Recess Games

[led37zep]

I started thinking about the games me and my friends used to play during recess in Elementary School.

Two of the favorites were:

Smear the Queer: Where one kid is given a football and designated "queer". All of the other people playing are trying to tackle him and strip the ball in order to be the new "queer".

and

Butts Up: We would take a tennis ball or a red playground ball and throw it against a wall. The object was to catch the ball in one bounce and toss it back against the wall. If the ball bounced more than once or you mishandled the throw you had to face the wall with your ass sticking out while the other players got to throw as hard as they could at your ass. (The dream move was to ricochet the ball into the players nuts)

So what games did you always look forward to playing during recess?

[spoon]

We played an awesome version of tag with two safe zones (two set of doors on the opposite end of the playground) where one person starts as "it". As soon as he tagged someone else, they too were it until everyone was caught. It was awesome bc we were allowed to run all over the playground and more, so it got crazy. I was always one, if not the last, one caught. It was one hell of an awesome game.

Also, we also were allowed to get kickball going in the spring and it didn't get much better then that k-6!! Poing!!!! Red ball to the face!!! Heads up deek!

[Thebazile78]

We just ran around on the blacktop because we didn't exactly have a playground. (Catholic grammar school ... if you can pay for it you're allowed to feel righteous and look down on anyone else in town who can't.)

Usually, it was some variant of tag ... Freeze Tag, regular tag, team tag, etc.

The older boys would play football or soccer.
If you had a tennis ball, the guys would play wall-ball against the wall of the Parish Center, kind of like spoon's "ass up," but without the ass-up part.

If it rained, we'd get to play stuff like 7-Up and Hangman because we would have to spend the entire lunch period inside our classrooms.

We would only play stuff like kickball or dodgeball in Gym.

[Jujubees2]

I started thinking about the games me and my friends used to play during recess in Elementary School.

Two of the favorites were:

Smear the Queer: Where one kid is given a football and designated "queer". All of the other people playing are trying to tackle him and strip the ball in order to be the new "queer".

and

Butts Up: We would take a tennis ball or a red playground ball and throw it against a wall. The object was to catch the ball in one bounce and toss it back against the wall. If the ball bounced more than once or you mishandled the throw you had to face the wall with your ass sticking out while the other players got to throw as hard as they could at your ass. (The dream move was to ricochet the ball into the players nuts)

So what games did you always look forward to playing during recess?


Wow, did you go to school in San Francisco?

[King Hippos Bandaid]

S P U D


4-6 people played Te object was not to get the letters S P U D

I person would throw a rubber ball (kick ball) high in the air and call a number

the person with that number would run and try to catch the ball with out it touching the ground. If he did so, the person who threw the ball would get a letter.

If the person does not catch the ball, he gets to take 3 giant step and try to peg the ball at the closest person. (dodge ball rules) if the person catches the ball, the thrower gets a letter, if the person drops the ball (or gets pegged in the face) the person who missed the ball gets a letter

used to love that game, no sure if that was a Brooklyn - Staten Island thing

I did learn the game in Brooklyn

[joethebartender]

Smear the Queer: Where one kid is given a football and designated "queer". All of the other people playing are trying to tackle him and strip the ball in order to be the new "queer".



We played that game but we called it "kill the guy with the ball". I swear that was our name for it. (Cresskill, NJ)

[Thebazile78]

We played that game but we called it "kill the guy with the ball". I swear that was our name for it. (Cresskill, NJ)



Smear the Queer: Where one kid is given a football and designated "queer". All of the other people playing are trying to tackle him and strip the ball in order to be the new "queer".
....

Yeah, I think they called it "Kill the Carrier" in my town ... and it was always banned from the playground. (It didn't stop people from trying to play it anyway; bloodstained powder-blue uniform shirts were always a dead giveaway.)

[Jennitalia]

kickball, soccer, all different versions of tag, red light green light, mother may i, tetherball.

[led37zep]

Wow, did you go to school in San Francisco?


Ha! 40 minutes south actually. Maybe thats why we were playing all these homophobic games.

[Chigworthy]

I went to school 40 min north of SF, and we had those games too. Two kids in our class gave each other blowjobs while they were taking a bath together. One of the kids had that useless nintendo robot gyroscope thing and the powerglove. He also had some strip poker game for his Commodore 64.

