Angleball Angleball is an American indoor and field sport that was developed in the 1940s by collegiate Hall of Fame football and basketball coach Charles A . " Rip " Engle ( March 26 , 1906 – March 7 , 1983 ) , as a way to keep service men and women fit during World War 2 . Engle served as the head football coach at Brown University from 1944 to 1949 and at Pennsylvania State University from 1950 to 1966 . Engle was also the head basketball coach at Brown from 1942 to 1946 . Angleball is light contact and because of its unique rules that emphasize skill , accuracy and placement over size , height and speed , angleball has been called the best group game ever developed for mixed ages and genders of up to 40 people . Currently , angleball is played for conditioning in the NFL and for fun by colleges , schools , camps and all - ages groups across the United States . Gameplay . Two large balls are placed atop standards ( normally 10 ' tall posts with a 10 ' radius circle around the post ) at opposite sides of a field . In a mixture of soccer and basketball , teams pass a smaller ball back and forth , attempting to knock the other team ' s ball off its perch with the smaller ball ( normally a regulation size handball ) . A goal is worth one point . An offensive player who is touched by a defensive player must come to a stop and has three seconds to pass the ball to avoid a turnover . Additionally , once tagged a player cannot shoot for a goal . Requirements on the " time limit " between tagging and passing the ball is usually up to the organizer , but is , as stated above , standardly set at 3 seconds . If a ball is knocked off its perch as a result of the standard being struck it does not count as a goal and results in a turnover . After a score is made , play may not resume until the ball is replaced in its perch at the top of the post . The team scored against then begins with possession of the ball inside of their own circle and can begin to advance the ball towards the other team ' s goal . The ball may be thrown , kicked or rolled from player to player . There is no tackling . The organizer should set tagging rules , but it is usually one hand tag . Like basketball , teams don ' t have goalies and the goal is surrounded by a key area where offensive players aren ' t permitted . As stated above , this key area is a circle marked on the ground at a certain distance ( usually 10 ' ) from the goal . Defensive players may cross into the circle area of the goal that they are defending as often as they wish . Offensive players may never transgress the circle guarded by the opposing team . If at any point a member of the offense crosses the plane of the defensive team ' s circle ( with or without the ball ) the defense may call to account the transgression and demand an immediate turnover . It should be decided before play begins whether defensive players may tend goal . Some rules allow for a single goalie who is allowed inside of the marked area , but is discouraged from exiting it . Teams do not have a set number of players — the number of participants is simply divided in half , although five or six per side is considered ideal . There is no regulation field size and out - of - bounds , if used , are arbitrarily set ; the suggested size is a field large enough to place the standards 35 to 50 yards apart or about that of a soccer field , and out of bounds areas usually do not exist . History . The first high school angleball game played was in the late 1960s at Pioneer Ranch in Tidioute , Pennsylvania , when the Corry High School Beavers football team hosted the Titusville Rockets team . Corry ' s athletic director and head football coach , Lou Hanna , and Titusville ' s athletic director , Roy Van Horn , had been teammates on the 1939 Slippery Rock State Teachers College undefeated championship football team . The game was won by Corry . Van Horn was the owner of Pioneer Ranch , a boys camp on the Allegheny River near Tidioute , Pennsylvania . With Hanna , he founded the Northwestern Pennsylvania Football Camp at Pioneer Ranch in 1961 , the nation ' s first summertime football camp for high school gridders , and hired Penn State ' s coaches to staff it . It was here a relationship with Rip Engle was formed , and they were first introduced to angleball . In the mid - 1990s the game was also introduced to students at Taylor University in Upland , Indiana by Philosophy Professor , Dr . James Spiegel . On October 4 , 2009 Angleball was introduced to a group of about 20 people in Tucson , Arizona . It remains a favorite in Gym classes at Bellefonte Area High School in Bellefonte , Pennsylvania , Penns Valley Area High School in Spring Mills , Pennsylvania and Mount Nittany Middle School in State College , Pennsylvania . Angleball sets are manufactured by the American Angleball company and are being used by camps , schools , and youth groups throughout the United States and Canada . In 2011 at the 100th year celebration of the Dept . of Kinesiology at Penn State , an American Angleball was featured in " The Ball Games of the World Exhibit " presented by Dr . Ken Swalgin , Associate Professor of Kinesiology . The exhibit includes over 80 balls , equipment , and posters depicting ball sports from around the world . Ball sports are categorized as follows : handball games , bowls and bowling , ball and bat games , racket and paddle games , football games , ball and raised goal games , invasion goal games , and other ball games . ( Swalgin , K . L . 2011 ) . In 2012 , an American Angleball set was adopted by the Philadelphia Eagles for preseason conditioning . In 2013 , the American Angleball League was created with a stated goal of professional play by 2023 . The International Angleball League was create that same year between international representatives to introduce angleball to a global audience with an as yet unspecified timeline .