter until the ball had been kicked. There was no pitcher in the early days of kickball. Instead, players would kick the ball from home plate, though a three-foot circle represented the home area during the game’s early days.
If the ball did not travel more than five feet from the home area, the kick would not count. Other rules from the early game included base runners only being allowed to advance one base on infield kicks and rounds ending after every player on a team kicked, as opposed to the defensive team recording three outs.
Despite being played on a baseball field, teams only used second base. Multiple players could stand on the base at the same time. Fielding positions were also different. In addition to the lack of a pitcher, the game featured two shortstop positions: the traditional shortstop between first and second base and an additional fielder between second and third base.
Kickball has recently grown in popularity among adults, but this is not necessarily a new trend. New York State Department of Education supervisor Daniel Chase documented the first game contested by adults in 1922. Letters from World War II include mentions of the game being played by soldiers during the Tunisia Campaign. Soldiers played a modified version of the game where every hit was either a home run or an out: each player had to kick the ball and return home simultaneously.
Following World War II, the rules of the sport began to hew closer to those of baseball, including the introduction of pitchers. The game exploded in popularity as a recess sport during the 1970s and has been a staple of the American schoolyard ever since.