This is John Kennedy with another Postcard from Abroad from the University of Kansas.

KU takes great pride in owning the original handwritten rules to basketball, but the game is far older than James Naismith. Basketball can actually be traced back to the Central American game of ulama, which has been played for about 3500 years. The Olmecs, whose name translates to “rubber people,” created a game in which players tried to get a cantaloupe-sized rubber ball through a small elevated hoop using only their hips or forearms; the hard part was that the ball weighed about nine pounds, leading inevitably to serious injuries. During its heyday, ulama was a popular pastime from Paraguay through what is now Arizona. Players in Mexico still carry on the centuries-old tradition of ulama – bruises and all. Imagine how different games in Allen Fieldhouse would be with a nine-pound ball and no one allowed to use their hands!

With thanks to Aron Muci of the KU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies for this text, this is John Kennedy. Wish you were here!