Modern-day Americans take their sports seriously. North Americans are obsessed with football, as are Latin Americans—though what they (and the rest of the world) call "football" is referred to as "soccer" in the United States. El Salvador and Honduras once even went to war over a disputed soccer match. Ancient Americans took sports at least as seriously. They played a sacred ball game, sometimes called tlachtli (t'l-AHK-lee), and sometimes referred to simply as "the ball game."
Though the world's first spectator sporting event may have been in Egypt in the 2600s b. c., a tlachtli court dating back to about 1500 b. c. must surely be the world's oldest sporting facility. Predating the Greek Olympics by more than 700 years, tlachtli, which shares elements with modern tennis, volleyball, and handball, was probably the world's first true sport.
Each team consisted of four or five players, who bounced a small, very hard rubber ball back and forth on a court. Along the sides ran what looked like sloping stone bleachers but in fact were part of the court itself. Balls would bounce at an angle off of the sloping surfaces, making it harder to play. Playing was not that easy in any case, since contestants could use only their hips, thighs, and elbows to move the ball.
The sport required full concentration, especially because the Mesoamerican peoples considered it sacred. Only the elite even got to watch the games, and the penalty for losing was death. A version of tlachtli—minus the human sacrifice, of course!—is still played in parts of central America.
Population depleted natural resources and created sanitation problems, which resulted in widespread disease.
World History
