In 1887 during Thanksgiving Day, an alumni group of both Yale and Harvard Universities met at Chicago’s Farragut Boat Club where a crowd was awaiting the score of the customary football classic score between the Ivy League schools. After announcing Yale’s win, a boxing glove was tossed from one person to another, and a wooden stick was used to swing at it. A Chicago Trade Board journalist known as George Hancock designed Softball by shaping the boxing glove and tying it into a ball. He is further attributed with inventing the game and making it an indoor game by mapping out the in-field diamond and ensuring it fitted in the gym.
Though considered a faux baseball game, this is the first softball game ever played. The rules of the game were written by Hancock and he created an oversized
ball to make certain that the equipment related to this game differed from baseball. Hancock as well invented a rubber-tipped bat which was much smaller and appended nineteen special rules in an effort of adapting the game from outdoor to indoor. These are the rules that Chicago’s Mid-Winter Baseball League officially adopted for indoor softball. The ultimate flourish of the game was credited to a lieutenant with the fire department in Minneapolis known as Lois Rober who used the game for keeping his firemen fit. Softball has since been adopted as a fun sport for many.