Untangling Our World

  Picture yourself in the narrow, walled courtyards of 15th-century England - Vast skies, rolling hills, quaint villages, thatched cottages, castles, cathedrals, winding rivers, and ancient forests; mossy stones, tangled ivy on walls.  It is within these confinements that the roots of squash, the captivating racquet sport, first began to take shape. Players would strike a softball against the walls using their hands or primitive racquets, giving rise to the sport's name - "squash" - as the ball would "squash" against the walls. As time passed, squash evolved and became popular with the English elite. The start of modern-day squash was in the Harrow School in the early 19th century, where students adopted a small, hard rubber ball and refined the game into the recognizable form we know today. Standardized rules and scoring systems were established, establishing the basic foundation of the game we know today. The squash grew in popularity thanks to the British E...