- Source: George Hancock (softball)
- Sofbol
- George Hancock
- Phillips Academy Andover
- George Hancock (softball)
- George Hancock
- 16-inch softball
- Softball
- Allan Hancock College
- Eastern Hancock High School
- List of NCAA Division III softball programs
- Illinois State Redbirds
- List of Kentucky High School Athletic Association championships
- 2014 Southern Utah Thunderbirds softball team
George Warren Hancock (1 March 1861 – 15 April 1936), after the time a reporter for Chicago Board of Trade, invented the game of softball in 1887. The first game was played, inside the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago. The first game of softball came from a football game between Yale and Harvard. When it was announced that Yale had won, Yale alumni, in excitement, threw a boxing glove at a Harvard supporter. The Harvard supporter playfully swung at it as spectators looked on in interest.
George Hancock shouted, "Let's play ball," and tied the boxing glove into the shape of a ball. The men chalked a diamond shape onto the floor and broke a broom handle to serve as a bat. This is credited as the first softball game which was played on Thanksgiving Day November 24, 1887 after a Harvard-Yale football game that had been followed by telegraph.
Hancock's original game of indoor baseball quickly caught on in popularity, becoming international with the formation of a league in Toronto. That year, 1887, was also the premiere publication of the Indoor Baseball Guide. This was the first nationally distributed publication on the new game and it lasted a decade. In the spring of 1888, Hancock's game moved outdoors. It was played on a small diamond and called indoor-outdoor. Due to the sport's mass appeal, Hancock published his first set of indoor-outdoor rules in 1889.
See also
Cook County High School League
Comparison of baseball and softball
Fastpitch softball
16-inch softball