[Furtherman]

Butts Up: We would take a tennis ball or a red playground ball and throw it against a wall. The object was to catch the ball in one bounce and toss it back against the wall. If the ball bounced more than once or you mishandled the throw you had to face the wall with your ass sticking out while the other players got to throw as hard as they could at your ass. (The dream move was to ricochet the ball into the players nuts)

We played a different version. It was called Suicide. Tennis ball. If you dropped the ball, you had to run and touch the wall... but the other players had to pick up the ball and hit you before you reached the wall. I think we yelled "Ups!" or something when you touched the wall. If you were hit with the ball three times, then you had to face the wall with your hands up in the air on the wall and everyone took a shot at throwing the ball as hard as you can at them. There was no ass sticking out. You could get hit anywhere. The middle of the back and back of the leg was the worst.

We also played wire baseball. Tennis ball. You throw it over the telephone line and the other team in the street has to catch it. If there is a miss, with each bounce was a base run. Two bounces - double, etc. If you hit the wire it was a home run.

[Knowledged_one]

I remember the entire 3rd grade year we played 3 on 3 basketball all the time

or shoot-out which was fun

King of the Hill

Full Court Basketball

and huge soccer games

[tupper65]

Recess outside was in a scoolyard so it was mostly wall ball

Recess inside was a card game called "Knucks" (or "Knuckles). Kind of like "Go Fish" where the loser would get one whack on his knuckles (with the deck of cards) for each of the cards that he had left in his hand. It got pretty insane when the guy who lost had 20 or 30 whacks coming to him.

[johnniehardrock]

We use to play a game we called wall ball. 3 people per team each would take a turn bouncing a racketball off the ground into the wall. The 3 people in the field would either catch it with two hands to get 1 out or one handed to get three outs. If you missed it each bounce advance the base runners. As the runners moved up you scored. Now that I describe it I think it was really stupid but we played it every day.

We also would play punchball with a racketball which was just like baseball but using your hand as bat.

I wish we had recess at work today it is so nice out.

[FUNKMAN]

mostly Tag

i went to catholic school and we were 98% guidos and guidettes. i got smart (maybe cause i'm half irish) and wore desert boots. i could cut on a dime as the other guys slid all ove the place in their patent leather goomba shoes

[jetdog]

http://www.draperinc.com/images/GYM/Images/Tetherball.jpg

we had massive self organized tournaments and all these self made rules, like "no mosiers" - so named after a really tall kid who kicked everybody's ass by somehow standing underneath the ball and hitting it so it went so high it was out of reach on the other side.

[Gvac]

Combat basketball was a favorite. Played on the concrete playground, pretty much anything went; tackling, punching, elbows, etc.

To this day I think regular basketball is for wimps.

[SouthSideJohnny]

We played a different version. It was called Suicide. Tennis ball. If you dropped the ball, you had to run and touch the wall... but the other players had to pick up the ball and hit you before you reached the wall. I think we yelled "Ups!" or something when you touched the wall. If you were hit with the ball three times, then you had to face the wall with your hands up in the air on the wall and everyone took a shot at throwing the ball as hard as you can at them. There was no ass sticking out. You could get hit anywhere. The middle of the back and back of the leg was the worst.

We also played wire baseball. Tennis ball. You throw it over the telephone line and the other team in the street has to catch it. If there is a miss, with each bounce was a base run. Two bounces - double, etc. If you hit the wire it was a home run.

Our version of "butts up" or "burnball" was similar but with a rubber raquetball on a paddleball court. In our version, if you dropped the ball while catching it, or if it hit you, you had to run to the ball. You could be hit in the back, leg, or head as you were running to the wall. Once you touched the wall, you had to run back to the line on the court. While running from the wall to the line, you could not be hit directly, but you could be hit by a rebound off the wall. If you were hit, you got a point. After someone got three points, you had to go "butts up" by kneeling with your ass in the air and head tucked against the wall. Everyone got to throw (from the line) at your ass and back until they missed. Once everyone went, the game started over.

Oh, how I miss the old days.

PS - Tip for anyone who might try this. If you're the one "butts up," close your legs together or the throw can go five hole and hit your nuts or face.

Also, you can target by weaker players by swatting the ball at another player. Once it hit them, your buddy would grab the ball and hit the other guy before he got to the wall. You kept running to the wall and back, and the other guy got the point.

[Hottub]

We played that game but we called it "kill the guy with the ball". I swear that was our name for it. (Cresskill, NJ)

We also played "Kill the Guy" (Oradell) and Asses up.

[SyndicateParish]

Inevitibly there was a pile of dog shit on the playground.. someone would put a stick in it and chase everyone around yelling "I'mma getcha with the ____er stick".

