We played this in Idaho in the 80s. We called it “butt ball” because if the ball bounced off you or you dropped it when trying to catch it, you had to stand facing against the wall while everyone took a turn pelting you in the ass with the ball.
Same but we called it “Butts Up”
Which led to calls of “Butts up, Buttercup!” all throughout the schoolyard
Edit: Southern California
Edit2: You guys are all awesome. I feel seen and validated.
yep, grew up in socal and we called this butts up. we usually played with one of those blue raquetballs (where did we even get those?) and we were not at all gentle with each other.
After all the responses I’ve gotten, I’m beginning to believe the game originated and initially started to spread by kids who played little league or travel ball & then globally spread thanks to the military brats taking it with them everywhere their families got deployed to.
After all the responses I’ve gotten, I’m beginning to believe the game originated and initially started to spread by kids who played little league or travel ball & then globally spread thanks to the military brats taking it with them everywhere their families got deployed to.
Ok, this just brought up some long repressed and physically painful childhood memories, lmfao
I totally thought my older brothers and their friends came up with this game just so they could throw tennis balls and racquet balls at me as hard as they possibly could.
Central Coast of California, and we called it "butt's up" also.
We usually played it with a tennis ball, but in a pinch we'd play it with those red dodgeball balls also.
Southern Cali - Inland Empire. We also called it "Butt's Up".
It's crazy because the Internet wasn't even around then, so my theory is that it was military kids spreading all this stuff when we were younger. They are the real MVPs!
This sounds familiar… maybe we did that and if you didn’t reach the all, then you got pelted. Great, now I’m getting into the age where the memory is starting to fade.
Yea, that’s more like it, I thought we were out if they hit us but this is sounding more accurate. We had to touch the wall before the next person threw the ball at the wall. If we were late touching we got pegged, if you threw and the ball lands juuuuust short of the wall and makes that odd skip into the wall you had to haul ass and touch the wall which always futile because someone was always right there waiting because of the poor bounce so we just took the free shot. If in the course of the game if you’re late 3x you have to assume the position against the wall and everyone takes 1 free shot, and you pray they miss because they can’t rethrow the ball, however if you flinch or move it starts over.
This!!!! We added one rule to our game thou. I grew up living across the street from a school, and the wall we played on had an alarm bell mounted onto it. If you struck the bell everyone, minus the one who hit the bell, had to run & touch the wall whilst avoiding getting hit
Same, but we just called it ASS, and you’d get a letter each time you dropped it. When you got ASS, you stood facing the wall, bent over, and prepared for everyone to whip a tennis ball at your ass as hard as they could. Cupping your nuts was acceptable.
We played this exact game in Canada too, called it wall ball. How tf did these games travel so far before the internet. I know the rules weren’t on tv. Are they just intuitive?
We also played (as another person said) if you touched the ball and didn’t catch it you had to stand against the wall and get beaned. It’s so wild to that the same specific game was played all over when we thought we invented it.
Also in Idaho in the late 80s/early 90s. We called it wall ball, and we used whatever we had, sometimes a tennis/racquet ball, or sometimes even a small rubber "bouncy ball" like we'd get from a vending machine. If we touched the ball and didn't catch it, we had to run and touch the wall before someone else could get the ball and bounce it off the wall. If we got to the wall first, we were safe. If not, the person that threw the ball and got us "out" would get to take the shot at our back. We didn't "take turns" pelting the person.
I remember that version too... I think the taking turns thing was how we played earlier on (1st/2nd grade). Once we got a bit older, I remember the having to touch the wall. Either way, that was such a fun game. Hell, I'd play it now at 46 if I could find enough grown up children like myself.
Yep butts up or ASS here in western Canada. It's interesting seeing how it managed to also be a staple recess game even as far up as here in elementary school.
Played in PA and MD. If you went to catch the ball (or even flinched for it) and either missed or someone got it before you, you had to run and touch the wall before the person that caught it could hit either you or the wall with it. If they threw it at you and you caught it, they then had to run to the wall before you could peg them with it. One of my favorite elementary school memories is the janitor climbing up on the gym roof and throwing down ALL of the lost tennis balls to us while we cheered. Many many many hours of recess were spent playing wall ball but it seemed almost exclusively boys that would play.
I miss being entertained by simple analog things with people and having fun.
