OLDEST SOCCER BALL(READING)
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World's Oldest Soccer Ball Goes On Display
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Thursday April 22. The world's oldest soccer ball, a 400-year-old sphere with a royal pedigree, goes on display for the first time in centuries Friday, Scottish museum officials said.
Made of a pig's bladder and wrapped in leather, the small ball probably belonged to Mary Queen of Scots and dates from 1560 or 1570, Michael McGinnes, director of collections at the Smith Art Gallery and Museum in Stirling, said Thursday.
The ball -- about a third the size of those used in today's very different game -- was found hidden behind paneling in the Stirling castle bedchamber of Mary, the Catholic pretender to Queen Elizabeth's throne in England who was eventually beheaded by the Protestant monarch.
"People used to place very special things to them in the walls as a way to ward off demons and evil spirits. This ball must have meant something to her,'' McGinnes told Reuters.
Although it was first found in the 1970s, the ball was placed in a box with other collectibles and gathered dust until just a few months ago, he said. "We opened up this box and found the ball. We knew it was probably something special,'' he said. McGinnes said officials at the Royal Museum of Scotland examined the ball and believe it to be the oldest in existence.
Soccer today bears little resemblance to its historical predecessor, which was more a mixture of soccer, rugby and outright mayhem, McGinnes said.
The ball was dropped into the middle of two opposing sides and the object was to move the ball as far in one direction as possible from the center of town.
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