Bart King - The Pocket Guide to Games

THE
POCKET GUIDE
TO

THE
POCKET GUIDE
TO

BART KING

First Edition
12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1

Text 2008 Bart King
Illustrations 2008 Remie Geoffroi/Stocko.cc

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

This book makes mention of some activities that theoretically could carry an element of risk. Readers assume all legal responsibility for their actions.

Please contact the author at kingbart@comcast.net.

Published by
Gibbs Smith
P.O. Box 667
Layton, Utah 84041

Orders: 1.800.835.4993
www.gibbs-smith.com

Designed by Michel Vrna, Black Eye Design
Printed and bound in Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pocket guide to games / edited by Bart King. 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4236-0469-3
ISBN-10: 1-4236-0469-5

1. Games. 2. Amusements. 3. Sports for children. I. King, Bart, 1962

GV1203.P63 2008

790.15dc22

2008006907

To anyone whos ever
accidentally scored on
his or her own team!

(Youre not alone.)

Many of the games in this book were originally published in Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium by Jessie H. Bancroft, 1909 by The Macmillan Company, and have been updated here for modern-day use. Other games are original contributions of the author, though forms of the games might be played throughout the world with similar or varying rules, strategies and names.

In addition, I offer my grateful appreciation to the following people, who suggestions and resourcefulness enriched this book: Kelly Mucha, Marie Constant, Jerry Christiansen, Janice Johnson, Lilian McConville, Carlyle Krohn, Brody vander-Sommen, Madge Baird, and Suzanne Taylor.

ONE DARES TO HOPE THAT THIS LITTLE CRAFT, BEARING AS IT DOES SUCH A FREIGHT OF GLADNESS, MAY LEAVE BEHIND A WAKE OF CHEER, AND LAUGHTER, AND HAPPINESS.

JESSIE H. BANCROFT 1869-1952

CONTENTS

Miscellaneous
Active Games

Contests, Feats
and Tussles

Beanbag and
Ball Games

Games for the Playground, Home,
School and Gymnasium

My face hurt every Friday morning.

This is not a set-up for a bad joke.1 If youve ever grinned for a long period of time, you know that facial muscles can cramp up painfully. And one day a week, my mug convulsed during my homeroom period. Monday through Thursday mornings I provided academic tutoring for my seventh graders, but Friday was GameDay. Thats when my class would stampede down to the Fitness Room and the questions would start.

WHAT ARE WE PLAYING TODAY? HOGIE BALL? CANWE PLAY HOGIE BALL AGAIN?

CANT WE DO QUADRANT HOCKEY THIS TIME?

WHY DONT WE HAVE ANOTHER TROLL WARTOURNAMENT?

The Fitness Room was an oversized space, outfitted with everything a game lover could want. There was a climbing wall, a climbing net, a padded floor mat, an assortment of balls, and cones galore. We could compete individually, in small groups, or (best of all) in full-class contests with rival homerooms.

This gaming laboratory inspired my colleagues and me to invent and hybridize new games, and so Silent Ball, Mongol Ball, Odd Ball, Paranoia Ball, and the dreaded Hogie Ball were born. Watching the results did more than make our faces cramp up; in addition to enjoying belly laughs, we all learned important lessons about life, the world, and ourselves.2

But when Friday rolled around, there was also a lot of pressure to come up with a new game, and my job would have been much easier if Id known about Jessie H. Bancrofts 1909 book Games for thePlayground, Home, School and Gymnasium. Upon its publication, the New YorkTimes lauded the book as a valuable and beneficent service for humanity, and if that seems like remarkable praise, well, Jessie Hubbell Bancroft was a remarkable woman.

Born in 1869, Bancroft grew up a gifted but sickly child in Minnesota. Her frailty gave her a sensible interest in all matters healthy, and as a young woman, she studied nutrition and exercise at Cambridge and Harvard. Bancroft lectured widely, and she achieved fame for her dynamic presentations and ready wit. Although most women of her time didnt finish high school, Ms. Bancroft became a Columbia professor. Just as remarkably, she apparently overcame her ill health through exercise and willpower; a journalist noted Bancrofts successes were entirely the result of her own indomitable energy.

At twenty-five, Bancroft was hired as the Director of Physical Culture for Brooklyns public schools, allowing her to further spread the gospel of physical fitness for boys and girls in an age when strenuous activity was generally considered unladylike and even deleterious to a womans metabolism. She also founded the American Posture League, a group that advocated on behalf of factory workers for more ergonomically correct workplaces. Bancroft strenuously argued that corsets and high heels were most unhealthful for a womans posture, and she was even able to get the seats of New Yorks subway cars altered to provide a better fit for riders.

For Games for the Playground, Home,School and Gymnasium, Bancroft proved to be ahead of her time yet again. Bancroft applied her energies to researching recreation among the varied immigrant populations of New York City. Her book was intended as a resource for teachers, and what a resource it was. Games was a celebration of international recreation dating from a time when ethnic diversity was, at best, tolerated.

Times have changed in the intervening century, but modern concerns over childhood obesity reveal how forward-thinking Jessie Bancroft was. Reading her work, I was struck with Bancrofts ability to imbue her games with a moral purpose while also making them sound enjoyable. She believed that games and exercise sharpened young minds and reduced sloth. For her, a good physical education was one of the most desirable goals to which our nations schools could aspire. Of course, she was right. So while Jessie H. Bancroft was not legally able to vote for most of her lifetime, she found her own way of making a difference in the world.

In short, she was a remarkable woman, and it is an honor to present here some of the games from her book along with a goodly number of games from other sources and times.

But beware: Once you start playing the games in the following pages,