Hooverball

Hooverball, medicine-ball game invented in 1929 by Adm. Joel T. Boone, physician to U.S. Pres. Herbert Hoover, in order to keep Hoover physically fit. The sport was nameless until 1931, when a reporter from The New York Times christened it “Hooverball” in an article he wrote about the president’s daily life.

Hooverball is similar to volleyball and tennis but originated from a popular game called bull-in-the-ring, played by sailors while on board ships, in which a sailor in the middle of a circle (the “bull in the ring”) tried to intercept a 9-pound (4-kg) medicine ball thrown between the sailors forming the circle. President-elect Hoover witnessed the game played on the battleship Utah while returning from a goodwill mission to South America in 1928. After Hoover assumed office, he and Boone decided to adapt that naval game to suit the White House environs and the president’s daily routine. Four days after Hoover’s inauguration, Hooverball was born.

The game is typically played on a court measuring 66 by 30 feet (20 by 9 metres). A 6-pound (2.7-kg) medicine ball and an 8-foot (2.4-metre) volleyball net are used in the game, which is scored just like tennis. Teams consist of two to four players. The ball is served from the back line, thrown over the net, and, in order to prevent the serving team from scoring a point, the other team must catch the ball on the fly and immediately return it from the point at which the ball was caught. Points are also scored if a team fails to serve or return the ball inbounds.

In the early 21st century, Hooverball experienced modest growth as variations of the game began to be implemented in certain of the unorthodox exercise regimes (such as CrossFit) that became popular at that time. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association in West Branch, Iowa, hosts a Hooverball national championship tournament each year.