Last year, I figured most readers would be too busy spending their 4th of July weekend barbecuing and lighting Roman candles to read about neighborhoods.
I grew up in Brooklyn playing handball competitively until my early 20s. It's such a city game. This was a great piece. In Ireland, what kind of balls were used? In NYC, you've got small ball and big blue. Most play big blue (softer, larger, like the spaldeens) and the top players and tournament players do the small, very hard, more bouncy ball. The money for tournaments and court hustling isn't enough to retire on, but a really good player can make in the thousands, easily. You should read up on Joe Durso
The Irish ball, which some people still use, is called the "alley cracker". According to Britannica, the Irish ball has a cork or wood centre covered by woolen thread and thin pieces of cork or rubber wrapped in sheepskin.
I think earlier versions were from scraps of clothes wrapped in leather.
Joe Durso sounds like a character -"he would often favor moving his opponents around the court, often 'toying' with them, in an attempt to humiliate them and exhibit his superiority." Okay Joe.
Grew up across the street from a park with a handball court in Queens, and it's such an ingrained part of my memories. The ever changing art on the wall - and the constant attempt to paint over it - was as much a part of the summer cycles as Mr Softy and lawn sprinklers. Thank you for this!
Thanks, Brian! I’m always playing with these in grids. Not sure how to link to it, but my latest Substack note has a little grid animation of some of the walls.
I have to follow up and read about this game. We used to play kitchenball in various folks’ kitchens when I was in my 20s. You’d get a ball (wiffle, ping pong, tennis, lacrosse, whatever) and pick a kitchen implement (cookie sheet, pan, wooden spoon, whatever) and try to bat it around the kitchen and off of appliances and decor, keeping it in the air. More points for more bounces, although we never really kept good score, just a sense of who was doing the best.
For sure. Thankfully, we were all adults with our own apartments when we were playing, so it was our stuff we were denting. But honestly, there were surprisingly few kitchen casualties, given the nature of the game.
This was so interesting to read! If I ever gave a thought to handball I would have guessed it originated on the Lower East Side during the Great Depression. Wrong! Also wrong about the ball that is used - I thought they used a Spaldeen (Spalding)! Also interesting to learn that it originated in Ireland way before the Depression. It saddens me to see graffiti on the handball walls, which makes them look like slabs of garbage IMHO. But the photos of the overgrown walls were different. Now do a story on stickball!
I think Spaulding does make the official handball ball though I too thought it was the pink spaldeen. I don’t love the graffiti but I really like the patches of painted over grafitti. And I agree about the ones in Ireland, beautiful ruins.
Great post. I've liked your photos of handball walls, but I didn't know much about the sport. Watched a video or two of players in NYC. It should be an Olympic sport!
My hubby grew up in Syracuse and said the only courts were at the YMCA. When he was in high school, one of his classmate's family moved to SYR and it turned out his dad was something of a champ who would routinely obliterate any and all locals who took him on. 🤾🏻♂️
Years ago when I was running a film festival we had a film about handball play called One Wall: Kings of Coney Island. Really great depiction of handball in NYC, specifically south Brooklyn!
My Gran Uncle John McEvoy was a professional Handball player at Phill Caseys handball court in Brooklyn from 1888 to 1897 when he returned to Borris in Ossory in Ireland a few miles from mountrath in county Laois (then called Queens county), He was said to be the hardest serving player at Casey's court , it was said that he had a Sledge Hammer like service. He returned to Brooklyn in June 1906 , His brother Michael imigrated to Brooklyn in1902 , he also played handball at Casey's Court , He was a school teacher and is said to have introduced handball at every school in which he taught in Brooklyn. i have written an account of John and Michael McEvoy's life at Phil Casey's court in Brooklyn . It is available to read online in the GAA's Handball web site in the handball History section It is titled The Rathdowney Hurricane in Brooklyn . It also contains an account of the long summer of 1892 ,During which Phil Casey Trained John L Sullivan for his world title boxing match against Gentleman Jim Corbett at New Orleans in september 1892. Corbett a great fan of Handball visited Casey's court at DeGraw street on the 16th of March 1894
This is my first experience of (American) handball. (Australian) handball is played in pretty much every school across the country, which usually oblige by painting the markings onto a concrete surface. Although you can also use chalk or the gaps between concrete slabs to set out your court. Importantly, no walls are required! In my day a tennis ball was used, but today's kids seemed to have graduated to a fuzzless bouncy ball. When I first heard that handball was played at the Olympics, I was impressed, until it turned out that (European) handball was an entirely different game unheard of in the colonies and presumably more chic and sophisticated. Here are more details of Australian kids favourite schoolyard game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handball_(schoolyard_game)
I have also learned today, that this game also goes by the name "downball", but I consider this a corruption peddled by the Downball Australia lobby, and not the true version of the game. My kids assure me that "handball" remains the correct schoolyard usage.
I grew up in Brooklyn playing handball competitively until my early 20s. It's such a city game. This was a great piece. In Ireland, what kind of balls were used? In NYC, you've got small ball and big blue. Most play big blue (softer, larger, like the spaldeens) and the top players and tournament players do the small, very hard, more bouncy ball. The money for tournaments and court hustling isn't enough to retire on, but a really good player can make in the thousands, easily. You should read up on Joe Durso
The Irish ball, which some people still use, is called the "alley cracker". According to Britannica, the Irish ball has a cork or wood centre covered by woolen thread and thin pieces of cork or rubber wrapped in sheepskin.
