OT: Jungle Ball

Submitted by ST3 on

     Brian's recent Unverified Voracity described a basketball game of 1-on-1 between Jim Harbaugh and D. J. Durkin. It was like regular basketball, except no fouls were called. It sounds a little like tackle football mixed with basketball. When I was a kid, we called that game, "Jungle Ball."

     Quite coincidentally,  last night I was thinking about making an OT post about Jungle Ball. Reading about Harbaugh's game of 1-on-1 convinced me to write this post. The version of Jungle Ball I played developed from another basketball game called 21. Perhaps you played this as a kid. There were no teams. It was every man for himself. The first to 21 points was the winner. The way that game worked was someone started the game by shooting a free throw. They scored a point for a made FT. If you made 3 in a row, you had to take a big step back. If you missed, whoever got the rebound was on offense. Whoever was closest to that person was on defense. Everyone else gathered around the basket and waited for a rebound. If you made a basket, you'd start shooting free throws, and it continued like that until someone scored 21 points (hence, the name of the game.)

    The interesting bit of strategy I enjoyed was the fact that if you didn't hit 21 exactly, you'd go back to 15 or 10 points. That varied from game to game. If you were a poor FT shooter like myself, you'd want to get to 19 so a made basket made you the winner. I never liked having to make that FT for the win when sitting at 20 points.

     This game evolved into Jungle Ball in a similar manner as described by Brian. "That's a foul?!?" After spending so many hours getting upset about cheap calls and arguing back and forth, we just decided anything goes. Now, there was no punching or kicking, but you could grab a guy by the shoulders or wrap him up until he let go of the ball. We didn't play that game every day, it was just too brutal, but every now and then, someone would get that look in their eye and say, "how about some Jungle Ball."

    Are there any other non-standard games (not football/basketball/baseball) that you played as a kid? Another one I can think of is the politically incorrectly named, "smear the queer," but we didn't worry about being PC in the 1970's. This was like Jungle Ball, only you played with a football, and there was no way to score points. It was basically another name for "keepaway." I think it was good for developing running back skills. Once a guy was tackled, he would throw the ball up in the air, whoever caught it would run around until he got tackled in a pile and you'd start over. I also spent many an afternoon playing kick the can.

Plankton

April 28th, 2016 at 6:27 PM ^

No rules. Full contact. It was all football players letting out all our anger and rage. It was brutal.

It was some of the funnest basketball I've ever played.

Michwolv9

April 28th, 2016 at 6:27 PM ^

When I was in elementary school we played a game called shove soccer at recess where it was basically tackle soccer, the only goal of the game was to hit the person with the ball as hard as we could. Unfortunately after so many kids came back into class with bloody noses and bruises the teachers caught onto our game (we had lookouts to tell us when the teachers were coming) and we all got into a bunch of trouble, it was worth it though because the game was awesome

ST3

April 28th, 2016 at 6:36 PM ^

yeah, I forgot to add the part about recess. We usually played at school on the blacktop and would come back to class with our shirts untucked if not torn, sweating all over, and your hands and clothes would get dirty from falling on the blacktop and then you'd wipe your face with your dirty hands. 

I take back what I said about kicking. I think that was allowed and if you didn't like it, you just didn't play.

I saw my son and his friends playing a schoolyard game awhile back. They had a tennis ball and a wall and all sorts of rules I couldn't understand, but it made sense to them and they had a great time. Meanwhile, I was thinking, boys, there's a basketball hoop right over there. Why don't you play a real game. But I must've gotten old and forgotten that the best games are the ones you create with your buddies.

Go Blue in NC

April 28th, 2016 at 6:56 PM ^

I remember the tennis ball game well- we called it wall ball. Essentially, you throw the tennis ball at the wall and someone attempts to field it cleanly. If the fielder bobbles the ball, they have to run to the wall before anyone else nearby picks up the ball and throws it at the wall to get the runner out. Conversely, pegging the runner was also allowed and highly encouraged.

Padog

April 28th, 2016 at 6:31 PM ^

In elementary school we weren't allowed to play football but we adapted handball into tackle handball. In the winter we focused more on hitting people than we did scoring.




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MaizeAndBlueWahoo

April 28th, 2016 at 6:50 PM ^

We had a game that was called wall dodge.  It was like regular dodgeball, except instead of teams, it was one kid with his back to a wall and everyone else pelting him with dodgeballs.  If he caught one, the thrower had to take his place.  Until he did he would just get whacked with dodgeballs.

Toilet Monster was another one.  Picture two sandboxes connected by a concrete arch about three feet tall, four feet wide, and eight feet lengthwise.  There were kid-sized holes in the arch like Swiss cheese.  The game was basically sharks and minnows except the Toilet Monster was trying to drag you through the holes.