[Mullenax]

We had an all-metal piece of playground equipment called The Witches' Hat. Used properly, nine or ten kids would grab a ring chained to a pole and run in a circle in the same direction. As the speed picked up, everyone's feet could leave the ground and we'd hang on for dear life, then start all over again.<p>
INEVITABLY, there would be a fight about which direction to run in. Five kids on each side of the ring would push downward and slam the ring into the pole- propelling the kids on the other side upward, if they were still holding on, in an effort to shake them loose. If you weren't holding on right or paying attention, the ring would hit you in the mouth and knock you down. This game was called Slamming. Winners of Slamming had the Witches' Hat to themselves, no problem, and their noses intact. Challengers had to win a game of Slamming to free the Hat up so regular kids could play again.<p> This thing is similar, but it comes down too low and it's made of wood. Ours was blister-inducing metal.<p>
<img src="http://manchesterhistory.net/LONGSIGHT/PARKS/SAND/karen.jpg">

[DonInNC]

All of the other people playing are trying to tackle him and strip the ball in order to be the new "queer".



That never made sense to me, but I always went along with it. We tried to have a smear the queer tournament one time, but we couldn't decide on how to keep score.

[ZigZagBigBag]

we played a game called British Bulldog and a variation on dodgeball called germanball. then we moved east and the kids there played a game called kingsquare. i can't clearly remember the rules, but it involved a painted square on the ground that had 4 squares within it. you used a ball and had to try and bounce the ball in opponents squares without them catching it. very weird.

[furie]

anyone remember a game called "Steal the bacon"?

[jauble]

In elementary school we loved 4 square. We also had an obstacle course made out of wood that was nothing but splinters but a good time always.

[King Hippos Bandaid]

anyone remember a game called "Steal the bacon"?

sure

good game, gym teacher used to gave Randy & I the same # and battle for his amusement

[NewYorkDragons80]

anyone remember a game called "Steal the bacon"?
Hell yeah. It really was like something out of an action movie. Steal the loot at run like hell. I always felt like Benny "the Jet" Rodriguez when I played that

[Slumbag]

In elementary school we loved 4 square. We also had an obstacle course made out of wood that was nothing but splinters but a good time always.

Yeah. Four square was definitely the all time greatest game.

I'm gonna try and explain this, but I really have no idea how to.
Essentially, there is a cup on a pole, and there are four holes cut out of it. You throw the ball into it, and it comes out one of the four holes. I have absolutely no idea what it's called, I can't find a picture of it, and I don't remember how it's played. But I do remember that my elementary school had one and I enjoyed it.

[Jimsy's Girl]

we played "jump the river", put two jump ropes on the ground parallel to each other and spread them apart wider and wider and then run and jump to try to make it across.
I, however was not a huge fan of recess games. Being the "big kid" made for less fun at game time. (oh, poor me...)

[Thebazile78]

Yeah. Four square was definitely the all time greatest game.

I'm gonna try and explain this, but I really have no idea how to.
Essentially, there is a cup on a pole, and there are four holes cut out of it. You throw the ball into it, and it comes out one of the four holes. I have absolutely no idea what it's called, I can't find a picture of it, and I don't remember how it's played. But I do remember that my elementary school had one and I enjoyed it.

I know exactly what you're talking about.

They had one of those at the public elementary school next door to my parochial school.

[Heather 8]

we played "jump the river", put two jump ropes on the ground parallel to each other and spread them apart wider and wider and then run and jump to try to make it across.
I, however was not a huge fan of recess games. Being the "big kid" made for less fun at game time. (oh, poor me...)

We called it "Jump the Brook" when I played in kindergarten. Always ended with some kid twisting his or her ankle.

My favorite was "Red Rover." Lots of separated shoulders, good times, good times.

Come to think of it, we were pretty violent li'l kids.

[ADF]

We played a different version. It was called Suicide. Tennis ball. If you dropped the ball, you had to run and touch the wall... but the other players had to pick up the ball and hit you before you reached the wall. I think we yelled "Ups!" or something when you touched the wall. If you were hit with the ball three times, then you had to face the wall with your hands up in the air on the wall and everyone took a shot at throwing the ball as hard as you can at them. There was no ass sticking out. You could get hit anywhere. The middle of the back and back of the leg was the worst.


This was pretty much the version I played, only when you got hit three times you had to put your hands up against the wall and let everyone throw the ball at your ass as hard as they can. We called it "Asses Up."

I was also big into four-square in my younger days.

[Thebazile78]

We called it "Jump the Brook" when I played in kindergarten. Always ended with some kid twisting his or her ankle.

My favorite was "Red Rover." Lots of separated shoulders, good times, good times.

