What lines?

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by Mregor
To expand on Tony's correct answer, the current front court was divided in two. One was the front court and the other was the fore court (if I remember correctly). Now which was which?

Mregor

That old rule had the front court divided into "fore court" and "mid-court" areas. The mid-court area was the area from the 28' line to center. The fore-court was from the 28' line to the endline. The team behind in the score was always responsible for action. If the score was tied, the defense was responsible for action. Being responsible for action meant:
- if you were on offense, you had to move the ball below the 28' line into the fore-court after being warned. If you then went back into the mid-court area with the ball, a new 5-second count was started.
- if you were on defense and the offense was holding the ball out in the mid-court area, you had to send a defender out there to get within 6' of the player with the ball within 5 seconds after you were warned. If the offensive team had 2 players in the mid-court area, you had to send 2 defenders out.

The procedure and warnings worked like this iirc:
- if someone was holding the ball out in the mid-court area without doing anything with it, you:
1) Visibly counted to 10
2) Pointed to the team responsible for action- either offense or defense- pointed in the direction that they had to go, and hollered "play ball".
3) Then you started a five count. If the team responsible for action didn't do what they were supposed to do within 5 seconds- as above, they got a T.

Oe something like that....

This rule evolved into the 5-second closely guarded rule that we use now.