Games of North America since 1500 AD
The first important change in North American games after
1500 AD came with the horse.
As many Native American groups like the Ute
people got horses and learned to ride them, young men began to race
their horses, and soon horse-racing on tracks, and gambling on horse races,
were very popular ways to spend time. People also kept on playing traditional
games like lacrosse, and
European settlers also learned to play these games.
Settlers playing baseball in 1833 AD
By the 1800's, the European settlers began to make up new games of their own. In the late 1700's,
the English game of "rounders" began to be turned into the American game of baseball. Our earliest
record of it is a law passed in western Massachusetts in 1791 which said that nobody could play baseball near the
new meeting house, for fear of breaking the windows! In 1845, Alexander
Cartwright printed up a list of rules for baseball, which got everyone to agree to play by pretty much the same rules. The game spread all over the United States when northern soldiers played it wherever they were sent during the Civil War.
Around the same time, in the 1820's, people in England were beginning to play soccer (which they called football), and then in 1823 they also began to play the rougher game of rugby. When these two games came over to America with immigrants from England, they got some different rules and became known as football, or American football. It took off slowly but by the 1860's many college students played football, especially at Eastern colleges like Princeton, Rutgers, and Harvard. So many people were getting hurt during these games, and even killed, that the colleges set up a committee to make some rules so people wouldn't get hurt so much. That was in 1905.
Basketball was invented much later than baseball and football. In 1891, Dr. James Naismith, who was a physical education teacher, wanted a good game for kids to play inside during the winter (he lived in the state of Massachusetts, where the winters were long and very snowy and cold). He didn't want it to take up too much space. So he wrote down the rules for basketball, and soon people were playing it all over the United States.
Cartwright printed up a list of rules for baseball, which got everyone to agree to play by pretty much the same rules. The game spread all over the United States when northern soldiers played it wherever they were sent during the Civil War.
Around the same time, in the 1820's, people in England were beginning to play soccer (which they called football), and then in 1823 they also began to play the rougher game of rugby. When these two games came over to America with immigrants from England, they got some different rules and became known as football, or American football. It took off slowly but by the 1860's many college students played football, especially at Eastern colleges like Princeton, Rutgers, and Harvard. So many people were getting hurt during these games, and even killed, that the colleges set up a committee to make some rules so people wouldn't get hurt so much. That was in 1905.
Basketball was invented much later than baseball and football. In 1891, Dr. James Naismith, who was a physical education teacher, wanted a good game for kids to play inside during the winter (he lived in the state of Massachusetts, where the winters were long and very snowy and cold). He didn't want it to take up too much space. So he wrote down the rules for basketball, and soon people were playing it all over the United States.
Until the 1970's, hardly anybody in North America played soccer, even though it had become very
popular in the rest of the world. Then kids began to play soccer, and now it is becoming more and more popular.
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(after 1500)
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