As the sports of football and baseball swept the area and catapulted Milford into national prominence, local people began looking for a pastime that clumsy, non athletic kids could play. Area kids had long had a bad reputation for watermelon stealing and city fathers hoped to mimic the successful way in which pig theft was turned into a respectable sport. For years young Milford children had stolen melons from the terraced melon fields of the neighboring village of Watermelon Terrace. It's name was later changed to Terrace Park during one of the frequent watermelon famines that periodically destroyed the melon harvest. Some kids were too uncoordinated to carry a watermelon and walk at the same time so they would nonchalantly roll a stolen melon with their feet through the tall grass in the unkempt fields separating Watermelon Terrace from Milford.

A Milford youth stumbles and falls as he attempts to capture a runaway melon. Other "sucker players" hurry to his aid.

A local "tough" intercepts a Milford youth who has attempted to pick up his watermelon and run away. Such assaults were common.

To accommodate the non athletic nature of participants, the original soccer field was about 10 yards long. Here an official oversees the placement of the melon prior to the start of play.

In one forgettable episode, Milford battled a team from neighboring Terrace Park for over 90 minutes before it was discovered the melon had rolled off the field shortly after the game began.

To legitimize the process and remove the unsavory element, city fathers of surrounding communities declared this organized melon theft into an official sport and created mown fields for play. The game was quite simple. Teams would attempt to roll and propel a melon through a goal at the end of the field. Since the clumsy youngsters were prone to dropping (and thus bursting) a melon, it was decided that the hands would not be used. This was in keeping with the original practice of stealing a melon by rolling it with your feet in the tall grass while you pretended to be strolling...usually whistling with your hands in your pockets.

Watermelons were an important part of the regional economy. Watermelon wine makers dotted the countryside. Towns sprang up almost overnight as the fruit became a powerful economic factor. Mariemont was one of the first. Mont, of course, is Latin for melons. The town was originally called literally: Mary's Melons. It was later shortened to Mariemont. The names of surrounding towns weren't always pleasant. One town was soon to be called Mulberry. Mulber is, of course, a German slur for a person with a disorder characterized by melon envy.

Once the inflated ball was introduced to replaces the melons, the excitement of play was often something spectators could not stand. Similar comments are heard today about this sport.

This drawing captures the first successful attempt to "head" the ball through the goal. Though attempted numerous times during the "melon era" it was not until the introduction of inflated balls that the maneuver was successful.

Eventually the watermelons would be replaced with an inflated ball and kicking would be used to advance the sucker ball. The official name was changed to "Soccer" in an attempt to entice the more nerdy and prissy children to participate. These kids soon began spending less time with the crude chemistry sets of those days and many gave up their usual interests in playing chess and working with their abacuses. The slow nature of the game was especially important to children who didn't want to remove their pocket protectors before exercising. The game is still played in isolated pockets around the US. The American game is sometimes mistaken for Tai Chi classes and certainly competes well with the similarly paced hobby of watching paint dry. A faster, more athletic and exciting version (called more appropriately, Football or "Futbol") has taken root and become a very important sport throughout the rest of the world.