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The evolution of sports balls has a surprisingly grim history. Early players relied on whatever materials they could find, such as stitched fabric, inflated animal bladders, and even human or animal skulls.
From ancient times to the modern era, materials and technology have drastically transformed sports balls. Today's designs are a far cry from their bizarre and rudimentary predecessors. Discover how your favorite sports have evolved in ways you never imagined.
10. Baseball
The baseball's origins trace back to innovative cobblers who crafted early versions using rubber shoe scraps. These balls often featured rubber cores, wrapped in yarn and covered with leather. Some early iterations even used sturgeon eyes instead of rubber. In the 1800s, pitchers occasionally handmade their own baseballs.
Early baseballs, regardless of their creators or materials, differed significantly in size and weight. A notable design was the “lemon peel,” crafted from a single leather piece tied with four stitching lines, resulting in a smaller, lighter ball. Measuring just two-thirds the size of today’s standardized 23-centimeter (9-inch) ball, these early versions could be hit farther and bounced higher than modern ones.
9. Basketball
Basketball initially used a soccer ball until 1896, two years after the sport’s inception, when a larger ball became the official standard. The Overman Wheel Company, a bicycle manufacturer in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, produced this new ball.
The ball’s circumference was set between 76 centimeters (30 inches) and 81 centimeters (32 inches), with a weight ranging from 18 to 22 ounces by 1898. Despite minor adjustments over time, the basketball has remained largely unchanged since the late 19th century.
8. Billiard Ball
Originally, billiard balls were crafted from elephant tusks, sourced from elephants hunted for their ivory. Despite being organic, ivory actually enhances with age rather than deteriorating. 'Hard ivory' is derived from elephants that died long ago. The demand for ivory led to the annual slaughter of thousands of elephants to produce millions of billiard balls, causing elephant populations to dwindle and ivory prices to soar. Manufacturing ivory billiard balls was also fraught with difficulties. The balls required storage at a consistent temperature for about a week to avoid cracking due to temperature changes. This led to a quest for an alternative material. A South American nut, though less elastic, shared many properties with ivory but failed to gain popularity as a replacement.
In 1863, a competition was organized to spur innovation among inventors. By 1868, John Wesley Hyatt had refined celluloid, initially created by Alexander Parkes in 1851. Hyatt submitted a billiard ball made of celluloid to the competition but did not secure the $10,000 award. Although his ball exhibited bounce, it did not meet the required height.
Celluloid billiard balls posed an additional hazard; they were prone to explosions. Hyatt applied a coating of collodion to the balls and distributed them to billiard halls for testing, cautioning that the treated balls might ignite upon contact with a lit cigar, as collodion is highly flammable. More alarmingly, the balls could detonate upon forceful impact. A saloon owner in Colorado who experimented with these balls noted that while he was unfazed by the minor explosions during play, his patrons were startled, often leading to drawn firearms.
7. Bowling Ball
Bowling traces its origins back to ancient Egypt around 3200 BC, but the modern version emerged as a lawn game circa 1840. Initially known as ninepins, it was popular among gamblers. When Connecticut outlawed ninepins in 1841 to combat gambling, the game was adapted indoors, and an additional pin was introduced to circumvent the ban. Early 19th-century bowling balls were wooden, later replaced by hard rubber.
In 1905, the first rubber ball, named 'Evertrue,' was launched. By 1914, Brunswick Corporation had developed the Mineralite ball using a 'secret rubber formula.' As a marketing strategy, Mineralite balls were sent on a nationwide YMCA tour. Despite their unpleasant odor when drilled and the absence of a 'core design,' rubber balls, much like polyester balls, gained widespread popularity throughout the 1970s.
6. Dodgeball
The exact origins of dodgeball remain unclear. While some sources suggest it began in Africa over two centuries ago as a brutal blood sport, skeptics question these claims, particularly the idea that tribes initially hurled rocks or 'decaying substances' at opponents to harm or disable them. These assertions are often viewed as dubious.
Once a player was hurt, opponents would intensify their assault by throwing more rocks or other projectiles to eliminate him, while his teammates would defend him by countering with their own rocks. Supposedly, this blood sport served a strategic purpose: it was a training drill to foster teamwork and sharpen combat skills for intertribal conflicts, where the goal was to 'eliminate the weak and shield their own.'
A missionary, Dr. James H. Carlisle, reportedly attempted to introduce dodgeball to his European students, but they lacked the necessary agility and precision to excel. It wasn’t until his return to St. Mary’s College in Norfolk, England, that he successfully introduced a milder version of the sport, replacing rocks and decaying matter with a leather ball. Whether dodgeball truly originated as described remains uncertain, but if accurate, the original form of the sport makes modern football and soccer seem gentle by comparison.