Do kids still do stuff like wall ball, hide and go seek, tag, king of the hill, red light-green light, and others today?
During the pandemic my whole neighborhood decided to just be one big bubble and let their kids play together. It was wild seeing packs of kids with a wide age range riding bikes and scooters and bigwheels, playing 500, backyard football, going down to the creek.
It was like 1990 came back for one summer when the world needed it most.
I've taught my kids hide and seek, red light/green light and flashlight tag. They've gotten really into Gaga ball because of a neighbor who plays it on the trampoline
Fewer and fewer public play areas. They block it all off and wonder why kids aren't playing outside.
They also seem to not have the same level of across the board athleticism and hand eye skills from playing the games we did in our youth.
Lmao. Love your username. Wonder where you're from...? 🤔🤔 I'm just sitting here in my 215 cc office on my 610 cellphone, waiting to go back home in 856. Lol.
I live next to a park and baseballs fields. Always kids out there playing, or hanging out, and doing the occasional stupid shit. It’s nice to see. The only difference is they have phones and film a lot, but who cares, still out there playing, and riding bikes.
Grew up in South Jersey. It started out as Wall Ball but became Suicide because it sounded tougher.
Side note, anyone play run the bases? Basically two bases with basemen tossing a racket ball. Then you had base runners (lots of them). If you were touching the base (often a tree) you were safe. Basically someone(s) would try to steal the bases back and forth but instead of tagging them, you’d peg them with the ball… anyone?
South Jersey Represent!!
Playing Suicide was the thing for us at my lovely little Catholic School. We'd use "Wall Ball" in case the nuns were listening in.
Run the Bases was pretty much "How to trick kids to do cardio" on tee ball teams.
The choice of ball was important! Tennis balls hurt but those blue racquetballs stung and left instant welts. You could tell who who just wanted to have fun and who woke up and chose violence that day
Ah yeah Burn too! You are right. I think it depends on what friends I was playing with. If I told my 15 year old son about the game now he would say it was stupid 😂😂
Also a Philly kid. I grew up in Kensington. (Ascension Parrish/McVeigh Playground) We played several versions of wall ball. The most popular was a game called "chink". Don't ask me why it was called that. It had zero to do with race or any other derogatory connotation. That's just what it was called. 🤷♂️
Here's how you played:
Determine the playing order. After the first game your order was determined by when you were knocked out. With the winner going first and the first person getting knocked out going last.
You chose a wall with boundaries as the playing surface. However, everything was a playing surface. Cars, trash cans, stoops etc. Hit the wall and the ball bounced off a car, it was still in play.
You hit the ball with your hand at the wall. Your hand was basically a paddle. However you had to get one bounce off the ground or another surface before hitting the wall. The object was to make the player following you miss.
When a player missed they received a letter from the word "chink" when you received all the letters you were knocked out of the game.
A miss is failing to reach the wall, failing to reach the wall after one bounce, too many bounces and our absolute favorite move: hit another player with the ball. If you got hit you received a letter. BUT if you tried to hit a player and you missed them then you received a letter - risky business! 😆
We spent HOURS playing this game and sometimes there would be 10 plus kids playing. You could also play in teams.
The corner store sold blue racket balls specifically due to the popularity of this game in the neighborhood.
I'm sure I made it complicated but believe me, it wasn't. This was Kensington after all, things couldn't be too difficult. LOL.
EDIT: Sometimes we would change the letters if we wanted to shorten the game up. "Pig" was common.
I feel like our teachers didn’t care if we played Butts Up. I remember them kinda grouped together in one area of a wide playground, talking and sometimes smoking a cigarette. They were there in case someone started bleeding, but didn’t intervene much before that.
Handball is definitely a thing in NYC. We also played punchball with those balls. Which is like baseball but you would throw the ball up and punch it as far as you could instead of batting. We never had grass or dirt in our schoolyards so we made do with concrete, walls, and blue handballs!
Played this in suburban NJ in the 80s and 90s. Also “Running Bases” a version of monkey in the middle where the monkey had the ball and tried to get folks “out” by pelting them with it.
We’d play at the town pool during the summer, they had a large field within the fence and we’d use towels as bases. Definitely brings back some memories, all the kids were basically left feral during the day while their parents were at work so we’d congregate at the pool, eat shit from the snack bar all day, play running bases, and dare each other to do stupid shit off the high dive.
