Playing Sock Football

Sock football was something we played regularly in the front room of our house on 160 South 100 West in Bountiful, Utah. The front room was not that big but it was the largest contiguous space available to us on dark, cold or wet days.

Socks were easy to find. The longer the socks the better. Luckily knee-high athletic socks were popular at the time. Sock ball were created by folding two matching socks flat (one on top of the other) and then rolling them up together beginning at the toe. Once rolled, you would fold the top of one of the open ends over the remainder of the rolled socks to form an oblong sphere. To my brothers and I the shape looked just like a soft football. It was easy to grab and could do little damage to Mom's things.

The game was equally simple. We had a quarterback and a center. After hiking the ball, the center would begin running as if he were a wide receiver. Since there were only three of us brothers, we had only one defender to overcome and all the time in the world to throw. There were no boundaries other than the walls in the room, and no other players to worry about. The decorations in the room worked well as substitute opponents and teammates. The sofa was the most popular landing place because you dared take extra risk knowing that you would have a soft landing.

We knocked over a few lamps and maybe even a Christmas tree or two, but nothing serious. More often than not the game would end when one of us would be hurt by the others (I was not the one getting hurt most of the time because I was the oldest and bigger than my brothers at that age).