History of Football Ball

Early Ball History

Through out history, humans have enjoyed kicking a ball or something like a ball. South American Indians were known to use a light elasticized ball.

However; rubber was not to be practically manufactured until a few thousand years later.

According to historical references and legend, early balls ranged from human heads, stitched up cloth, animal and human skulls to pig or cow bladders.

oldest ball

During the Ts’in and Han Dynasties (255 BC-220 AD), the Chinese played ‘tsu chu’, in which animal-skin balls were dribbled through gaps in a net stretched between two poles.Certain ancient Egyptian rites are said by historians to have similarities with football, and both the ancient Greeks and Romans also played a game that entailed carrying and kicking a ball.

According to pre-medieval legend, an entire village would kick a skull along a path to a nearby village square. The opposing village would in turn attempt to kick the skull to the first village’s square. Wow, that probably caused more riots than in modern soccer games.