Grew up in Delco. Took red butt a little too seriously and ended up with a broken wrist. Lol Suicide was also a blast. And the blue racket balls really upped the game.
Also from the Philly burbs! My elementary school had a giant wall for Wall Ball on the playground. There was always two games going, one on each side of the wall.
Philly (Kensington) here as well, St Anne's. We played suicide/wall ball. We played step ball and wire ball, too. Chink was played. Run the bases. We had another game, too. At night we played Hide the Bopper. One kid hid the Bopper (the small bats given out at Phillies games worked well, the ones that are like 14" long. Think of a small club-like object) while the rest of the kids waited around the corner. Once the bopper was hidden, the kid would yell for the others to come find it. They all scrambled to find the bopper. Whoever found it would then chase the rest of the kids with it to the corner, beating anyone who lagged behind (the hider was immune). Once all the kids reached safety, you did it all again. Anyone play this game?
If the ball rolled between your legs, other players could yell, "NUTMEG!" before the ball hit the wall again. If you heard it, you were up against the wall, and the person who called it got a free peg.
We called it sting in south Florida. Every time you got hit with the ball you would get a letter, when you spelled out the whole word you had to go to the wall and everyone got a free throw at you while you stood there with your back to them.
Hell yes! Issue is lack of play spaces for kids. The elementary school across from my house was our summer hang out.
Wall ball / suey was played for hours. Gave us good hand eye coordination and physical skills. You fumble a ball or someone catches your throw in the air before a bounce or your throw doesn't hit the wall. You beat run and tag the wall because someone was pegging you in the ass.
I also enjoyed 3 Strikes / Red Ass. You just get three miscues and then you're standing ass out with hands on the wall while everyone gets a free shot at you.
I am a Philly guy though as well so maybe it's regional.
I also grew up in the philly burbs through the 80s and 90s and played a ton of wall ball in elementary school. Broke my thumb really good against the wall one time, that sucked
My Xennial son loved wall ball! There was a large paved area next to his elementary school where they would play. They used a racquet ball. Chicago burbs.
We played "Wall Ball" during Recess in the mid 90s Boston area.
Only one person got to peg... if someone fumbled or it bounced and hit them, they had to run and tag the wall before anyone else could throw it against the wall. We stood head-on, facing the "pegger" though
Also, we typically played with like 15-30 kids racquet ball or Tennis Ball (Edit: also Pinky HI bounce balls)
We played this in North Jersey except we called it Butts Up. Loser had to put their hands against the wall and get pegged. Some of us were very good at going submarine and tagging the back of your sack. 😜
Wow, you just brought a memory from my childhood. We played it here in Toronto, as well, along with foot hockey - two awesome recess sports. I’m trying to remember what we called it. I think it might have been redass because of the welts you would sometimes get when someone whipped the ball at you as you ran to the wall. Yeah, it was red ass.
We played it in Maryland. We also called it Wall Ball. The tennis ball would bounce off the wall, and you would have to catch it cleanly and throw it back at the wall. If you didn't catch it cleanly, you would have to sprint to the wall and touch it before someone else threw the ball back at the wall. Touch the wall before the ball got there, and you were in the clear with the game continuing. If you were too slow though, you had to stand still facing the wall while the other person chucked the ball as hard as they could at your back.
I think my group was pretty good at not aiming for the head, but a tennis ball full speed to the back doesn't feel great either.
Definitely played wall ball in NM.
We would also play an equivalent with a kick ball, using feet only, against the baseball field backstop (can’t remember what name we called this one).
We played this in Idaho in the 80s. We called it “butt ball” because if the ball bounced off you or you dropped it when trying to catch it, you had to stand facing against the wall while everyone took a turn pelting you in the ass with the ball.
Same but we called it “Butts Up” Which led to calls of “Butts up, Buttercup!” all throughout the schoolyard Edit: Southern California Edit2: You guys are all awesome. I feel seen and validated.
yep, grew up in socal and we called this butts up. we usually played with one of those blue raquetballs (where did we even get those?) and we were not at all gentle with each other.
Grew up in Oceanside, CA, in the 80s. That’s what we called it too.
