Tag, Toss & Run

by Paul Tukey

BASIC IDEA Make it past the “bulldog” without being caught; tagged players become bulldogs until only one is left

  PLAYING AREA Any large, open space free of tripping hazards

  EQUIPMENT Markers to denote the center line and two end lines

  AGES 4 and up

  PLAYERS 4 or more

  How to Play

  The object of the game is to make it from one end of the field to the other without getting tagged — or in some cases lifted or even tackled — by the “it” player or players known as the bulldogs. In Australia, testosterone-filled games feature full-on roughhousing where the bulldog player must wrestle runners to the ground or else hold a player in the air long enough to declare, “British bulldogs 1, 2, 3!” In the United States and in many other nations, however, the most aggressive versions of the game have been largely relegated to history.

  Initial setup

  Rules. Parallel boundaries are usually designated 30 or more feet apart on the playing field; the more players, the larger the field, which can be marked by gloves, hats, cones, or other items.

  After the initial bulldog or “it” player is selected, he or she stands in the middle of the field and all the other players line up along one boundary line.

  The “it” player then calls out “Bulldog,” or “Pom pom pull away,” or “Hill dill, time to take the hill,” depending on the nation and the neighborhood.

  All the players try to run past the bulldog without getting tagged.

  When players are tagged, they must stand still until all the other players have reached the opposite boundary.

  For the next round, the tagged players become teammates of the original bulldog. When “Bulldog” is called again, the new teammates also try to tag the runners as they race or sneak their way back to the original boundary.

  This activity continues until the last player to be tagged by the ever-expanding pack of bulldogs is declared the winner. That player is usually the first bulldog for the next round.

  Strategy. For slower runners, different strategies can be important in this game. Sometimes allegiances form where packs of players run closely together under the assumption that the bulldog won’t be able to catch everyone and a few players can sneak through.

  Banned in Britain

  British bulldogs has been banned on many playgrounds in Great Britain, where tackling commonly replaced lifting or tagging, and many traditionalists are outraged, despite the occasional playground scrape. “You just can’t rule out risk altogether and we shouldn’t be wrapping children in cotton wool,” said Laura Midgley, a school governor who launched the Campaign Against Political Correctness. “Some accidents are inevitable, but that doesn’t mean we should stop children from playing.”

  HAVE A PICKLE

  This game, like many older children’s chase contests, has deep roots as a war game in which children emulated their fathers on the battlefields. The name of the earliest American version of British bulldogs, “Hill Dill,” was originally derived from “taking the hill,” a common battle reference, and the simple Dutch chase game of Pekel, which translates as “pickle.” Dill pickles were extremely popular with early American settlers as a food that could be consumed year-round!

  Aclassic old-fashioned neighborhood war game, Capture the Flag is a wonderful way to bring groups of children and adults together for competitive strategy and exercise.

  ALSO KNOWN AS Flag Raiding

  A staple of the Boy Scouts of America handbook for more than 60 years, the game has evolved in recent years with the advent of cell phones and walkie-talkies, which allow teammates to provide information on opponents’ positions behind the big pine tree or the neighbor’s deck. For the purest game, however, electronic devices should be banned. That puts the emphasis on watching and listening carefully, then making a mad dash when it looks like the coast is clear. Playing at night is great fun, when the dim light gives cover to your actions and it’s so quiet you can hear your teammate’s panting and the beating of your own heart.

  THE SETUP

  BASIC IDEA Teams try to capture their opponent’s flag while defending their own territory

  PLAYING AREA A wide-open area with room for lots of running is best; rocks and trees for base camps, jails, and hiding spots add to the fun.

  EQUIPMENT

  • A brightly colored flag or trophy

  • A picnic table works great as a jail or base camp

  AGES 5 and up

  PLAYERS Teams of 3 or more is ideal

  Attack and Defend

  Although the game can be modified any of a dozen ways, it’s all based on the idea of snagging the other team’s treasure — the “flag,” which can be any object — and bringing it back safely to your team’s territory without getting caught. The game definitely puts a high premium on speed, stamina, and teamwork.

  Rules. Players are divided into two teams, but the player count need not be even. Two or three faster, older players might face off against a dozen younger ones, for example, just to make it interesting. The game is typically played with each team simultaneously defending its own flag while trying to steal the other team’s, though a variation is to have one team raid while the other team protects.

  Start by defining the team territories: Fences, houses, streets, creeks, and trails make good boundaries. Each territory needs a home base with a designated safe area around it and a jail (see Strategy). The game begins with the flag or trophy hung in plain sight near the home bases.

  Usually some players from each team guard the flag while faster players are designated as attackers; the positions can be switched at any time.

  Defending players are not allowed in their own safe area unless pursuing an attacker.

  Suggested field of play

  Players who are tagged are either out of the game or put in jail.

  The first team to successfully grab the opposing flag and bring it back to their own territory wins.

