Imagine a game that can be played with one hand while holding an espresso or glass of wine in the other.
Imported by Italian immigrants to the U.S. in the 19th century, bocce ball is the ideal leisure sport for many city-dwellers during summery weather, and Italian-Americans have kept this longstanding tradition rolling for years!
The New York Times has recently dedicated a special photo gallery to this urban sport by searching its historic archive. “Let the suburbs have their badminton nets and Frisbee games. The urban folks will take bocce”, they wrote.
With roots dating back to ancient Rome, the game requires only the bocce balls, “pallino” or jack, and an open rectangular space for the court. When the mass wave of Italian immigrants arrived in New York, they learned to be creative about the term “rectangular space”. They played in the City’s parks as well as under the bridges and highways, using either street or indoor playgrounds, as seen in the New York Times black and white photographs.
Today, one can play bocce ball in many different locations all across the United States, on the occasion of Italian festivals as well as in more competitive tournaments.
While rolling a ball down a court may seem easy, the rules of the game can be quite complicated, thus requiring great concentration. Workmen in the 1940’s understood this well as they meticulously measured whose ball was closest to the jack after playing a round of bocce ball on the building site of the future United Nations Headquarters, cigars resting on their pursed lips. And even the youngsters developed a keen understanding of the craft as they watched attentively while their experienced fathers and uncles played in Brooklyn.
From the bocce ball workmen and children to Senator George S. McGovern playing bocce ball in front of riveted onlookers while running for president in 1972, the New York Times photography archive displays the grand passion and simple joy of bocce ball in New York throughout the years.
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