Box Hockey
Encyclopedia
Box hockey is an active hand game played between two people with sticks, a puck and a five-sided box, and typically played outdoors. The object of the game is to move a hockey puck
from the center of the box out through a hole placed at the each end of the box, also known as the goal
. The two players face one another on either side of the box, and each attempts to move the puck to their left. If a player succeeds in getting the puck to exit the box through the goal, the player scores one point (or goal). The first player to score the predetermined amount of goals wins the game.
Box Hockey was listed as the "Game of the Month" as published in the 1914 Volume 2 of the "Recreational helps" by the New York State College of Agriculture Department of Rural Sociology with the following description:
Around 1937, Milton Bradley
sold a box hockey game (model No. 4125). By the late 1930s and into the 1940s, it was not uncommon for towns to host youth box hockey tournaments, such as in Reading, Pennsylvania
, where the winners of the Essick Playground and Oakbrook were reported by the local newspaper in the July 11, 1939, July 4, 1941 and June 29, 1949 issues of the Reading Eagle
.
By the 1950s Sears & Roebuck was selling a mass-produced version of box hockey for 50 cents. In the mid-1950s adult box hockey clubs in Eugene, Oregon
battled for the title "Springfield Box Hockey service club champions".
In the mid-1950s, Larry Best, Director of Recreation for the Milton Hershey School for Boys in Hershey, PA, (the Milton Hershey School was established in 1909 by Milton S. Hershey), in search of an activity that would be healthy, active and fun for the students, became aware of the game, BOX HOCKEY and introduced it to the students as part of their summer recreation program. Individual play as well as school tournaments were promoted and BOX HOCKEY is still an active program at the school with almost 75 student homes (approx 16 students per home) each having a game set today, manufactured by Box Hockey International, Inc. ( www.BOX-HOCKEY.com ).
World Wide Games, Inc. in Delaware, Ohio
manufactured the suitcase style hockey box in 1965; one is on display at the Elliott Avedon Museum & Archive of Games
.
In the mid 1970s to early 1980s box hockey had a major resurgence in the United States as a part of the dramatic increase in funding and staffing in municipal recreation and parks departments across the country to reduce youth crime and violence that was prevalent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, by providing activities to keep teenagers active and social.
In 1994, Andy Brody founded Box Hockey International and started to market and mass produce the larger floor version. This variant of the game features multiple walls with staggered "house holes" through which the puck must be passed to reach either goal. Today, many children play the larger floor version in summer camps throughout the upper part of North America, such as Triumphant Life Camp in Larabee Valley, California, Wilderness Northwest on the Olympic Peninsula
in Washington state
, and Shady Hollow Campground in Brainerd, Minnesota
. Box hockey is also used for agility training in hockey
schools and camps throughout Canada
and the U.S.
Handmade suitcase-style box hockey games are still available at crafts events like the Lowell Folk Festival
in Lowell, Massachusetts
. Each year they also have a dozen or so set up for playing during the festivities.
Hockey puck
A puck is a disk used in various games serving the same functions as a ball does in ball games. The best-known use of pucks is in ice hockey, a major international sport.- Etymology :The origin of the word "puck" is obscure...
from the center of the box out through a hole placed at the each end of the box, also known as the goal
Goal (sport)
Goal refers to a method of scoring in many sports. It can also refer to the physical structure or area of the playing surface where scoring occurs....
. The two players face one another on either side of the box, and each attempts to move the puck to their left. If a player succeeds in getting the puck to exit the box through the goal, the player scores one point (or goal). The first player to score the predetermined amount of goals wins the game.
History
Box hockey has little known origin, but the game has been around since at least the late 19th century, as described in various game books, such as Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gym (Jessie H. Bancroft, 1913) and 400 Games for School, Home, and Playground (F.A. Owen Pub. Co., 1920).Box Hockey was listed as the "Game of the Month" as published in the 1914 Volume 2 of the "Recreational helps" by the New York State College of Agriculture Department of Rural Sociology with the following description:
"Box hockey is an excellent active game for picnics camps and playgrounds. It can also be adapted to indoor recreation if the floor upon which it is played is well padded with old rugs to prevent being damaged with the hockey sticks."