  Strategy. Deciding in advance what happens to captured players is a big part of the fun. They can either be eliminated for the rest of the game, or can be put in “jail” to be rescued by teammates who run swiftly into the opposing team’s territory to tag them. Prisoners are not allowed to shout out instructions to other players on their team.

  Players are usually allowed to rescue only one teammate at a time and a “no guard” zone is usually defined so that the guards can’t simply sit right next to the flag for the entire game. The jail is set apart from the flag so that part of the challenge for the defenders is guarding the prisoners and the flag simultaneously.

  The Boy Scouts of America play a version of this game using orienteering skills rather than running speed and hiding prowess. Troop leaders hide flags and give the starting points and compass bearings to the teams.

  When a team finds its own flag, maps are provided to the opponent’s flag. Reading a compass is a skill many of us were taught as children, but much of today’s cell-phone generation might not have any idea that the needle always points north.

  BATTLE CRY

  Capture the Flag probably started in the United States during the Civil War when units of the Confederate and Union armies would mark their positions with flags. More than a third of the 1,520 Medals of Honor awarded during the war went to soldiers for either capturing the Confederate flag or for saving the 35-starred Union banner from the Confederates, who would have torn it to shreds.

  How Big Was the Flag?

  On September 19, 2009, coeds at Brigham Young University organized what is believed to be the largest game of Capture the Flag ever recorded, with 1,281 students running around a 40-acre golf course using glow lights to see at night. Although not officially recognized by the Guinness World Records, the game lasted more than 30 minutes; the blue team won but, most importantly, no one was injured.

  The children of Civil War veterans may have based their games on tales brought home from the battlefield. Here Union soldiers capture a Confederate flag at the Battle of Murfreesboro.


  Part golf and part croquet without the clubs or mallets, and somewhat similar to bocce, the game of Digadayosdi, otherwise known as Cherokee marbles, was played in this continent at least 800 years before the first European settlers landed at Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. Oddly enough, though, this team contest of skill, guile, memory, and patience never seemed to migrate outside the Cherokee Nation in what we now call Oklahoma.

  ALSO KNOWN AS Digadayosdi, Indian Marbles

  “I have visited the Muscogee Creek Nation just across the Arkansas River from here and they have never heard of our game of marbles,” said Phyllis Fife, the Director of Northeastern State University’s Center for Tribal Studies. “Around here, though, it’s been a fabric of the culture that has brought people of all ages together for centuries and to this day.”

  Family Fun

  It’s easy to see why Cherokee marbles has endured. Often played with six or seven players on each team, but sometimes with as many as a dozen, it’s not uncommon to see children contesting shots with their grandparents. The skill comes in rolling the ball or “marble” accurately, and guile helps decide proper positioning throughout the game. Scores are never written down, so accurate recall is required, as is patience. The more players, the longer the game will last. The longer the game, the more the laughter, the debates, and the storytelling about hotly contested matches in the days of yore.

  THEN AND NOW

  Most places of worship in the Oklahoma Cherokee region were said to have once had an area set up for Cherokee marbles games — until the tribal elders realized that many players never made it inside for the service. The Cherokee Nation still holds an annual Cherokee marbles tournament on Labor Day weekend in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The event gives far-flung Cherokee families and friends throughout the West a chance to reunite.

  Suggested field of play

  THE SETUP

  BASIC IDEA Be the first to roll a large “marble” so that it comes to rest in a series of shallow holes

  PLAYING AREA A large, flat surface that allows the marbles to roll smoothly; slight hills add an extra challenge. Gravel roads and pathways can also work.

  EQUIPMENT A pool or billiard ball for each player; field hockey and lacrosse balls work too, and golf balls can be used in a pinch.

  AGES 5 and up

  PLAYERS 6 to 20+, but an equal number on each team

  Note: A common bulb planter is the perfect tool for setting up the field or course for a Cherokee marbles game. The resulting plugs of turf can be set aside while the game is played, and then reinserted into the lawn so that the holes don’t cause unsightly tripping hazards.

  Rules. The traditional field of play is L-shaped (see diagram), with five shallow holes spaced anywhere from 20 to 45 feet apart. The dimensions can be modified to fit available space and the age and ability of the players. The holes are fairly shallow, so that the marbles come to rest in them rather than rolling into them.

  Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, hosts an annual Cherokee Marbles tournament. Many signs in Tahlequah appear in the Cherokee language, the phonetic pronunciation of the Cherokee, and English.

  The game starts at the second hole, where each player throws a marble back to the first hole to determine who goes first (first one to land in the hole).

  All the players from each team take turns and must land their marbles in all five holes in sequence. Once a player lands in the second hole, he or she can start to hit opponent’s marbles out of the way.

  After landing in the fifth hole, players must roll their marbles back to the first four holes in succession before a winner is declared.

