I grew up in Los Angeles, CA. My elementary had like 5 tall poles with a ball attached on a string for each pole for the game of Tetherball.
Tetherball is played by two people with a ball attached to a rope on a tall pole. Each player stands on opposite sides and hits the ball in their own direction… one clockwise.. the other counterclockwise. The goal is to wrap the rope completely around the pole in your direction just by hitting the ball. Whoever wraps the rope all the way wins the game.
Was this game spread out throughout the US?
Comments
Yes in Ohio in the 90s. My elementary school had them and I’d play at recess.
My elementary school (in Ohio; lived here all my life) playground had tetherball poles, but none of us ever knew the rules and just hit the ball around (or threw it to see how many times we could get it to wrap around with one throw)
I mean, we weren’t far off from the actual game rules, I guess, but we were never told what they were.
No, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen it outside of television and movies.
Yes, it was the game to play at recess. However I’m a teacher now and I haven’t seen it at any of the schools I have worked at. Maybe too many kids getting hurt?
Yes. Northern Virginia in the ‘80s.
Yes, but I wasn’t any good at it.
I had one in my backyard as that was the only space for it but never at school. Those balls are very hard to keep inflated and if it breaks, very hard to replace. I can see from the school perspective, it’s easier to just buy a new kickball or soccer ball.
We had them on our playgrounds in Michigan in the 80s and 90s. I always thought it was the stupidest game. Basically, the tall kid always won.
Yeah. I don’t think we had it at school, but it was definitely a thing at summer camp, at the neighborhood pool, etc.
Im from south Texas, and, yes, we played tetherball. This post brought back one of my core memories of getting a tetherball going what felt like 100 mph right to the face as a kid (probs like 3rd-4th grade)💀
Had them in Indiana in the seventies and eighties
I fricken loved tetherball.
I was a straight assassin.
A few times, but wasn’t common to find the setup. Never played a real contest, just messing around. But I’m old, so not representative.
Definitely had tether ball at school growing up in the 90s/early 2000s.
Would have been on the playgrounds in the ’90s myself. I don’t remember seeing tetherball where I lived. But I’ve seen it in movies a lot.
Yes, 1990s
Yes, had a few on my playground as a kid. Also went to a few camps that had some. Weren’t unheard of on playgrounds in my area either.
I played it in elementary school. I work in a school now, and we had one when I first got here, but the ball keeps flying off and whacking kids on the head, so I got rid of it.
One of the other elementary schools in town had tetherball poles on their playground, but mine didn’t. One of the only times I ever played was when that school hosted an event that ours went to for the day.
Yeah, I played that game. It’s simple in concept, but difficult as hell for two well matched players.
I also played “Four Square”.
hell yeah
was super fun
had lines to play in the 90’s (louisiana)
Yes.
Yep played lots of tetherball in the late 90’s early 00’s in Arizona.
Foursquare and a solid game of “horse” were much more popular though from what I remember.
Yup, I was both short and terrible at it.
Dominated
Yep, 90s in Georgia we had tetherball and played.
We always had the poles on every school playground in the 70s, but nobody actually ever knew how to play. Same with my own kids 30 years later…poles/balls, but zero instructions, so if they used them at all it was just for made-up games. Boring.
Yes, back in junior high in the ’80s. But the way we played didn’t follow the official rules. We played with 4 – 5 people and the whole point was to try to smack another player in the head.
Hell yeah. I retired undefeated.
We played it in upstate NY.
Great fun until it smacked you in the face. I guess it never occurred to me that there were people who didn’t have some tetherball poles at school. They seemed to be standard school equipment in the ‘70s.
Only at summer camp
I grew up in Northern California, and at least at my elementary school, tetherball was extremely popular. At any given time outside of class, at least one of the tetherball poles was being used.
I played a bit, never liked it. The kid next door always wanted to play it.
My father built one for our backyard….in an old tire and cement that he mixed. Pole was legit….rope given with the kit was not. We replaced that rope a few times. Ball was replaced twice. 5 brothers….we played it often. Ended up breaking the pole in it’s 4th year of service. Early 70’s in Maryland….and we had two at our Elementary School. Two of my brother’s and I were class champions.
We actually had a tetherball pole in our yard. It got old pretty quickly though.
Only saw/played it in grade school.
Occasionally (I grew up in Virginia), but we didn’t have any poles at school.
I only remember tetherball from elementary school in Germany , we also had on our neighborhood playground. I loved it!!!
70s LAUSD yes
I’m 65 and grew up in Kansas and Oklahoma. Tetherball was common in both places.
I grew up in the 50-60 in socal and played it at lunch and recess, along with marbles and kick ball. The playground was happening.