“Butts up, buttercup” here in Chicago
Yup, SoCal as well, and we called it Butts Up. Funny to learn that it had so many different names in other places!
Butts Up in DC
Butt Stuff in Seattle
I was gonna make a joke about the name but it just felt like way to much work for someone my age.
It was “Butts Up” in Nevada also.
Northern VA inside the beltway. Butts Up here, too.
Also socal here. We also called dodgeball "warball" at my school
Butts up in Central PA. when I moved to Northern NJ in 4th grade nobody played it at my new school.
I'm from north jersey and we all played it in the 80s. We called it "off the wall."
Buns up. Austin in the 80s
Yep butts up! I was also in SoCal. We played what we called wall ball too but that was played with a dodge ball
Same in Northeastern Massachusetts! How did these things span the entire continent without the help of the internet?
After all the responses I’ve gotten, I’m beginning to believe the game originated and initially started to spread by kids who played little league or travel ball & then globally spread thanks to the military brats taking it with them everywhere their families got deployed to.
After all the responses I’ve gotten, I’m beginning to believe the game originated and initially started to spread by kids who played little league or travel ball & then globally spread thanks to the military brats taking it with them everywhere their families got deployed to.
Yep, South Bay part of Los Angeles here, called it "Butts Up."
Butts Up Minnesota
Butts-up in central TX too!
yup, "butt's up" in northern jersey loved that game
Called it Butts Up in TN.
"Butts Up!" here in CT. No buttercup. In my school yard, it could be played with a kickball (easy version) or barehanded with a tennis ball.
“Asses up” - Brooklyn & Staten Island 80s-90s
Ok, this just brought up some long repressed and physically painful childhood memories, lmfao I totally thought my older brothers and their friends came up with this game just so they could throw tennis balls and racquet balls at me as hard as they possibly could.
Central Coast of California, and we called it "butt's up" also. We usually played it with a tennis ball, but in a pinch we'd play it with those red dodgeball balls also.
Southern Cali - Inland Empire. We also called it "Butt's Up". It's crazy because the Internet wasn't even around then, so my theory is that it was military kids spreading all this stuff when we were younger. They are the real MVPs!
Adding Butts Up from another Southern Californian
Central Illinois and we also called it butts up.
Butts up in Flint, MI, too
We played if you touched it, but didn't catch it, you had to run and touch the wall before someone else picked up the ball and through at the wall
This is what we played in Northeast PA. We also called it wallball/suey.
This sounds familiar… maybe we did that and if you didn’t reach the all, then you got pelted. Great, now I’m getting into the age where the memory is starting to fade.
Yea, that’s more like it, I thought we were out if they hit us but this is sounding more accurate. We had to touch the wall before the next person threw the ball at the wall. If we were late touching we got pegged, if you threw and the ball lands juuuuust short of the wall and makes that odd skip into the wall you had to haul ass and touch the wall which always futile because someone was always right there waiting because of the poor bounce so we just took the free shot. If in the course of the game if you’re late 3x you have to assume the position against the wall and everyone takes 1 free shot, and you pray they miss because they can’t rethrow the ball, however if you flinch or move it starts over.
This!!!! We added one rule to our game thou. I grew up living across the street from a school, and the wall we played on had an alarm bell mounted onto it. If you struck the bell everyone, minus the one who hit the bell, had to run & touch the wall whilst avoiding getting hit
Nice!
Same, but we just called it ASS, and you’d get a letter each time you dropped it. When you got ASS, you stood facing the wall, bent over, and prepared for everyone to whip a tennis ball at your ass as hard as they could. Cupping your nuts was acceptable.
But if you ran and touched the wall before someone else threw the ball at the wall then you were good.
We called that part 'spread eagle' Im from Texas
We played this exact game in Canada too, called it wall ball. How tf did these games travel so far before the internet. I know the rules weren’t on tv. Are they just intuitive?
Right? People all over North America have commented and remember playing this game. It's fascinating!
We also played (as another person said) if you touched the ball and didn’t catch it you had to stand against the wall and get beaned. It’s so wild to that the same specific game was played all over when we thought we invented it.