  Marbles must be rolled from the spot where they land; throwing them is not permitted.

  A player may only hit another player’s marble twice before making the next hole. Hitting an opponent’s marble earns an additional throw, which can be directed at another marble or at a hole.

  Strategy. Hitting an opponent’s marble on purpose allows you to go again, but hitting another’s marble by mistake calls for a missed turn, which means much of the game relies on the honor system. Tournaments have judges, but casual games develop great skills of conflict resolution the old-fashioned way — by agreeing to disagree.

  ROUND ROCKS

  From the time the game began around 800 CE until recent years, tribes played it with the roundest rocks they could find. Making the marbles, in fact, required more skill than playing the game. Often they were chipped from larger stones into the relatively uniform size of the modern billiard ball and carefully polished to bring out the natural beauty of the stone. Masters such as Dennis Sixkiller still hone marbles this time-honored way.

  Instead of a rope spinning through the air, the game of Chinese jump rope utilizes a long rope tied in a loop or a large elastic band in an activity that resembles the hand game of cat’s cradle. Mentioned in Chinese literature at least 1,600 years ago, Chinese jump rope was hugely popular on American playgrounds from the 1950s through the 1980s, but seems to have lost favor with the reduction of recess at many schools.

  ALSO KNOWN AS Chinese Garters, Elastics, French Skipping, German Jumping, Gummitwist, Jumpsies, Mississippi, Rubber Twist, Skip Tape, Yoki

  THE SETUP

  BASIC IDEA Two players hold a stretchy band around their ankles while one person executes a series of moves without missing a step

  PLAYING AREA Can be played on pavement, but grass is better for tripping and falling on

  EQUIPMENT A long elastic band or several short ones knotted together in a loop

  AGES 7 and up

  PLAYERS 3 or more

  Hop to It

  Although the moves can be complex, the core game couldn’t be simpler. Two players, called “holders” or “enders,” usually begin by wrapping a looped rope or series of elastic bands around their ankles to form parallel lines. A jumper hops in and out of the ropes in a series of patterns, which are called out by the enders, often in a rhythm or song.

  If the jumper fails to execute the pattern, one of the enders becomes the jumper and the game continues for as long as the three players agree the game is fun. It’s wonderful training for all sorts of other sports, games, and dances, and a great way for children to exercise without even realizing it.

  Rules. The rope and how it is held is the initial key to Chinese jump rope. The idea is to hold it taut but not rigid, so players don’t trip and fall. Games can also be improvised with elastic bands, wide ribbons, or pantyhose woven together in a loop with a circumference of 10 feet or longer.

  Play usually advances so that the rope is crisscrossed to make the jump patterns more complicated.

  The height of the rope is also adjusted upward — from ankles, to knees, to waist or even chest high — to increase the challenge, especially for older players.

  Calling out the movements, or patterns, is where much of the camaraderie is revealed. Commands can be as easy as “in” or “out” or far more advanced. In “Mississippi,” for example, the enders call out the letters of the 20th state, with each letter corresponding to a specific move:

  M

  Jump to the center

  I

  Move both feet outside the ropes

  S

  Jump to the left, one foot inside

  S

  Jump to the right, opposite foot inside

  I

  Move both feet outside the ropes

  S

  Jump to the left, one foot inside

  S

  Jump to the right, opposite foot inside

  I

  Move both feet outside the ropes

  PP

  Land with both feet on top of the ropes

  I

  Start over or let a new jumper begin

  Chinese jump rope, a kinder, gentler version of Double Dutch (see page 76), is enjoyed by children around the world, including Turkey, as shown here.

  Variation: Jump the Shot

  This Swedish game, which is at least several h
undred years old, is still featured in some Boy Scout manuals. It is played with one person holding the end of the rope at the center of a circle. All the players in the circle must jump over the spinning rope without getting hit and the last player standing wins. Long ago, a bag of buckshot or gunpowder was tied to the free end of the rope to keep it taut, hence the name. These days, a beanbag replaces the buckshot.

  Cave Jumpers

  Jumping rope as a human activity is most likely tens of thousands of years old, but no one seems to know for sure. A book titled The History and Science of Knots noted that the first clear evidence of human-made rope was discovered in the caves at Lascaux in southern France, which date to 15,000 BCE. Cave drawings dating to 5000 BCE seem to depict children jumping rope.

  Anthony “Buddy” Lee, an All-American wrestler at Old Dominion University who competed in the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, founded the Jump Rope Institute in 1996. The organization promotes all forms of jump roping, including Chinese jump rope.

  It would be impossible to imagine a young child of any culture not being tempted to toss an object — whether it be a rock, a bone, or a ball — into a simple hole. Native American cultures describe all types of tossing games in their early writings and in oral histories passed down through generations. Germans in the 1400s were known to play a version of beanbag toss, a game that is described in several North American books of games from the early twentieth century.