What is the history of flickerball?
Flickerball was first created at Davidson College in 1951, when it evolved as an alternative to touch football when College President John Cunningham and college physician James Woods banned touch football due to injuries. In its place, students adopted a "combination football with basketball rules" initially called tag football. Other colleges across the nation moved to tag football at the same time, but the tag football played at Davidson developed a different set of rules, making it a sport unique to Davidson. This factor makes flickerball, as named in 1954, an important part of Davidson history since it is the only school that competes in this sport. It is played through both a traditional freshman flickerball league and an open flickerball league.
For more information, please explore these resources:
- Flickerball Encyclopedia Entry
- Around the D Blog Post: New Tag Game: Picture Post of Davidson’s Most Unique Sport