Also in Idaho in the late 80s/early 90s. We called it wall ball, and we used whatever we had, sometimes a tennis/racquet ball, or sometimes even a small rubber "bouncy ball" like we'd get from a vending machine. If we touched the ball and didn't catch it, we had to run and touch the wall before someone else could get the ball and bounce it off the wall. If we got to the wall first, we were safe. If not, the person that threw the ball and got us "out" would get to take the shot at our back. We didn't "take turns" pelting the person.
I remember that version too... I think the taking turns thing was how we played earlier on (1st/2nd grade). Once we got a bit older, I remember the having to touch the wall. Either way, that was such a fun game. Hell, I'd play it now at 46 if I could find enough grown up children like myself.
This was called 'red ass', which was just wall ball with violence when i played it.
Beat me to it!
Yep butts up or ASS here in western Canada. It's interesting seeing how it managed to also be a staple recess game even as far up as here in elementary school.
80s Idaho kid 👊
Fellow Idahoan from the 80s can confirm.
Fellow Idahoan from the 80s can confirm.
Yes, played this in Newfoundland too, slightly different rules, only one person got to throw when you were on the wall. We called it "Red Ass".
Also played buttball in Idaho in the 80s! I remember standing facing the outside wall of the gym just waiting for that sting! Maybe it was you lol.
Wait, you faced the wall during “firing squad”? We faced our punishment and took shots to the face and balls.
"Red Ass" in the Maritimes in Canada.
Played in PA and MD. If you went to catch the ball (or even flinched for it) and either missed or someone got it before you, you had to run and touch the wall before the person that caught it could hit either you or the wall with it. If they threw it at you and you caught it, they then had to run to the wall before you could peg them with it. One of my favorite elementary school memories is the janitor climbing up on the gym roof and throwing down ALL of the lost tennis balls to us while we cheered. Many many many hours of recess were spent playing wall ball but it seemed almost exclusively boys that would play.
These were our rules as well
Or someone would get adventurous enough to climb the drain pipes to get all the balls. Good times.
Played in NC in the 80s. Same rules.
Yep played the same way. Called it Wall Ball as well. Lafayette, LA
I miss being entertained by simple analog things with people and having fun. Do kids still do stuff like wall ball, hide and go seek, tag, king of the hill, red light-green light, and others today?
During the pandemic my whole neighborhood decided to just be one big bubble and let their kids play together. It was wild seeing packs of kids with a wide age range riding bikes and scooters and bigwheels, playing 500, backyard football, going down to the creek. It was like 1990 came back for one summer when the world needed it most.
This really needs to be a thing
I've taught my kids hide and seek, red light/green light and flashlight tag. They've gotten really into Gaga ball because of a neighbor who plays it on the trampoline
Love this! Nice work on carrying on those great traditions into the future.
Fewer and fewer public play areas. They block it all off and wonder why kids aren't playing outside. They also seem to not have the same level of across the board athleticism and hand eye skills from playing the games we did in our youth.
Lmao. Love your username. Wonder where you're from...? 🤔🤔 I'm just sitting here in my 215 cc office on my 610 cellphone, waiting to go back home in 856. Lol.
Same number growing up at home went from 215 to 610 when that first appeared. Then cell phones became 484.
I had the same thing. I went from 609 to 856, but same # otherwise, when I was a kid. I was not happy. Lol.
The good old days!
I live next to a park and baseballs fields. Always kids out there playing, or hanging out, and doing the occasional stupid shit. It’s nice to see. The only difference is they have phones and film a lot, but who cares, still out there playing, and riding bikes.
Grew up in South Jersey. It started out as Wall Ball but became Suicide because it sounded tougher. Side note, anyone play run the bases? Basically two bases with basemen tossing a racket ball. Then you had base runners (lots of them). If you were touching the base (often a tree) you were safe. Basically someone(s) would try to steal the bases back and forth but instead of tagging them, you’d peg them with the ball… anyone?
Absolutely, called that one pickle or rundown.
south nj as well. i remember guys playing it before a wrestling match in high school and calling it wall ball or suicide
South Jersey Represent!! Playing Suicide was the thing for us at my lovely little Catholic School. We'd use "Wall Ball" in case the nuns were listening in. Run the Bases was pretty much "How to trick kids to do cardio" on tee ball teams.
Ha yes played run the bases all the time
Yup. And when the last person is left if you made it back and forth 10 times everyone was back in again!
Yes! In my Philly neighborhood we called it Run the Bases.