5. Football
Early footballs, also known as soccer balls, included gruesome items like pigs' heads and the skulls of defeated enemies. The first well-constructed ball was an inflated pig’s bladder, sealed at the end and wrapped in leather for durability. While more rounded than a rugby ball, it was far from perfectly spherical. In England’s damp weather, these balls absorbed water, becoming twice as heavy despite being treated with dubbin, a leather grease. Striking such a ball could cause serious neck injuries.
Charles Goodyear introduced vulcanized rubber in 1836 and created the first vulcanized soccer balls in 1855. Seven years later, after his wife reportedly died from lung disease caused by inflating countless pig bladders, H.L. Lindon developed one of the earliest inflatable rubber bladders for sports balls. By 1872, the English Football Association had standardized the size and weight of soccer balls.
4. Golf Ball
Over its first four centuries, golf was played with up to five different types of balls: wooden, hairy, feathery, gutty, and Haskell.
There is no concrete evidence to confirm the use of wooden golf balls, though wooden balls were utilized in similar games like Colf, Crosse, and Mail. These balls, due to their smooth texture, had poor handling qualities and could only travel about 75 meters (246 ft).
The hairy, or common, ball originated in the Netherlands and was imported to Scotland between 1486 and 1618. Starting in 1554, it began to be produced in Scotland, leading to a dispute between Cannongate’s cordiners in Edinburgh and the cordiners and gouff ball makers from North Leith. Hairies, made from straw or cow hair, were crafted similarly to feathery balls. These balls were quite costly, selling for two to five shillings each from the 16th to the early 18th century, with the earl of Montrose paying five shillings per ball in the early 17th century.
Cordiners used bird feathers collected from bird coops to create feathery, or featherie, golf balls, though the exact origin of this practice remains unclear. The feathery was made by stitching three pieces of wet leather, turning them inside out, and stuffing them with wet feathers through a small slit. As the materials dried, the feathers expanded and the leather shrank, creating a tightly packed ball. Production was labor-intensive, with only two or three balls made per day or up to 50 to 60 per week. Featheries, which could travel up to 176 meters (579 ft) in controlled tests, sold for between 2.5 and five shillings each.
From 1848, gutties, made from gutta-percha gum, began to replace featheries. Initially smooth, a St. Andrews saddlemaker added grooves to the ball’s surface after noticing that damaged balls performed better. Gutties were cheaper and more durable than featheries but only fully replaced them by 1860 when their quality and popularity improved. William Dunn of Musselburgh invented a mold for mass-producing gutties, reducing their price to one shilling each, making them more affordable than featheries. The gutty was eventually succeeded by the Haskell.
In 1898, Coburn Haskell, an American, introduced the 'wound core ball,' featuring a core made of rubber threads wound mechanically. Around 1912, the bramble pattern on the ball’s surface was replaced with the dimple design still used today. Since the Haskell, golf ball design has continued to evolve with ongoing refinements.
3. Volleyball
Invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan of Massachusetts, volleyball blended elements of baseball, basketball, tennis, and handball. It necessitated a unique ball that could stay airborne as players hit it over a net taller than those used in tennis or similar sports. The ball needed to be lightweight yet dense enough to travel quickly.
Basketball bladders proved unsuitable, so Morgan approached the A.G. Spaulding & Bros. factory near Chicopee, Massachusetts. They developed a three-layer ball: a latex bladder wrapped in cheesecloth and covered with leather. This design was highly effective and remains largely unchanged to this day.
2. Tennis Ball
Tennis traces its roots to 12th-century Europe, and possibly even ancient Egypt. Before the modern fuzzy rubber balls, tennis balls were crafted from diverse materials such as leather, chalk, moss, human hair, metal, sand, wool, or sheep intestines.
Hair and wool were the first officially approved materials for filling tennis balls. In 1480, King Louis XI of France decreed that tennis balls must be made of leather covers stuffed with hair or wool to ensure they bounced effectively. While modern balls use inflated rubber for better bounce, the tradition of using wool persists in the form of the felted outer cover.
1. Ping-Pong Ball
Ping-pong originated as a scaled-down version of tennis, with middle-class Victorians transforming their dining tables into miniature courts. Books acted as nets, and cigar box lids served as rackets, later replaced by parchment paper stretched over frames. Early balls included string balls, champagne corks, and rubber balls.
Celluloid balls were introduced after James Good observed them during a trip to the United States in 1901. Other advancements, such as replacing cigar box lids with paddles, further enhanced the game.
