The Origins of Hooverball
"It is more strenuous than either boxing, wrestling or football," wrote Will Irwin, a friend of Hoover's, in a 1931 article "The President Watches His Waistline" in Physical Culture magazine. "It has the virtue of getting at nearly every muscle in the body."
In 1928, newly elected President Herbert Hoover discovered a game called “bull in the ring” while aboard a naval ship. This game was essentially monkey-in-the-middle, with a ring of players keeping a 9 lb medicine ball away from the guy in the middle. Hoover loved this game, and was not a fan of formal exercise, so when he returned to the White House, the administration’s physician Joel T. Boone invented this sport to keep him physically fit.
They played in teams of 2-4 players over a net eight feet high on a court similar to one used for tennis. The game was scored exactly like tennis, and played in a similar fashion.
The average age of all players was 53, and after experimenting with a 9 lb ball they decided to swap it out for a 6 pounder. They played every morning of the week except Sundays, even in rain and snow, except 2-3 occasions where “unusually drenching downpour” drove them into the White House basement.
That’s a level of dedication we are inspired by!
The sport had no name until 1931, when NYT reporter William Atherton DuPuy decided to refer to it as “Hoover-ball” for his article “At the White House at 7 a.m.”
"Stopping a six-pound ball with steam back of it, returning it with similar steam, is not pink-tea stuff. Dr. Boone estimates that as much beneficial exercise is obtained from half an hour of it (Hoover-ball) as from three times as much tennis or six times as much golf."
- NYT reporter W. A. DuPuy
Despite medicine ball games gaining popularity through Hoover’s presidency, this sport unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for HOOV NATION 👀) lost traction after Hoover lost the reelection in 1932, doomed into obscurity… until now. 😈
Modern day
The Hoover Presidential Foundation has organized yearly hooverball national championships since 1988, and there are other grassroots community hooverball groups like Warriorball in LA.
Of course, HOOV NATION is here as well 😁
We are heavily adapting and evolving the sport to create a more challenging, competitive, and entertaining experience for players and audiences alike. See our Rules page for how we’re playing today. and here are the original/traditional rules.
