Before halfball conquered the streets of Philadelphia, there was half-rubber - a sport born in Savannah and Charleston around the same time as the telephone.
In the 1890s, children in coastal Georgia and South Carolina discovered that a rubber ball cut in half created an unpredictable, dancing pitch that was nearly impossible to hit. Charles Barbee remembered playing in 1913: "We'd play all day until we couldn't see the ball anymore." The game became a cultural institution, documented in Dan Jones's 1980 book Halfrubber: The Savannah Game and celebrated annually at the World Invitational Half-Rubber Tournament in Savannah.
During the Great Migration, African-American families carried the game north. In Philadelphia, Boston, Camden, and New York, it evolved into halfball - using a half of a hollow rubber ball (a "pimple ball") and broomsticks. The game became a beloved street tradition, immortalized in the 1976 film Rocky.
Thomas Cosmo Harper, affectionately called "The Commish", grew up playing halfball with his seven older brothers and sister Cinni in Philadelphia during the sport's golden era. He brought the game West to Seattle in the 1970s, and now leads the charge to take it global.
The John Marzano Half-Ball Tournament in South Philly keeps the tradition alive, honoring the MLB catcher who credits halfball for making him a great hitter - "It's easy to hit a whole baseball after swinging at a half-ball with a broomstick."
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