There was also Drano, which was just one kid trying to plug up the circular slide and the rest of the line trying to pile on top and force him out the bottom.

Broken Brilliance

April 28th, 2016 at 7:02 PM ^

At my tiny Lutheran k-8 school our favorite pastime during gym or recess was the "Pin-game"

-go to the basketball gym

-split the class in half and use the halfcourt line as a border

-place bowling pins on each block of the court (2 per side)

-basic dodgeball rules apply

-the game can't be over until one team knocks over both bowling pins

-hitting the backboard with the ball brought the entire team off of being "out"

JayMo4

April 28th, 2016 at 7:02 PM ^

Each player would start out with a ball, a few houses away from the destination hoop (or "ring" if you're playing with Ted Cruz.)  From there, you play it like golf, try to launch the ball as close to the hoop as you can until you're close enough to try a reasonable shot.

The more aggressive your shooting distance, the better chance that a miss would go flying past the hoop and put you behind everyone else.

You can actually get a pretty good "course" together if you're playing with a few different neighborhood kids that each have hoops, and of course you can play each one starting from pretty different locations.

cali4444

April 28th, 2016 at 7:11 PM ^

'smear the queer'.  What elementary school did you go to ST3?  My 16 year old son just shakes his head when i tell him the stories.  He can't believe the things we got away with.

MichiganTeacher

April 28th, 2016 at 7:42 PM ^

We played smear the queer too.

Also 500 with a bit of the old ultra-violence. 500 was that game where one guy kicked it up, or threw it up - we played with footballs, kickballs, soccerballs, whatever - and then if you caught it out of the air you got 100. If you got it after one bounce, you got 75. 2 bounces, 50; 3 bounces 25, then dead; first to 500 becomes the next kicker/thrower. I probably didn't need to explain that. Anyway, we played it with no fouls, no rules, people plowing over each other, shoving each other into the snowbanks or dirt or playground equipment, raking at the ball to nulify a catch, etc. It was good to have bones made of rubber.

Wolvie3758

April 28th, 2016 at 7:53 PM ^

when I was in elementary school the only thing we were allowed to play at recess was dodgeball. The theory was dodgeball wasnt going to break anyones limbs. Well...as you can imagine dodge ball became very competitive and very hard hitting , by the time we left elemntary school we were professional dodgeball players and lots of kids got hurt. I still watch that dogeball movie with Ben Stiller and laugh and laugh. My boys have never understood why I laugh so much at it...

Gucci Mane

April 28th, 2016 at 8:15 PM ^

In 4th grade about 20 guys decided to split into 2 teams and have a giant "gang fight". Rocks and other weapons were used. I was one of the main organizers. No idea how so many people wanted to play.

Monocle Smile

April 28th, 2016 at 8:45 PM ^

but a version of soccer where it's one person vs the goalie at a time with a minimum shot distance. if the goalie allowed a goal, they had to face the goal and spread 'em. the scorer got a free kick at the ass.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

April 28th, 2016 at 8:51 PM ^

I was thinking elementary school, but I should've also gone a little later.  When I was lifeguarding in high school / college, we'd play headlight tag a couple times a summer.  We'd be in groups of two, a couple groups would be drivers, and everyone else would be runners.  The runners would get about a five-minute head start and have to get from the pool where we lifeguarded to the elementary school flagpole about a mile and 3/4 away, without getting tagged and IDed in the headlights.  Easier said than done since it's a pretty old-school grid-system neighborhood and not many good hiding places that don't attract homeowner or police attention.

Sam1863

April 28th, 2016 at 10:04 PM ^

My brother and I played full-contact Nerf basketball in our small bedroom. No biting or actual punches, but beyond that, any and all physical contact was allowed - and inventive use of furniture and other items for defensive purposes was encouraged. I remember trying to smother him with a pillow to prevent a lay-up. Good times.

Steves_Wolverines

April 29th, 2016 at 10:26 AM ^

Pennies: In 6th grade, can't remember what "class", but once a week we'd flip all the tables on their sides, and hide behind them while throwing pennies at each other.

Bloody Knuckles: A schoolyard classic where you get a quarter spinning on a table, and you alternate flicking it to keep it spinning. Loser puts their hands down, and you proceed to slide the quarter as hard as you can into their knuckles. Loser is the one who can't handle the pain any longer.

Dirt Clod Wars: After they aerated the grass in elementary school, we'd take the clumps of hard dirt and throw them at each other.

Not even going to mention tackle football, no rules basketball, or all out ministicks or handball because they are too common.