This Day in History November 30, 1887

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This is a picture from this date (Thanksgiving) in 1887 when the first ever softball game was played.  It happened in Chicago where a group of about 20 men gathered in a gymnasium to hear the outcome of the Harvard-Yale football game.  Following Yale's victory, one of the men (a Yale alumnus) picked up a boxing glove and threw it at someone (a Harvard supporter) who hit it with a pole.  George Hancock (considered the inventor of softball) called out "Play ball!" and the rest is history.  This first game was played with a tightened boxing glove as a ball and a broomstick for a bat.

This new game was called "indoor," "indoor outdoor," or "indoor baseball," and was later renamed softball by Walter Hakanson  in 1926.  Other names throughout the years have been "kitten ball," " pumpkin ball," "diamond ball," and " mush ball."  I am not a sports enthusiast, so I apologize if I am not overly excited about this fact in history, but I did find the evolution of the sport quite interesting.  Softball tends to be something that women play (so I thought), and here is was developed by a group of men.  Go figure!

For a lot more information, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softball
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art11423.asp
http://www.sanjeev.net/trivia/george-hancock-invented-a-new-game-on-november-30-1887-it-wa.html