How many of you have heard of the game Footy? Maybe some real sports junkies will remember the old ESPN telecasts of Australian Rules Football, that wild and violent game which bears almost nothing in common American football and only vaguely resembles rugby.

The game seems to be catching on in the United States.

Footy, also called Australian Rules Football or simply Aussie Rules, has its roots in Australia and evolved from games played by immigrants and aborigines.

I could find no definite rule regarding the exact size of the playing field, but the game as played in this country is often played on a regular football field. I seem to remember the game as played in Australia was on a much larger field, but I may be wrong on that.

The United States Australian Football League plays under the same rules that cover play in Australia, which are known as The Victoria Country Football League Rules with a few minor changes.

The differences are due to the fact that while in Australia a game calls for 18 officials, usually over here only six officials work a game. Each team plays with 18 players at a time, with four extra players on the interchange bench who may enter that game at any time.

The officials are called umpires, or &uot;umpies,&uot; and either work on the field (&uot;fieldies&uot;) or on the sidelines and endlines (&uot;goalies&uot;) where they rule on scores or out-of-bounds plays.

Those who remember watching footy on ESPN will recall the goalies as the guys in the hat and trench coat who would rule on a kick scoring points by stepping out, hesitating for effect and raising a white flag.

Each end of the field had two sets of goal posts. The inner two, much taller than the outer set of posts, were much closer together and a kick between those posts is worth six points, unless made from a box close in to the posts.

A successful kick which goes between the outer and inner posts gains a single point and is called a behind.

Much like basketball used to have a center jump at the start of the game and after each score as well, footy starts with a bounce.

An official throws the ball against the ground, and players jump and attempt to control it. Players may run with the ball but must bounce the ball off the ground at least every 10 meters and may only pass the ball by holding it in one hand and punching it with the other hand (called a hand pass).

Free kicks are awarded for such transgressions as tackling a player who doesn’t have the ball, tackling above the neck, throwing the ball, dropping the ball after being tackled or running more than 10 meters without bouncing the ball.

USFooty, which seems to control the game in the United States, states over 250 games will be played this year.

Nashville will host the National Collegiate Invitational Footy championship in Commodore Stadium in October, which raises the question &045; why aren’t some of those tough guys at Vandy playing for their football team?

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. Reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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