I think earlier versions were from scraps of clothes wrapped in leather.
Joe Durso sounds like a character -"he would often favor moving his opponents around the court, often 'toying' with them, in an attempt to humiliate them and exhibit his superiority." Okay Joe.
Thanks Ross!
Grew up across the street from a park with a handball court in Queens, and it's such an ingrained part of my memories. The ever changing art on the wall - and the constant attempt to paint over it - was as much a part of the summer cycles as Mr Softy and lawn sprinklers. Thank you for this!
I love the idea of the changing surface of the wall being part of the summer cycle! Thanks Lucy!
The walls are perfectly awesome. Thank you.
Glad you liked it, thanks Bobby!
The walls are strangely beautiful, like works of art in progress.
Always changing!
Living for this special edition!
-the best person ever aka your daughter!
Who?
Love the wall pictures. Do a grid of prints?
Thanks, Brian! I’m always playing with these in grids. Not sure how to link to it, but my latest Substack note has a little grid animation of some of the walls.
I have to follow up and read about this game. We used to play kitchenball in various folks’ kitchens when I was in my 20s. You’d get a ball (wiffle, ping pong, tennis, lacrosse, whatever) and pick a kitchen implement (cookie sheet, pan, wooden spoon, whatever) and try to bat it around the kitchen and off of appliances and decor, keeping it in the air. More points for more bounces, although we never really kept good score, just a sense of who was doing the best.
That sounds like my kind of game! It's also the kind of thing that I would yell at my kids for doing.
For sure. Thankfully, we were all adults with our own apartments when we were playing, so it was our stuff we were denting. But honestly, there were surprisingly few kitchen casualties, given the nature of the game.
Ok I have invented a new game: “Rothko or Handball Wall?”
I’d have to crop out the human turd in one of them to make it a fair game.
This was so interesting to read! If I ever gave a thought to handball I would have guessed it originated on the Lower East Side during the Great Depression. Wrong! Also wrong about the ball that is used - I thought they used a Spaldeen (Spalding)! Also interesting to learn that it originated in Ireland way before the Depression. It saddens me to see graffiti on the handball walls, which makes them look like slabs of garbage IMHO. But the photos of the overgrown walls were different. Now do a story on stickball!
I think Spaulding does make the official handball ball though I too thought it was the pink spaldeen. I don’t love the graffiti but I really like the patches of painted over grafitti. And I agree about the ones in Ireland, beautiful ruins.
Great post. I've liked your photos of handball walls, but I didn't know much about the sport. Watched a video or two of players in NYC. It should be an Olympic sport!
My hubby grew up in Syracuse and said the only courts were at the YMCA. When he was in high school, one of his classmate's family moved to SYR and it turned out his dad was something of a champ who would routinely obliterate any and all locals who took him on. 🤾🏻♂️
I agree, definitely more Olympics worthy than European handball. Syracuse has nothing on the handballers of nyc
Years ago when I was running a film festival we had a film about handball play called One Wall: Kings of Coney Island. Really great depiction of handball in NYC, specifically south Brooklyn!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2458898/
It looks amazing! I’m gonna try to find it online. Thanks for the tip!
Loved reading the history of this interesting game and seeing all the walls
Thanks Katy!
My Gran Uncle John McEvoy was a professional Handball player at Phill Caseys handball court in Brooklyn from 1888 to 1897 when he returned to Borris in Ossory in Ireland a few miles from mountrath in county Laois (then called Queens county), He was said to be the hardest serving player at Casey's court , it was said that he had a Sledge Hammer like service. He returned to Brooklyn in June 1906 , His brother Michael imigrated to Brooklyn in1902 , he also played handball at Casey's Court , He was a school teacher and is said to have introduced handball at every school in which he taught in Brooklyn. i have written an account of John and Michael McEvoy's life at Phil Casey's court in Brooklyn . It is available to read online in the GAA's Handball web site in the handball History section It is titled The Rathdowney Hurricane in Brooklyn . It also contains an account of the long summer of 1892 ,During which Phil Casey Trained John L Sullivan for his world title boxing match against Gentleman Jim Corbett at New Orleans in september 1892. Corbett a great fan of Handball visited Casey's court at DeGraw street on the 16th of March 1894
James J McEvoy (JJ)
This is my first experience of (American) handball. (Australian) handball is played in pretty much every school across the country, which usually oblige by painting the markings onto a concrete surface. Although you can also use chalk or the gaps between concrete slabs to set out your court. Importantly, no walls are required! In my day a tennis ball was used, but today's kids seemed to have graduated to a fuzzless bouncy ball. When I first heard that handball was played at the Olympics, I was impressed, until it turned out that (European) handball was an entirely different game unheard of in the colonies and presumably more chic and sophisticated. Here are more details of Australian kids favourite schoolyard game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handball_(schoolyard_game)
I have also learned today, that this game also goes by the name "downball", but I consider this a corruption peddled by the Downball Australia lobby, and not the true version of the game. My kids assure me that "handball" remains the correct schoolyard usage.