Evening star., 1939-06-11
BY JAMES MARROW,
Associated Press Sports Writer.

COllSSS IOOJUdll Ult IL tllCy
feel rough let them remember the
really tough cookies who played
ball with their knees and the seat
Of their pants.
And it's cinch no college eleven
would sit up all night looking at
the pigskin and asking it please to
60 through the goal posts tomor-
row.
On green autumn fields, the foot
ballers give the old college try for
fun and fame.
But those other boys, the Maya
Indians from Southeastern Mexico,
bet their lives and wives on one
goal and played for keeps. A lot
of them got killed trying
Sometimes when player caromed
goal off the seat of his breeches
the crowd gave a big cheer and
scrammed There was rule that
a player making a goal could COL
lect all the fans money, jewelry and
other valuables.
They were going good, too, till
the Spaniards with tin hats and
powder guns broke up the game
four centuries ago.
Two to 200 Played in Game.
The Mayas were around a long
time They had their own calendar
worked out 200 years BIC. and
built 21-story temple pyramids. BY
the time the Spaniards arrived in
the 18th century to take their coun-
try away from them there were
perhaps 100000 Mayas.
They had a flock of towns and
every town with civic pride had a
basket ball team. They were nuts
about the game, but there must
then. The players were divided into
so-called simon pures and simple
pros.
The director of Tulane Univer-
sitys Middle American Research In
stitute, Frans Blom, who helped dig
up this information with some other
scientists, calls the game pok-ta-
pok from the sound the rubber ball,
a foot thick, made when it hit the
ground
All the towns must have been
we'll supplied with playing equip
ment for once, when two of them
were charged with unneighborly
practices, they were fined $4,000
rubber balls.
Two to 200 men could play the
game in 200-foot courtyards with
mortar covered floors, which made
good bouncing. but bad falling. They
wore leather gloves and leather pants
to keep from rubbing their skin off
when they skidded.
Goal Ended Pastiming
The players took their places on
opposite sides of a line dividing the
court in halves. waiting for the toss
up. The referee footed his whistle
threw out the ball and away they
went, trying to bump the ball into
the baskets which were stone rings
encircled by monkey-faced idols and
set in walls 20 feet high.
If they could bump their way te
goal with their knees, thighs OF
the seat of their pants, the game
was over. If they touched the BAT
with any other part of their bodies
the referee called a foul.
The rich and poor played. Ever
the mayor, the governor or the
king took a crack at it.
The grandstand and the bleach
ers were the high stone walls.
Father Diego Duran, priest who
travelled with the Conquistadores
and has been called the first Ameri-
can sports reporter, wrote:
TT was a game of much recrea-
tion to them (the IndianS) and o1
enjoyment, especially to those who
took it as a pastime and entertain,
ment, among which were some who
played it with such deXterity anC
skill that they, during one hour
succeeded in not stopping the f1igh
of the ball from one end to tht
other, without missing a single hi
with their buttocks, not being al
lowed to reach it with their hands
nor feet, nor with the calves of thel
legs, nor with their arms.
Rich, Poor in Contests.
They were so clever, both thos
of one side and the other in no
allowing the ball to stop that it wa
marvelous-for if to see those of ou
country of Spain play ball with thei
hands gives us such pleasure ant
surprise, and then see with wha
skill and dexterity some of then
play, then how much more mus
we praise those who, with such skill
dexterity and elegance, played
with their buttockS and their knees
counting it foul to touch the bal
with their hands or any other par
of their body, except the said tW
parts, the buttocks and the knees
And because of their practic
there were such accomplished an
excellent players that they not onl
were held in high esteem, but tina
the rulers made them gifts an
lodged them in their houses an
courts, and they were honored wit
special insignia"
Father Duran took to the gam
and played it himself, but it i'm
pressed him to see the fine gentr
getting mixed up in the hurly-burly
He said:
"A great multitude of mobiles an
gentlemen took part, and the
played with such content and jo.
changing now some and later other
from time to time, so that they a
might enjoy the game, and so con
tent that the sun would go dow
before they knew of it.
Ran Themselves to Death.
''Some of them we're carried dea
out of the place, and the reason fC
this was that they ran, tired and OIL
of breath, after the ball from or
end to the other
They would see the ball come
the air and in order to reach it frs
before the others. it would reboun
on the pit of their stomach or
the hollow, so that they fell to tt
ground out of breath, and some
them died instantly because of the
ambition to reach the ball befol