History of the soccer ball
The history of modern association soccer can be linked back to games played in medieval England, but the idea of kicking a ball around a field practically dates back to the dawn of human civilization. Ancient civilizations like the Chinese and the South American Indians used animal-skin balls and stitched-up cloth to get their energy out. Accounts of using human heads or skulls also show up in a number of legends.The ball didn’t have a whole lot of development over the first 18 centuries A.D. But when a change did come, it was big. In 1836, Charles Goodyear patented vulcanized rubber, and twenty years later he designed a rubber soccer ball. He must have been a fan of the sport who had grown tired of the unpredictable nature of animal-bladder balls. Today, this original ball can be viewed at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, New York. Fans will see that it resembles a stitched basketball more than the pentagons and hexagons of a modern ball. (more…)