I'm sure that any of you that were sentient in the 80's remember the hackeysack fad that swept the nation.  I was in junior hiigh school (1983 - 1985) when it hit.  After lunch, guys would congregate in the atrium next to the school cafeteria, and show off their hackeysack talents (or royally embarras themselves, depending on the skill and luck of the person on that particular day).  The thing is, I can't remember what started this fad.  I've wracked my brain thinking about movies from the 1980's, and I can't recall any of them featuring hackeysacks.  Anyone know where it originated?  Were any of you "hackeysack gods" back in the 80's?  (I never could get the hang of it -- it didn't help that I had long legs, which made it extra-difficult for me).

Thanks for this memory, I haven't recalled hackeysacks since the time you mentioned '80-85!  I remember a group of high school boys kicking the hackeysack around.  They would play it about anywhere, as soon as one kid would say, "Okay, let's form a circle."  Remember?

Thanks for this memory, I haven't recalled hackeysacks since the time you mentioned '80-85!  I remember a group of high school boys kicking the hackeysack around.  They would play it about anywhere, as soon as one kid would say, "Okay, let's form a circle."  Remember?


I do remember "circle hackeysack", quite vividly!  God help you if you were the one who dropped the 'sack, esp. if the others in the circle had momentum going!  I knew guys who could catch hackeysacks on the back of their neck, the knees, ankles, even their foreheads.  I mean these guys were so good that they could be in a Cirque de Soleil performance (hmmm...come to think of it, I'll bet that some of them are!).

I'm still stumped as to what started the fad.  It seems like something that would be in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"--the timing of the movie release would have coincided--but I don't remember anything like this from the movie (then again, it's been at least a decade since I've seen it -- need to add it to my NetFlix queue, and rewatch)

Here you go...
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blhackysack.htm

Here you go...



Thanks for the link, BJ26!  It's interesting that the 'sack was originally invented as a way to exercise the knees.  Too bad my P.E. coach didn't adopt it back then -- would have made phys ed much more interesting (and far less painful) than playing dodgeball.

The movie American Ninja(1985)(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088708/) starts out with a bunch of soldiers on an army base playing a game of hackeysack. But they're using a rubber squash ball and not an actual hackeysack.

I remember when I was in high school in the mid to late 90s, we played this game with regular hackeysacks and also with squash balls and badminton shuttle cocks.

The coolest hackey ever was the one I had from MTV Spring Break '86. My stepdad was a freelance photographer who was working the event for some company and he brought me home an official MTV Spring Break hackey. It was blue and white and was emblazoned with the yellow and red MTV logo we all remember, but the coolest thing was he had met the Beastie Boys while he was there - it was right after License To Ill had hit big - and he had all three of them autograph it for me. I owned it for about two months until someone stole it from me one day.

They can't take away the memories though.  :)

The coolest hackey ever was the one I had from MTV Spring Break '86. My stepdad was a freelance photographer who was working the event for some company and he brought me home an official MTV Spring Break hackey. It was blue and white and was emblazoned with the yellow and red MTV logo we all remember, but the coolest thing was he had met the Beastie Boys while he was there - it was right after License To Ill had hit big - and he had all three of them autograph it for me. I owned it for about two months until someone stole it from me one day.

They can't take away the memories though.  :)


What an awesome memory!  It's a pity that somone stole your hackeysack, esp. one that was "personalized" by both MTV and the Beastie Boys (two icons from the 80's!)

I remember the first one I bought. It was a red and white leather one ( by the way the new hackeysacks are made of cloth) I bought it at Ben Franklin (any one remember that store?). We were playing at night on my street and one of the rules was if you touched the hackeysack with your hands you had to turn around and one of the other players would throw the hackeysack at your back. Well being night time the guy missed and threw the hackeysack down the street. I am not sure if I ever found it.