Talk:Butts Up

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Would like to determine whether this is a regional game. I have spoken to several people in Boston, for example, that had never heard of it. Any way to get a sense, on this page, about where in the US kids play this? J. Van Meter

I used to play this game while going to Rosemont Middle School around 1990 or so, that's from 6th to 8th grade ages(12-14). Rosemont is located in Fort Worth, Texas, Texas. Those were the days.--Robert Harrison Talk 00:49, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

I've played this in Australia, also as a variant of game called brandings where you would try to hit the person with the ball before they got to the wall (leaving them with a round red mark or brand)

We played this at my Seattle-area elementary school, only we called it "butt ball". The balls we used were always blue rubber balls. —jiy (talk) 10:36, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

We played butts up at my High school in Ossining, New York. Our variation was played with a large, rubber "red rover" ball.

--Lpslogan29 19:12, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

We played it in my elementary and middle school in Mendham, New Jersey. We played with tennis balls.

We played in elementary in the mid-late 90's here in Southern California. Not with all the rules listed here but pretty close.--Sublimished 03:47, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

We played in lower and middle school in Monterey, CA (Central California). We played the continuous version. ie Three "outs" and you stood at the wall and got pegged in the butt once by each person that got you out. None of that throwing at the runner to get them out business that's mentioned in the article, though.

In the UK it's known as Bums Up, and is played with a football (or a "soccer ball" if you insist). The rules are as follows (though, as with any playground game, they're likely to vary wildly from school to school):

• A person is selected by some method (eg, an arbitrary decision based on lack of popularity) to go in goal.
• The remaining players attempt to score. A goal is only valid if it's been touched by at least two players since the goalie last had it.
• A player missing a shot goes in goal.
• Once a goalie lets in 3 goals without anyone missing, the ball is then pelted at his arse from a predetermined spot by each other player.

Thus, it's possible to avoid going in goal and receiving the forfeit simply by not taking any shots. Which is likely to have repercussions of its own. Jarlsberg 22:45, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Should this be combined with wall ball?

In elementary in Atlanta, Georgia I played the violent form of Butt's Up; but here at my neighborhood pool they play a less violent variant known as Wall Ball, which I noticed has its own entry, but seems (according to its article) substantially the same as Butt's Up. So it seems silly that two different articles exist for games which vary mainly in name.

- I'm not sure if the Butts Up terminology is used in all the other versions of the game. J. Van Meter 14:06, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I played this game in Northern Virginia in the late 70's. At that time, we called it "Spread-Eagle" for the position you had to assume on the wall.

hahaha YES!! I actually LOVE that someone made an article on this! Best childhood game ever!

I grew up in Northern New York in the 80's and we played it as "Spread-Eagle" also. Mostly boys played and us girls watched. The boys had to spread their arms against the wall to be hit by the ball if they didn't touch the wall in time. It was banned by our school eventually when too many people got huge red welts. Durablemater 03:29, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Variations

The way that we played, if the person being thrown at looked back, you could bounce the ball off the ground, allowing you to try to hit the person in the crotch. Fermun 19:49, 27 July 2007 (UTC)