In early twentieth century America, there were playground activists:
Playground activists in cities across the nation, drawing from prevailing theories in psychology and sociology, championed organized play as the path toward stronger bodies and higher morals.
That’s from Matthew Klingle’s fascinating Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle (The Lamar Series in Western History)
Strange. When Eli was a bunny we had all sorts of organized games, slapball, punchball, ringolevio, skellzie all with elaborate local rules, seasons to play them in and not, and more. These were passed down from older to younger kids and brought a real thrill to the proposition that you should go play in traffic. Parents did not have to drag us to some organized team practice and we objected to needing to come in at night. After all there were streetlights. Right?
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