"Equipment: Take two pieces of lumber 2 inches by 10 inches by 8 or 10 feet, and two pieces 1 inches by 10 inches by 4 foot and construct a rectangular box fastening it together with spike nails or wagon bed rods. Take another board 2 inches by 10 inches by 4 feet and nail it into the rectangular frame dividing it into two equal compartments. On the bottom side of the box, cut a hole 3 1/2 inches at the base and about 2 1/2 inches high in the center of each of the end boards, and cut two such holes in the bottom of the dividing board, which make the two equal compartments. These last two holes should be equidistant from the sides of the box. Now get a couple of three foot sticks and an old baseball and you are ready to play. Almost any kind of a stick will do. Saplings cut off underneath the ground so as to get the curve are very good. Also cheap commercial hockey sticks with the blade rcenforced with vtirc are excellent."
Around 1937, Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley , an American game pioneer, was credited by many with launching the board game industry in North America with Milton Bradley Company....
sold a box hockey game (model No. 4125). By the late 1930s and into the 1940s, it was not uncommon for towns to host youth box hockey tournaments, such as in Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
, where the winners of the Essick Playground and Oakbrook were reported by the local newspaper in the July 11, 1939, July 4, 1941 and June 29, 1949 issues of the Reading Eagle
Reading Eagle
The Reading Eagle is the major daily newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the United States. This family-owned newspaper has a daily circulation of 64,000 and a Sunday circulation of 100,000...
.
By the 1950s Sears & Roebuck was selling a mass-produced version of box hockey for 50 cents. In the mid-1950s adult box hockey clubs in Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
battled for the title "Springfield Box Hockey service club champions".
In the mid-1950s, Larry Best, Director of Recreation for the Milton Hershey School for Boys in Hershey, PA, (the Milton Hershey School was established in 1909 by Milton S. Hershey), in search of an activity that would be healthy, active and fun for the students, became aware of the game, BOX HOCKEY and introduced it to the students as part of their summer recreation program. Individual play as well as school tournaments were promoted and BOX HOCKEY is still an active program at the school with almost 75 student homes (approx 16 students per home) each having a game set today, manufactured by Box Hockey International, Inc. ( www.BOX-HOCKEY.com ).
World Wide Games, Inc. in Delaware, Ohio
Delaware, Ohio
The City of Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County in the United States state of Ohio. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio Metropolitan Area...
manufactured the suitcase style hockey box in 1965; one is on display at the Elliott Avedon Museum & Archive of Games
Elliott Avedon Museum & Archive of Games
The Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games was a public museum housed at the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1971 as the Museum and Archive of Games, and renamed in 2000 in honour of its founder and first curator. It now houses over 5,000 objects and...
.
In the mid 1970s to early 1980s box hockey had a major resurgence in the United States as a part of the dramatic increase in funding and staffing in municipal recreation and parks departments across the country to reduce youth crime and violence that was prevalent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, by providing activities to keep teenagers active and social.
In 1994, Andy Brody founded Box Hockey International and started to market and mass produce the larger floor version. This variant of the game features multiple walls with staggered "house holes" through which the puck must be passed to reach either goal. Today, many children play the larger floor version in summer camps throughout the upper part of North America, such as Triumphant Life Camp in Larabee Valley, California, Wilderness Northwest on the Olympic Peninsula
Olympic Peninsula
The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington state of the USA, that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Puget Sound. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous...
in Washington state
Washington State
Washington State may refer to:* Washington , often referred to as "Washington state" to differentiate it from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States* Washington State University, a land-grant college in that state- See also :...
, and Shady Hollow Campground in Brainerd, Minnesota
Brainerd, Minnesota
Brainerd is a city in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,590 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Crow Wing County and one of the largest cities in Central Minnesota...
