60s ---- we played real TACKLE football not the sissy flag football ---- no protection at all. We would get a broken arm every now and then. Everyone would sign the white plaster cast.
In the late 70s and early 80s, we played "smear the queer" and "king of the mountain" (wherein we threw each other off a 7-foot-high tower onto the hard ground and the last one standing won).
We didn't need reasons to try to kill each other, just something to call the game. There were no bike helmets or knee pads. Hell, in grammar school, we had this gigantic swing set and we'd all swing as hard as we could to try to make it fall over. Never did quite make it, but a 40-lb kid can launch like a rocket when swinging that high. Good times.
We had gadgets...I played the heck out of this:
https://www.handheldmuseum.org/images/devices/mattel-electronic-football-0.jpg
60s ---- we played real TACKLE football not the sissy flag football ---- no protection at all. We would get a broken arm every now and then. Everyone would sign the white plaster cast.
In the late 70s and early 80s, we played "smear the queer" and "king of the mountain" (wherein we threw each other off a 7-foot-high tower onto the hard ground and the last one standing won).
We didn't need reasons to try to kill each other, just something to call the game. There were no bike helmets or knee pads. Hell, in grammar school, we had this gigantic swing set and we'd all swing as hard as we could to try to make it fall over. Never did quite make it, but a 40-lb kid can launch like a rocket when swinging that high. Good times.