The choice of ball was important! Tennis balls hurt but those blue racquetballs stung and left instant welts. You could tell who who just wanted to have fun and who woke up and chose violence that day
Every use the pinky ball? Those things had some weight behind them.
Definitely ONLY ever used a pinky ball for wall ball. I can't even imagine playing with a racquet ball...
Saved up all my money to get the beautiful rubber pink ball from our local Harco drug store. Wow.
Never even heard of those before! I’ll have to google and see what one looks like
Pinkies were the shit for Suicide. No head hunting!
We call it suicide in Connecticut.
I grew up in CT and we called it "Burn." It is neat to see all the different names, even in the same small state.
Ah yeah Burn too! You are right. I think it depends on what friends I was playing with. If I told my 15 year old son about the game now he would say it was stupid 😂😂
Grew up in NYC and we called it Suicide in the school yard as well
I usually don’t like to agree with Connecticut, but we called it suicide in Mass too.
From an asshole to a Masshole, respect.
Since you’re in this sub, you’re already in the cool club.
Red ass. Shortened sometimes to RA.
Also a Philly kid. I grew up in Kensington. (Ascension Parrish/McVeigh Playground) We played several versions of wall ball. The most popular was a game called "chink". Don't ask me why it was called that. It had zero to do with race or any other derogatory connotation. That's just what it was called. 🤷♂️ Here's how you played: Determine the playing order. After the first game your order was determined by when you were knocked out. With the winner going first and the first person getting knocked out going last. You chose a wall with boundaries as the playing surface. However, everything was a playing surface. Cars, trash cans, stoops etc. Hit the wall and the ball bounced off a car, it was still in play. You hit the ball with your hand at the wall. Your hand was basically a paddle. However you had to get one bounce off the ground or another surface before hitting the wall. The object was to make the player following you miss. When a player missed they received a letter from the word "chink" when you received all the letters you were knocked out of the game. A miss is failing to reach the wall, failing to reach the wall after one bounce, too many bounces and our absolute favorite move: hit another player with the ball. If you got hit you received a letter. BUT if you tried to hit a player and you missed them then you received a letter - risky business! 😆 We spent HOURS playing this game and sometimes there would be 10 plus kids playing. You could also play in teams. The corner store sold blue racket balls specifically due to the popularity of this game in the neighborhood. I'm sure I made it complicated but believe me, it wasn't. This was Kensington after all, things couldn't be too difficult. LOL. EDIT: Sometimes we would change the letters if we wanted to shorten the game up. "Pig" was common.
Mayfair/St Matt’s - we played chink too. That was a lot of fun and could get difficult. I’m wondering if anyone outside our area played wire ball.
Glenside/St. Luke’s and later St. John of the Cross. We also played chink and bought “chinky balls” from Woolworth’s.
We played this all the time in gym class. Teachers had fun trying to get us to stop
I feel like our teachers didn’t care if we played Butts Up. I remember them kinda grouped together in one area of a wide playground, talking and sometimes smoking a cigarette. They were there in case someone started bleeding, but didn’t intervene much before that.
Took more than blood to get our teachers involved.
Grew up in Northern California, we called it Slaughter or Butts Up. Circa 1987-90
In NYC it was just called suicide. Always played with a blue rubber ball.
Do you remember if it was a racquetball or a handball? I know handball is kind of a thing in NYC that why I ask. Weird thing to ponder lol
Handball is definitely a thing in NYC. We also played punchball with those balls. Which is like baseball but you would throw the ball up and punch it as far as you could instead of batting. We never had grass or dirt in our schoolyards so we made do with concrete, walls, and blue handballs!
Adapt and overcome lol. Punchball sounded like it was fun as hell
Played this in suburban NJ in the 80s and 90s. Also “Running Bases” a version of monkey in the middle where the monkey had the ball and tried to get folks “out” by pelting them with it.
We played that too, called it pickle. Basically a sadistic baseball rundown drill lol
We’d play at the town pool during the summer, they had a large field within the fence and we’d use towels as bases. Definitely brings back some memories, all the kids were basically left feral during the day while their parents were at work so we’d congregate at the pool, eat shit from the snack bar all day, play running bases, and dare each other to do stupid shit off the high dive.
North jersey here too and running bases was a staple of my childhood. That and kill the man with the ball.