Yep and I still have a deformed finger to prove it.
My elementary school and middle school in Hawaii was obsessed with tetherball
It was big in Ohio. At my school some girl got smashed in the face and that marked the end of tetherball.
No! I’m petite and taller people have all the advantages. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
We played it in gym class and at recess in the 80’s.
My kids elementary school had the poles on the playground but none of the kids even knew what they were for. When my son was in third grade, I bought a tether ball and installed it on one of the poles one day after school. We immediately had a huge crowd of kids around us waiting to play. It was such a novelty. This went on every day until the end of the school year and they had some spontaneous games over the summer, too. I highly recommend it as a way to foster play between kids!
Yes, and kids would get way to into it
Nope. Long Island, Ny 60s and 70s.. Never.
Yeah we definitely had tetherball at all the schools I ever attended. As games go it wasn’t one that I particularly cared about though.
My summer camp had one on an old pine tree trunk that was about 20 feet tall. If you gave it a good whack it would go around like 10 times before it got low enough for your opponent to reach.
Nope I mean we had some on the playground in elementary but I never did cause I thought that was only for the big kids. (like 5th graders) I dunno why I thought that. There wasn’t any rules against it as far as I remember. 😅
Yes, I played a good bit. I was better than average, but not the best. I would punch the ball instead of hitting it back for a little extra power.
Most definitely, but I grew up in the Valley
Yes, growing up in the South I remember it at my elementary and middle school, as well as several random places I stayed on the East Coast and Midwest (camps, lakes, relatives houses, parks, etc.).
It was ubiquitous enough to get referenced on the Simpsons and Napoleon Dynamite… so I think it was a fairly universal thing.
Cheap game really. Just need a pole, rope, and a ball. 🙂
Yes
We did in Florida.
We had a tether ball in our playground in the 80s, but I’m not sure anyone knew the rules or even if it was an actual game that had rules. We just kinda aimlessly threw it/whacked it around. We never played in any organized fashion and the ball eventually fell off and was never replaced. It probably fell off because someone was swinging from it, we did that a lot.
Grew up in the 80s. Summer camp in Vermont had a bunch of them. Grammar school in Cambridge Mass did not.
Played it all the time in elementary school.
All the time. The pool I frequented as a kid (and later work at as a teen) had a pole. It was crazy popular and I played all the time.
I saw them on TV all the time, but very rarely saw one in person. I think I played with one once or twice.
Yeah we had tetherball growing up
We had the equipment but never learned the rules of the game until much later.
Same as four-square.
One time a stray dog came on the playground and a student tied it up with the tetherball pole.
Saw it in Texas but not New Mexico. I think here in my part of NM the wind would make it unplayable anyway.
Yep, even had one in my backyard as a kid. I’m 62, so that was long ago 😂
I played it a lot as a kid but there weren’t poles all over the place or anything
My elementary school had a few, was one of my favorite recess activities. Being short made it really hard to win, though.
We played it (with actual rules) at my elementary school in Fort Wayne, Indiana in the early to mid ’80s. A girl in my class, Katrina, was an absolute master at it. She could get the ball moving so fast that you had no choice but to get out of the way or risk getting hit in the face with the ball.
Anaheim, CA. In the late 60s/early 70s we had tetherball at school, and we had one set up in our driveway. My sister broke her collarbone when my other sister pushed her down for cutting in line for the next game.
I loved Tetherball! My preferred recess activity (even just smacking it and watching it wrap around by yourself after school when waiting for pickup was fun too)
Oh yes! Northern CA here…definitely would run to try to be first or at least beat most of the line that would always form. You couldn’t be scared to try to stop that ball when it started the tight wrap around…it’d be almost impossible to hit it prior to that if someone really knew what they were doing and stood closer to the halfway point to slam that down low on their side and swing it high on the other side. LOVED IT.
Yes, it exists in all the states.
We had them at the country day camp I went to
We had them at the country day camp I went to
Yes when the rope or chain weren’t broken. There is nothing more satisfying than slamming that ball again and again as it spins faster and faster on a helpless victim.
Yes! Tetherball was big until about 2000 and I haven’t played since.
I love tether ball
We had something like that called a Zimm-Zamm. We didn’t play it much.
I love tether ball
He’ll yeah, I was the playground champion!
Heck yeah, I did. I also took my bike off some sweet jumps.
Michigan
We had tetherball at my elementary school in the 1960s.
I think both elementary schools that I attended around Kansas City in the 90s had one or two tetherbarll poles each. I can’t remember if we ever knew how to officially play, but we messed around with them.