Come to think of it, we were pretty violent li'l kids.

They actually considered Red Rover to be safer than "Kill the Carrier" so we were allowed to play that.

I don't remember anyone getting really hurt, though.

[Heather 8]

They actually considered Red Rover to be safer than "Kill the Carrier" so we were allowed to play that.

I don't remember anyone getting really hurt, though.

Maybe because you guys were smart enough to a) not run full speed at the other team, or b) not hold hands so tightly that no matter how hard the other kid hit you, you didn't let go (but you'd end up with very sore arms and shoulders). We'd also have the occasional kid who'd tackle someone on the other team and knock him over, rather than aim for the arms.

[MobCounty]

Hrm, our four square was a square divided into quads painted on the ground and you had to bounch the ball to each other without 'catching' it in your hands. Kinda like an upside down volleyball.

There was also 9 square that was played on a bigger set of squares.

[SouthSideJohnny]

We also used to play bombarament (I'm sure its spelled wrong). The class was split in two in the gym, and each team had a bowling pin they had to protect. You would throw the ball at the pin and opposing players. If they caught it, you were out. If it hit them and they didn't catch, they were out. As the teams got smaller, the opposing team could advance farther into the other teams area to knock out the remaining players, with the goal being to knock the pin over.

Good memory: lobbing an airball and hitting some unsuspecting kid in the head with one of those huge red rubber kickballs

Bad memory: the pressure of being one of the chunky kids and being one of the few left to protect your team's pin

One of the Florida radio shows [possibly Ron & Ron (and Fez)] set up a bombardament tournament in the early 90's with Jim Jensen and the Hooters arena football team.

[Thebazile78]

Maybe because you guys were smart enough to a) not run full speed at the other team, or b) not hold hands so tightly that no matter how hard the other kid hit you, you didn't let go (but you'd end up with very sore arms and shoulders). We'd also have the occasional kid who'd tackle someone on the other team and knock him over, rather than aim for the arms.

I don't think so.

I remember kids running full-out ... once, I think Kevin Graff flipped over the other side, but he was one of those crazy kids who seemed like they were made of rubber, so he ended up being OK.

And the whole holding hands thing was always my least favorite part ... especially the times I'd end up next to one of the "icky" boys who had dubious hygiene habits (and later grew up to be stoners.)

[Heather 8]

Meh. Maybe we were just fragile.

[Chigworthy]

anyone remember a game called "Steal the bacon"?

Like capture the flag, but the flag was that felt chalkboard eraser that looked sort of like a very thick and grey piece of fuzzy bacon?

[high fly]

In fourth grade Mrs. Baumgartner achieved immortality by letting us play tackle football.

Anoher one that was fun was standing by the merry go round with a couple of other guys and making it go really fast till some kid got thrown off.

Then there was "Devil in the Ditch."

There are two end zones and the game starts with one "devil."
The devil shouts "Devil in the ditch!" and everyone runs, trying to get to the other end zone.
Everyone the devil tags is a devil on the next round until everyone but one person is a devil.
It was great to survive to be the last one, and still be able to run through the whole bunch without being tagged.
After the last person was tagged, the game began again with the first person who was tagged being the next devil.

I learned this game at a Baptist church while on vacation visiting relatives.
When I brought it back, it became quite popular....

[PapaBear]

We mostly just played King of the Mountain on the monkey bars. I'd imagine monkey bars are now considered too dangerous and politically incorrect.

[Philly Franko]

we played Smear the Queer and relieveeo a hide and get back to home base before being caught...one person/team counted to 100 and we all go and hide in a Large 7 house Circle...sounds gay now , but we played many versions of these 2 games plus kickball...Whiffleball tourneys/Homerun derby etc...Tape up the bat and ball with elecrical tape to have more power/speed. we were about 8 to 11 years old. always had one skinny superstrong kid and one fat kid who sweated too much. we were cruel as kids...teased constantly on everyone. skinny kids were the stringbeans etc...Good Times they were.:devil2:

[Gritty]

We played that game but we called it "kill the guy with the ball". I swear that was our name for it. (Cresskill, NJ)

That's what we called it in South Plainfield too. Must be a Jersey ting.

[bigredd]

Played some four square, kick ball, basketball, soccer and a lil smear the queer. STQ was also known as kill the man. Once in my back yard we were playing STQ and two of us hit a buddy of mine at the same time. He covered his lil head and stayed on the ground wimpering for a minute and a black lab named Bear came from around the front of the house and mounted my buddy Will and started trying to bang him in the ass. I'll never forget him screaming "GET OFF ME" without looking to see who it was. The rest of were on the ground laughing like idiots. Good times.