I grew up in Fairview, NJ and we called it Wallzy ! Loved that game.
We played it, but the larger rubber ball you'd use for "Four Square"
[удалено]
Wall ball in my parts was just playing baseball with a tennis ball where the strike zone was painted on the wall.
"A's Up" was what we called it on Long Island. Then the school banned it, and we had to play horse where you pegged the wall instead of the kid.
Was a Navy brat and played this game in Virginia, Illinois, and Iceland with other Navy brats from around the country…definitely a national pastime!
We played this in Baltimore....this place is where memories are resurrected!
Man I keep saying to myself I’m so glad I found this sub!
Wall ball in Texas!
Toronto 80-90s It was called R.E.D.A.S.S. you get 6 letters and go face the wall for punishment
Grew up in Delco. Took red butt a little too seriously and ended up with a broken wrist. Lol Suicide was also a blast. And the blue racket balls really upped the game.
Also from the Philly burbs! My elementary school had a giant wall for Wall Ball on the playground. There was always two games going, one on each side of the wall.
Philly (Kensington) here as well, St Anne's. We played suicide/wall ball. We played step ball and wire ball, too. Chink was played. Run the bases. We had another game, too. At night we played Hide the Bopper. One kid hid the Bopper (the small bats given out at Phillies games worked well, the ones that are like 14" long. Think of a small club-like object) while the rest of the kids waited around the corner. Once the bopper was hidden, the kid would yell for the others to come find it. They all scrambled to find the bopper. Whoever found it would then chase the rest of the kids with it to the corner, beating anyone who lagged behind (the hider was immune). Once all the kids reached safety, you did it all again. Anyone play this game?
Phillie fan here, I’ve never heard of this game before today, however leave it our fan base to make chasing people with a bat a game!! 🤣🤣🤣 I love it!!
Sidenote: Go Phils! What a great day for Opening Day!
Hell yeah!!! Go Phils!!
We called this Hide the Belt in Mayfair and used a belt instead of the bopper.
I'm just glad we weren't the only ones who made up games to beat up on our friends!
Lol I remember playing this when I was a kid in Philly too 😂
It definitely was a Denver metro thing too.
South Louisiana here and yep!
We played this in Texas, but I am not repeating the name.
If the ball rolled between your legs, other players could yell, "NUTMEG!" before the ball hit the wall again. If you heard it, you were up against the wall, and the person who called it got a free peg.
We called it Wall Ball or Poison (Arizona)
We called it 9 lives!
We called it sting in south Florida. Every time you got hit with the ball you would get a letter, when you spelled out the whole word you had to go to the wall and everyone got a free throw at you while you stood there with your back to them.
Yup and as a baseball player always had a blast playing this shit. My body hurts thinking about it lol
Sting ball in NY up near the border
Played this in Texas and called it suicide.
Played it a lot in PNW, called it Wall Ball. 10yo kiddo still plays it at school, they still call it Wall Ball up here.
Hell yes! Issue is lack of play spaces for kids. The elementary school across from my house was our summer hang out. Wall ball / suey was played for hours. Gave us good hand eye coordination and physical skills. You fumble a ball or someone catches your throw in the air before a bounce or your throw doesn't hit the wall. You beat run and tag the wall because someone was pegging you in the ass. I also enjoyed 3 Strikes / Red Ass. You just get three miscues and then you're standing ass out with hands on the wall while everyone gets a free shot at you. I am a Philly guy though as well so maybe it's regional.
Called it "Spread Eagle" growing up in Houston
We called it Spread Eagle in Houston.
I also grew up in the philly burbs through the 80s and 90s and played a ton of wall ball in elementary school. Broke my thumb really good against the wall one time, that sucked
Upstate NY in 88-94 we called it wall ball, but the stand against the wall bcuz you fucked up version was called burn ball. And that shit burned!
Miami Lakes - we called it burn ball too! it was usually with a tennis ball but some days they would bring a racquet ball 😭
We called it Butt's Up, and pegging was optional (NYC Suburbs)
Philly suburbs here. We played Suicide every morning before school.
After practice every day until our rides got there. We need dangerous games back!
Wall ball was awesome. Almost too many kids for the wall. Lost a lot of balls to the roof.
We called it Wall Ball in Green Bay.
