ANCIENT
HARRIERS
Hash House Harrier
roots extend back to the old English schoolboy game
of "Hares and Hounds," in which some players,
called "hounds," chase others, called
"hares," who have left a trail of paper
scraps along their route across fields, hedges,
streams, bogs, and hills. One of the earliest Hares
and Hounds events on record was the "Crick
Run" at Rugby School in Warwickshire, England,
first held in 1837.
Hare and Hounds as an
adult sport began in the fall of 1867 with a group of
London oarsmen who wanted to keep fit during the
winter. Also called "Paper Chasing" or the
"Paper Chase," the game became very popular
after its introduction on Wimbledon Common in 1868 by
the Thames Hare and Hounds. Early clubs called
themselves "Hare and Hounds" or simply
"Harriers."
THE
HASH IS BORN
The Hash House
Harriers as we know it today was founded in Malaya
(now Malaysia) by Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert, an
English chartered accountant.
A.S.I.
Gispert (1903-1942)
It was sometime during
1937 when Gispert (or simply "G" as he was
known to his friends) acquired a taste for the paper
chase with the Springgit Harriers in Malacca (also in
Malaya). Shortly after being transferred by his
accounting firm to Kuala Lumpur he gathered together
a number of fellow expatriate businessmen to form a
harrier group. The first run was held in in December
1938 and the founding members included Cecil H. Lee,
Frederick "Horse" Thomson, Eric Galvin,
H.M. Doig, and Ronald "Torch" Bennet.
The group's name came
about primarily because local authorities required
legal registration of the club. While the "Kuala
Lumpur Harriers" would have appeared a logical
choice, "G" decided instead to use the
nickname for the Selangor Club where a number of the
local harriers both lived and took their meals. It
seems that due to its lackluster food, the dining
room was commonly referred to as the "Hash
House."
The Original
"Hash House," Kuala Lumpur, circa 1938
The philosophy of the
original Hash House Harriers from the 1938 charter:
- To promote
physical fitness among our members
- To get rid of
weekend hangovers
- To acquire a good
thirst and to satisfy it in beer
- To persuade the
older members that they are not as old as
they feel
MODERN
HARRIERS
Hashing in Kuala
Lumpur was suspended during the World War II
occupation by Japanese forces, but then reestablished
after peace returned. It wasn't long before the hash
began slowly spreading around the world. Former
members of the original Hash House Harriers started a
hash in 1947 near Milan, Italy, but it wasn't until
1962 that the next group was formed in Singapore. The
Singapore Hash was gradually followed by others until
in 1973 there were approximately 35 hashes in 14
countries.
Harrier
International Magazine (1978-1997)
Subsequently, the hash
began spreading like wildfire and the number of
hashes soon climbed into the hundreds by the early
1980s. Today (1999) there are some 1,700 active
hashes in over 180 countries, including approximately
350 in the United States.
