Humanity’s First Team Sport
For those who are avid football fans, soccer for you North Americans, you must thank the Mesoamerican ballgame for making your favorite sport possible. Just do me this one favor and do not try to play it, broken bones are all too common, it is tough to get others to play it and most importantly, no one knows the exact rules of the game so things might get a little dicey.
Let us start with the ball itself. The ball was made of rubber and constructed by wrapping strips of the rubber tree together. The size of the balls varied from location to location. Some were the size of a softball while others were the size of a beach ball. Typically, the balls weighed between eight to 10 pounds, the weight of a large watermelon. Sometimes, the rubber strips were wrapped around the human skulls of vanquished foes. This fact may put some off from even attempting this game in the first place. This technique made the ball both very heavy, yet able to bounce quite high. One may ask, “Wouldn’t such a ball hurt too much?” the answer is yes, the ball would do a lot of damage to the human body without proper protective gear.
Now we transition to the protective gear itself. There were several pieces of gear that the players would dawn in order to protect themselves from injury. When one sees this “uniform” one may laugh at how odd it looks, but it was all about function over fashion. First, we have the Yuguito or “little yoke” in Spanish. This part of the uniform was worn over the knee and down the shin and made from hardened rubber, wood or stone. It is thought that this piece served two purposes, to protect the knee and shin as well as to hit the ball with directly. Often these Yuguitos would have a human face carved on them to intimidate the opposing side. For those with a lack of intestinal fortitude seeing this would make one quite nervous about playing.
Next, we have the yolk. This was made from fabric or woven fiber strips, and was worn around the waist, again serving the two roles of protection and striking the ball. Specifically the Mayan yolks were made from assorted materials such as wood, stone, rubber and fabric. Stone yolks have been found and are thought to be ceremonial pieces that were worn before and/or after the matches.
The Hacha, or axe in Spanish, was a decorative stone accessory worn over the yolk. These were referred to as axes because that is exactly what they resembled. Often brilliantly carved to depict an animal, these would have been worn almost solely for ceremonies before and after the game itself. Finally, we have the Manopla, or hand stone, used by ballplayers to hit the heavy rubber ball. The Manopla was a stone accessory worn on the wrist or hand and used to help keep the ball in motion.
The ball court, the whole point of the game itself, varies drastically from location to location. The typical ball court was shaped like a capital “I” with a playing alley, end zones and structures lining each side of the playing alley to bounce the ball off. The playing alley was often lined with stone and covered with plaster; needless to say, it was not the most comfortable playing surface. Although, the playing alley, the end zone and the side structures would have been painted in bright colors and would symbolize the city’s wealth and status, and most cities would have multiple ball courts ranging in size. Some ball courts had rings attached to the side structures, such as the ball court at Chichen Itza, were the players would try to knock the ball through the rings. This is not typical throughout the Ancient Mayan world, but it does appear at a handful of sites.
Now we venture into the unknown world of the rules of the game. The modern equivalent to the ancient game is played by many throughout Mexico and Central America and is called Ulama. The rules here are similar to racquetball or volleyball in the sense that the ball is in continuous play. Players hit the ball with their forearms, legs, hips and sometimes-even bats, rackets or hand stones. The goal was similar to that of football, where one team tries to knock the ball past all opponents into the end zone. This sounds rather fun and easy, however; the case for the losing team was quite grim. Typically, the losing team was killed and their heads were used to make new balls. Not really my cup of tea, but that is not to say that I would not watch one of these contests. So as we civilized folk watch other men destroy each other on the soccer pitch or the football field, at least we know that the game will not end with a beheading. Suddenly being cleated in the shin by your friend during a friendly game of soccer is not so bad.
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