Ball | Soccer, Basketball & Volleyball | Britannica (2025)

ball, spherical or ovoid object for throwing, hitting, or kicking in various sports and games. The ball is mentioned in the earliest recorded literatures and finds a place in some of the oldest graphic representations of play. It is one of the earliest children’s toys known.

A ball can be made from many different materials, leather, rubber, and synthetics being most common in modern times. However, balls made from indigenous materials, particularly from animal parts, were once the norm. For instance, among the Yahgan (or Yámana) of South America a ball called a kalaka was made from an albatross web (foot) that was blown up and stuffed with goose feathers and sewn. The Yahgan also used an inflated seal stomach as a ball. Among the Navajo of North America, balls were made from buckskin bags filled with seeds and held together by a drawstring.

Some form of ball game is portrayed on early Egyptian monuments. Even among the Romans, who disliked participatory sports, ball play was extremely popular. The Roman baths set aside apartments for ball play, and many gentlemen had ball courts in their private villas. The ancient Roman ball was usually made of leather strips sewn together and filled with various materials. The smallest, the harpastum, was a hard ball stuffed with feathers. The largest, the follis, contained an air-filled bladder, similar to a modern football (soccer ball) or basketball.

In many early games the ball was simply thrown back and forth among individuals in a group, but there were also genuine team games and competitions among the ancient Greeks. Ball games were especially popular at Sparta. One early Greek game known as episkyros involved two teams of equal numbers. Between them a white line was laid out, and, at some distance behind each team, another line was marked. The play consisted in throwing the ball back and forth until one team in the exchange was finally forced back over its rear line. Ball playing also is of great antiquity in western Europe.

An early form of lacrosse was well established among the American Indians in pre-Columbian times. Ball games such as lacrosse were mainly of a religious nature, dedicated to the gods and played to ensure the well-being of the community. Among Native American children, kickball was encouraged by the adults. A Mayan clay figurine from the 8th century ad depicting a ball player wearing protective gloves and hip padding was found in Jaina, Mexico. Ball games were important to the ancient Mayans and other Middle American peoples, and almost all Mayan cities had ball courts—rectangular areas enclosed by tiers of seats for spectators. At heights of 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 metres), a stone ring through which the ball was to be thrown was set into the wall, in a game known as pok-a-tok or tlachtli. The ball was made of rubber and was approximately 6 inches (15.2 cm) in diameter. Long ball, a traditional ball game still played among the Onondaga peoples of the Iroquois in upstate New York, is a form of tag employing a bat and a ball. Among the Igbo of Nigeria, boys play okpasa, a game in which three boys, with one in back and two in front, must avoid being touched by the ball. In villages in Vietnam, a traditional ball and chopstick game is played by children.

As skills required in games using the ball alone, and more particularly in games involving the use of various implements for striking it, were developed and refined, balls became specialized and were made in a multiplicity of types. The weight and circumference of balls have changed over the years as the other equipment and rules of the individual sports have changed in order to increase the interest of spectators. An example of this is the change made in the American football with the popularization of the forward pass, from the egg-shaped rugby ball to a more elongated shape that was easier to throw with accuracy. This variation changed the sport from a running game to one in which the forward pass played an exciting role.