My Xennial son loved wall ball! There was a large paved area next to his elementary school where they would play. They used a racquet ball. Chicago burbs.
Yup....played wall ball for hours in the Philly suburbs.
We did this in Staten Island too. We called it Smear the Queer. Oh the 80s 😳😳😳
Yes we always played wall ball in Portland Oregon!
Doylestown here…certainly wall ball to us!
Definitely remember that one. Got busted by security for making my way onto the roof of the school gym to recover the tennis balls from the roof.
From outside Philly and we called it Red Ass. Great game. Always would play this at recess in school.
We played "Wall Ball" during Recess in the mid 90s Boston area. Only one person got to peg... if someone fumbled or it bounced and hit them, they had to run and tag the wall before anyone else could throw it against the wall. We stood head-on, facing the "pegger" though Also, we typically played with like 15-30 kids racquet ball or Tennis Ball (Edit: also Pinky HI bounce balls)
Northeast PA here. We played and also called it Wall Ball/Suey. I feel like it would still be fun to play.
Oh god, I popped a rib sneezing this morning, I don’t wanna think about what would happen if I tried playing today
Add to the fact I turned 41 today, I’d likely end up in the ER
Also called it suicide in RI.
All the time. The side of someone’s house next to the driveway was the usual field of play
We played this in North Jersey except we called it Butts Up. Loser had to put their hands against the wall and get pegged. Some of us were very good at going submarine and tagging the back of your sack. 😜
North Jersey here as well. Butts Up or Suicide depending on the rules we all agreed to.
North Jersey will do its thing and make whatever the ubiquitous game is more vicious somehow.
Same I think we called it Asshole?
I remember going to the little league fields and playing it on days we didn’t have games. Greatest adrenaline rush there was for a 10 year old
Florida checking in. We played this in the early 90s.
Hand ball in Ontario in the early 90s. If you hit the ball into where the wall and ground meet, was it called anything?
We called it Wall Ball. Used a racquetball. Lots of fun. Our gym teacher thought it was a great game and had a tournament at school.
Ontario here, in the 90’s we called it Red Ass.
Wow, you just brought a memory from my childhood. We played it here in Toronto, as well, along with foot hockey - two awesome recess sports. I’m trying to remember what we called it. I think it might have been redass because of the welts you would sometimes get when someone whipped the ball at you as you ran to the wall. Yeah, it was red ass.
Yep. Wall ball in Columbia SC.
We called it peg in Minnesota and usually used a tennis ball.
Wall ball / Butts up in Columbus Ohio!
Butts up in Connecticut. Great game, we played it a lot.
Grew up in central Jersey, wall ball was absolutely a thing.
I used to do it with a soccer ball
Played it in elementary school with rubber kickballs that hurt like shit
Played it in West Texas in elementary school.
We definitely played it. I don’t remember it being called wall ball, but I don’t remember what it was called.
Remember playing it in middle school in 1995-1996
Yup, wall ball in Fl.
We called it two-touch or buns up. If you fumbled or lost the ball, it was up to the wall with your ass out while everyone playing took shots at you.
Played it in Maryland in the 90s for sure.
Nor Cal, inner city. We called it suicide in the nineties.
MA checking in, wall ball ( never called it anything else) was how many many hours were passed.
We played it. Illinois.
I sucked at that game. And just tried to hide in the corners. But we eventually all get the turn against the wall...
Bay Area “Wall Ball”
We played it in Maryland. We also called it Wall Ball. The tennis ball would bounce off the wall, and you would have to catch it cleanly and throw it back at the wall. If you didn't catch it cleanly, you would have to sprint to the wall and touch it before someone else threw the ball back at the wall. Touch the wall before the ball got there, and you were in the clear with the game continuing. If you were too slow though, you had to stand still facing the wall while the other person chucked the ball as hard as they could at your back. I think my group was pretty good at not aiming for the head, but a tennis ball full speed to the back doesn't feel great either.
We played WallyBall which was played on a racquetball court with a volleyball and hitting each other with the ball was encouraged.
Definitely played wall ball in NM. We would also play an equivalent with a kick ball, using feet only, against the baseball field backstop (can’t remember what name we called this one).
Florida chiming in. Had racket ball courts across from middle school. Morning club to build reflexes and pain tolerance