[Coach]

We had smear the queer..but we had a mashup version with football. we had two endzones and you scored points by crossing one of the lines ..I was the impetus that put a to stop the game. I was trudging towards the nearest endzone with four kids hanging onto me when another kid named Eddie bashed me in the face with a rock, knocking me out for a few seconds and ripping my tongue up from the bottom of my mouth. When I got up and tried to talk blood just poured out of my mouth. I had to get it sewn back down..13 stitches. Good times.

[Tall_James]

We played that game but we called it "kill the guy with the ball". I swear that was our name for it. (Cresskill, NJ)

Our name for it too. (Lynbrook, NY)

[SatCam]

We played suicide as explained by Furtherman with a racquetball. When we got caught playing it we would either play handball or kick-flies-up with a kickball instead.

Me and my friends also invented a variation of tag we called "cube" tag. They had built this new jungle gym with a wood beam outline to keep the woodchips in. This became the boundary. Basically it was tag with boundaries, and you could go inside the jungle gym and the woodchips around it, but you automatically got an out if you went outside the cube. I think we also played tag variants inside the cube, like Cube Freeze Tag or Cube TV Tag. It wasnt actually a cube tho. More like a rectangle. They should teach geometry earlier in schools

[SlicedAlone]

Aww shit smear the queer. The greatest game ever. I remember this kid Scott tried to come with lets call it kill the carrier shit and was told to get the fuck outta here.

[ohioscouser]

Our recess consisted of us just playing on black-top since we had no grass, so our options were limited. So we played tag mostly until we got around 7th or 8th grade where we started playing tag football outside to try and impress the girls haha.

[ahhdurr]

Not a sport but a huge activity was flipping baseball cards - I can't even remember how you won, but it was like playing war with regular playing cards and one woud trump the other - then you'd own the card. And you'd square up with your opponent before starting... "so and so's flipping his Gary Carter All Star card so I'll flip my Johnny Bench" ... Also - Topps over Fleer.

Bad stale bubble gum.

Keepsies really the only way to play.

[Enabler]

We played a different version. It was called Suicide. Tennis ball. If you dropped the ball, you had to run and touch the wall... but the other players had to pick up the ball and hit you before you reached the wall. I think we yelled "Ups!" or something when you touched the wall. If you were hit with the ball three times, then you had to face the wall with your hands up in the air on the wall and everyone took a shot at throwing the ball as hard as you can at them. There was no ass sticking out. You could get hit anywhere. The middle of the back and back of the leg was the worst.



This was pretty much the version I played, only when you got hit three times you had to put your hands up against the wall and let everyone throw the ball at your ass as hard as they can. We called it "Asses Up."



We called it "Red Ass" (westwood,nj). And if you mishandled the tennis ball the other players had to throw the ball at the wall before you reached it safely. If the ball hit the wall before you did, you grabbed wall and got pegged by whoever threw you "out." Of course everything changed when the first kid brought one of these sweet baby's to school.......
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/318R633QJAL._SL160_SL120_.jpg

[Devo37]

we had a no-running policy during recess (catholic school), so chinese handball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_handball) and walking-tag were about the only recess games.

as for after school, 'smear the queer' was called 'kill the carrier' and 'butts up' (gay) was called 'suicide' in my neighborhood. when someone missed 3 balls and had to face the firing squad, instead of going for the ass-shot, i preferred to throw a curve ball and bounce the ball through the guy's legs and try to hit him in the face. not as painful, but more embarrassing.

we would also play tackle football on the blacktop if there was even a hint of snow on the ground.

also, stickball, with the church serving as the outfield wall. below the top of the stained glass windows was a single. from the top of the windows to the roof was a double. hit the roof was a triple, and over the church was a homer. plus, the pitcher had to run around to the other side of the church to retrieve the home run ball he just served up, which added insult to injury.

[TheGameHHH]

did anybody else play "running bases"? it was the greatest game ever!

[BoondockSaint]

did anybody else play "running bases"? it was the greatest game ever!

We always played that.

[Devo37]

did anybody else play "running bases"? it was the greatest game ever!

loved running bases! i used to stop in the middle just to see if i could get out of a run-down safely.

it was also the only baseball-related game we could get my irish cousins to play when we would take the occasional summer vacation to ireland as a kid.

[hedges]

We played a game called murderball which was essentially dodgeball, two teams on each side. Dodgeball to us was some people got in a painted circle on the blacktop and tried to avoid getting hit with the ball being thrown by people outside the circle.