Red Rover

Youths playing red rover

Red rover (also known as forcing the city gates and octopus tag) is a game played primarily by children on playgrounds. This 19th-century children's group game (requiring around 10 or more players total)^[1] is thought to have originated in Britain and then spread to Australia, Canada, and the United States.

Played in upper elementary schools, it is used to identify the biggest, strongest, most aggressive boys to be recruited to play American football.

The 1829 book titled The Red Rover: A Tale by James Fenimore Cooper describes the exploits of a pirate called "Red Rover".^[2]

Game

The game is played between two lines of players (usually called the "East" or "West" team, although this does not relate to the actual relative location of the teams), usually around thirty feet apart. The game starts when the first team, in this example the "East" team, calls a player out, using a line like "Red rover, red rover, send [name of player on opposite team] right over", sometimes sung.

The immediate goal for the person called is to run to the other line and break the "East" team's chain (formed by the linking of hands). If the person called fails to break the chain, this player joins the "East" team. However, if the player successfully breaks the chain, this player may select either of the two "links" broken by the successful run, and take them to join the "West" team. The "West" team then calls out "Red rover" for a player on the "East" team, and play continues.

When only one player is left on a team, they also must try and break through a link. If they do not succeed, the opposing team wins. Otherwise, they are able to get a player back for their team.^[1][3]

In Russia and other former USSR countries this game has been known as "Ali Baba". In Hungary this game is known as "Adj, király, katonát!" In the Czech Republic the game is known as "Král vysílá své vojsko" (The king sends out his army) and the difference is that it is the same team's king that sends his chosen member out rather than being called from the opposite team.

Popular culture

A 2010 PBS documentary, New York Street Games, includes red rover.^[4]

See also

• British bulldogs (game)
• Hana Ichi Monme (a similar Japanese game)
• Tag (game)

References

Children's games Clapping games "Down Down Baby" "Mary Mack" "Miss Susie" "Pease Porridge Hot" Guessing games Button, button, who's got the button? Hangman I spy Seven Up Twenty Questions Hand games Bloody knuckles Cat's cradle Hand-slap game Knucklebones Mercy Rock-paper-scissors String figures list Thumb war Hide-and-seek and tag Ante Over Capture the flag Four corners Kick the can Marco Polo Kho kho Baby games Fingerplays "Itsy Bitsy Spider" "Little Robin Redbreast" "This Little Piggy" Peekaboo Party games Hot potato Musical chairs Pin the tail on the donkey Simon Says Telephone/Chinese whispers Classroom and playground games British bulldogs Chinese jump rope Dodgeball Follow the leader Four square Hopscotch Hot lava Leapfrog Mother May I? Red Rover Skipping rope Double Dutch Statues Singing games and playground songs "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" Counting-out games Duck, duck, goose "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" "Tinker, Tailor" "Did You Ever See a Lassie?" "The Farmer in the Dell" "Here Comes an Old Soldier" "London Bridge" "The Muffin Man" "Mulberry Bush" "Pop Goes the Weasel" "Ring a Ring o' Roses" "See Saw Margery Daw" "Sea Lion Woman" Skipping-rope rhymes "Eeper Weeper" "Skip to My Lou" "The Song That Never Ends" Other Children's culture List of playground songs Street games Nursery rhymes (list) Video games