. Box hockey is also used for agility training in hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
schools and camps throughout Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the U.S.
Handmade suitcase-style box hockey games are still available at crafts events like the Lowell Folk Festival
Lowell Folk Festival
The Lowell Folk Festival is the second largest free folk festival in the United States. Only Seattle's Northwest Folklife is larger, both in attendance and number of performance stages. It is made up of three days of traditional music, dance, craft demonstrations, street parades, dance parties, and...
in Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 106,519. It is the fourth largest city in the state. Lowell and Cambridge are the county seats of Middlesex County...
. Each year they also have a dozen or so set up for playing during the festivities.
Modern rules
- To start the game (and after each goal), the puck is placed under the center mouse hole. Each player raps the bottom of the box with his hockey stickHockey stickA hockey stick is a piece of equipment used in field hockey, ice hockey or roller hockey to move the ball or puck.- Field hockey :Field hockey sticks have an end which varies in shape, often depending on the players position...
and then taps his opponent's blade, repeating this three times. After the third tap, both players can go after the puck and play begins. - Each player hits the puck with his hockey stick blade, attempting to move the puck through the holes to his left (see diagram) and out the hole at the end of the box (the goal).
- In addition to advancing the puck towards his own goal, each player can use his blade to block his opponent's progress or to steal the puck.
- It is legal to use the blade to block the goal from either inside or outside of the box.
- When a player succeeds in getting the puck to exit the box through the goal, the player scores one point.
- The first player to score 11 points wins the game.
Traditional rules
- Each player stands on opposite sides of the box. Your goal is to the right as you face the box, and your opponent's goal is to the left.
- To start, and after each goal, the puck placed flat, centered, on top of middle wall for the face offFace Off- Sports :* Face-off, the ice hockey event that puts a puck into play* Face Off!, a 1989 ice hockey game by GameStar- Music :* Face Off , a 2007 collaboration album starring Bow Wow and Omarion...
. Each player taps the bottom of their side of the box with their stick and then raises it to tap their opponent's stick directly above the puck in rhythmRhythmRhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
, repeating this three times. After the third tap, both players try to knock the puck off the wall. - Each player takes turns with two hits, and whichever side of the center wall the puck lands on determines who goes first. The player with the furthest distance to score goes first.
- Each player hits the puck with their stick, moving the puck through the holes to their left (see diagram) and through goal.
- To score you must getting the puck completely through your opponent's goal.
- Interfering with your opponent is not allowed.
- The dragging or carrying of the puck is not allowed.
- Pinning the puck in the corner is allowed.
- The first player to score 3 goals wins the game.
Modern equipment
The equipment needed to play the game is as follows:- Box. Approximately 8 feet long x 3 feet wide x 1 foot high constructed with a plywoodPlywoodPlywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...
bottom and three plywood dividers (to create four sections in the box). Each divider has one or more "mouse holes" that are slightly wider than the puck. - Two hockey sticks, shortened. Each player uses one floor hockey stick (plastic) whose shaft has been shortened to 12 to 18 inches.
- One hockey puck. A floor hockey puck (plastic, hollow) is the best type of puck to be used in box hockey.
Traditional equipment
The equipment needed to play the game is as follows:- Box. Approximately 5 feet long × 2 feet wide × 4 inches high, constructed like a suitcaseSuitcaseA suitcase is a general term for a distinguishable form of luggage. It is often a somewhat flat, rectangular-shaped bag with rounded/square corners, either metal, hard plastic or made of cloth, vinyl or leather that more or less keeps its shape. It has a carrying handle on one side and is used...
with a plywoodPlywoodPlywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...
bottom and four wood sides, with two 1 inches (25.4 mm) × 2 inches (50.8 mm) portals in the middle hinged divide and one portal, 1 inch tall x two inches wide, at centered on each end. - Two sticks. Each player uses one stick (wood) ¾ inches thick, 1 inch wide and 24 inches long.
- One puck. Wood 1½ inches in diameter and ¾ inches thick.