At every summer camp I went to. Seemed like each camp had its own weird rules too. Loved me some tetherball!
Yes! I miss it, honestly.
Somebody probably tried to strangle somebody with the chain or something so they disappeared along with every other fun but dangerous piece of playground equipment like the tall gymnastics bars placed over rock-hard dirt.
I had seen it in movies but never have seen it in person. I’m from Alabama.
We had tetherball poles at camp. I used to play a lot. I was real bad.
I was in OH as well. I remember knowing the rules and keeping scoring.
Actually had one at my house, too.
I loved it in fifth grade (mid-80s). I’m from Wisconsin.
Missouri, elementary in the 80s-90s. We had two poles, and there was always a line to play. We had lots of rules, and for the most part, stuck to them.
Not like four-square, where both Tiffany and Malissa would just make up rules as they went along.
I loved it so much. I had my own tether ball pole in my yard. And yes, we played it in school.
We kind of did. We had tetherball poles. But the balls were never on the poles during recess. So, we really only played during PE when we were doing a PE unit.
The weather did a real number on the cords of the tetherballs and basketball nets. They just disintegrated too quickly and it wasn’t worth it to keep them up. Eventually they put up metal nets for basketball.
No. I thought it was one of those things they made up for TV/movies.
I did, I was pro at it, even gave another kid stitches one time playing it
Minimally.
It was kinda fun but I was like the last generation at my schools as it would be outright removed or just left broken during my time
No. None of my schools had tetherball. I don’t even know the rules. For most of my childhood I didn’t even know it was a game, I thought you just smack a ball back and forth. I didn’t question it, kids use to play with a stick and a hoop, so why not.
We did not have these in parks/schools near me in NYC. I don’t see these around where I live now in New Jersey either.
Yes. Tetherball was the “it” game to play at recess growing up.
Iowa played the game properly
I loved tetherball. We had a tetherball pole at my house. My BFF and I played it all the time.
Yes. Elementary school.
I grew up in Orange County. I remember many tetherball games in elementary school back in the 1970s. I think multiple tetherball poles were a fairly common feature on elementary school playgrounds in Southern California.
I have a very vivid memory of shattering a girl’s glasses and giving her a bloody nose playing tether ball.
I remember being more concerned about the glasses than the blood.
It was available but hardly anyone played it. It gets dull fairly quickly.
> Did you play Tetherball growing up?
Sort of?
I grew up in Minnesota in the ’80s. We had tetherball poles set up out on the playground… And I definitely played around with them on occasion… But I don’t think anyone ever knew the rules or tried to play an actual game/match.
Yes, a lot. And we all knew the rules. About 6th grade I legit thought tetherball, four square, and kickball were all going to be Olympic events someday.
Can confirm it was popular in California and it still played
We played prison ball
When I was in elementary school they had to completely redo the playground at my school because the old one was this wooden death trap that SO many kids got hurt on. Because of that we didn’t have a playground for like a month, so they added foursquare and tether ball basically just to tide us over until the new playground was done.
We all got SO into those games that even when we did get a playground tetherball was still THE game to play.
Texas and we had them.
yes. i had two older brothers and there were a fair amount of kids our age in the neighborhood. my folks installed a tetherball in the backyard, concrete footing and all. we had a pretty big backyard and played quite a bit for a couple summers.
“Play” might be a generous way to describe it. We just smacked the ball around with no rules or scoring, just hit the ball or dodge it.
All the time in second and third grade. Used to jam my fingers fairly often.
Heck yeah. It was the only sport I was any good at playing. I was the tall, gawky girl, so I was able to hit the ball over my cute, petite classmates.
In the 60s I attended several different elementary schools and they all had at least one tetherball pole. It was a fun game but, like most games, some took it too seriously.
I worked at a summer camp in PA/NJ and we both had a tetherball court and knew the rules.
I also remember playing it in upstate NY as a child and we also knew the rules.
Yes, had one in the backyard in New England in the 1970’s
Punch/throw that shit as hard as you could and try not to get hit in the face the first time around,
Yes my sisters and I played for years (1980’s). My dad had embedded the pole in cement in the backyard, so my mom put a bird feeder on top of it after we stopped playing.
FL childhood, and both public elementary schools I attended had tetherball.
Tether ball, kickball hand ball, wall ball & four square were the staples at my school.
Yeah, it was big in DC in the early 90’s. I was more into double dutch and kickball though. No one ever got the ball all the way around.
In elementary school (K-5th grade), in northwest Florida in the 70s, we did have tetherball poles. No clue how common they are now.
I absolutely loved tetherball when I was in kindergarten and first grade. Then, we moved from CA to AL, and my new school didn’t have it.
Yep. Been smacked in the face more than once.
Was that in the 60’s? I grew up in the 90s and tetherball was thought of in the same vein as like stick and hoop games.
Played it in Arizona.
No but I played with my balls
Yes in SC, maybe at some schools, at certain playgrounds but not all, definitely at summer camp
Some of the schools and playgrounds had the poles still up, but when I was a kid in the 1980s, they were basically rusting relics from a past age. I had an idea of what they were used for seeing the game in old movies, but I’ve never seen anyone play it live in person.
Yes. Our school and community park playgrounds had tetherball poles. Sometimes you had to bring your own ball and rope, as people kept stealing those.
Louisiana here… There was a tetherball pole at my middle school, but the school was built in the 1920s-1950s, so they had some very classic stuff going on. (They stuck the gifted kids at the worst site in the district because why not?)
Yep
KS. Heck yes I played like a mofo! It was one of the things I was actually good at!
We played. My kids played in school just a few years back.
I used the tetherball to work on my soccer skills. I played alone and alternated kicking the ball to the left or right. I did need to use a longer rope. It taught me excellent ball control while giving a good work out.
We had a tetherball pole at my house… seems like we never got through a week without at least one person jamming a knuckle, but it was the BEST!!
YES! I played a lot of tether ball in elementary school in Florida in the ‘90s. Loved it. Played every day at recess.
Yes. Our middle school had tetherball pile. We always had one or two kids each year break their noses with the balls, and one kid got their finger stuck in a tether eye on the pole, and the school had to call the fire department to get their finger out.
Nope, when I was in elementary school, my town removed all tetherballs and banned them after a child accidentally strangled themselves with one.
We had tetherball at school but we would also make our own shitty version at home. We’d get a bunch of plastic grocery bags and put a red rubber ball (like for kick ball or dodge ball) in the bags and then tie it with a rope to a no parking sign and play there. The best part was that the plastic bags would slowly break as you played and then at some point the ball would come flying out when the bags ripped and everyone would laugh.
Gen X from South Texas. We played it a lot.
Have never played
Grade school in early 2000s. We had a tetherball pole but I don’t think I saw anyone playing with it once. Even at the time I thought of it as an “old person” game like what my parents would have grown up with.
High school phys ed
Tetherball was the game back in elementary school, this post just brought back so much nostalgia
Our kids’ elementary school (Oregon) still has those poles, very popular.
Yes – growing up in Connecticut in the 70s and 80s we definitely had Tetherball. Also Four Square, and of course Wiffle Ball.
Yep. We were mean about it sometimes too 🤣
It was a common summer camp thing. I was decent at it until other boys got more of a growth spurt than I did.
It was at my school in southern Alabama!
The girl who would become one of my best friends smacked me in the face with the ball and broke my glasses in kindergarten.
Good times! I did really enjoy it outside that one time.
Yes, at school. Have one in the backyard as well.
On the East Coast/New England, in the 80s and 90s, I associated tetherball as a beach thing. It would be next to the beach volleyball court in a public space at the beach, on sand, not at the school playground.
Yes, it was pretty common to see these in the 70s and 80s. Mostly the tetherball either sat unused or one kid was just knocking the ball around randomly. Almost no one enjoyed playing by the actual rules since it was kind of boring.
On the other hand, four square was lots of fun. Did you have that?
Yeah. The balls were never on at the start of recess so you needed someone who could climb the pole to attach them though. I didn’t think I could ever do it.
Had them in central Florida. We had no idea the rules, we just smacked the ball as hard as we could to see how fast it would wind and unwind
I never played it and don’t remember seeing a pole set up at school or anyone I knew talking about playing it. I’ve only seen it on tv.
That was def a thing in my school but I was more of a 4 square guy.
yeah we had it in norcal. every elementary school i saw had 2-3 along with 4 square squares and walls for wallball. i wish parks had those to play but i only see them in schools.
Played a lot as a kid, at home, school, family homes. One would think its a safe game but catch that ball upside the head on a spike and you know it. Or when you spike it wrong and blast all the blood vessels in the side of your hand. Seen that a few times
None of my schools in Houston had tetherball. I went to elementary school in California for six months, and that school had several tetherball poles. I begged my parents to put one up at home when we moved back to Houston.
Nope, never actually encountered one in person until I joined the Navy.
We went to 232nd Place School in LA in the early 1960’s, and we had tether ball.
Grew up in NorCal. We played in the 90’s. Loved it.
So many rope burns…!
Also went to an LAUSD elementary school and had multiple tetherball rings on my asphalt schoolyard.