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Like hockey, it's played on ice and the positions and rules are essentially the same.

But in broomball, players don't use skates. Instead of a puck, players use a ball about five inches in diameter made of hard rubber or synthetic leather. Fights are virtually nonexistent. And there's a fair amount of falling.

"It's just because you're on ice, but you don't have skates so your equilibrium is different," said Becky Reitmeyer, a broomball novice who helped organize a league for the Pittsburgh Sports League. The adult rec league has eight teams of 12 players.

"The majority of people in this league are totally new to the sport," Reitmeyer said.

"You'll see some spills tonight," Reitmeyer predicted during a recent game at a suburban Pittsburgh rink.

Players did not disappoint as they slipped, slid and tripped trying to find traction in sneakers.

As for the name, the game is said to have begun in Canada in the early 1900s and was indeed played with brooms instead of traditional hockey sticks.

While some players still use brooms, they are more likely to use a wooden- or aluminum-handled stick to which a plastic blade is affixed, said Darrell Spencer, 35, owner of broomball.com, an e-tailer catering to the sport. The stick looks like a canoe paddle with most of the blade lopped off.

While the sport is played competitively — the World Broomball Championships will be held in Blaine, Minn., this fall — most growth is at the recreational level, said Spencer, of Duluth, Minn., who has been playing since he was 17.

"Ninety percent of broomball is played for recreation, just people having fun," Spencer said. Minnesota is the broomball capital and while the game is popular in the upper Midwest, he said he's had equipment orders from every state. It's also played in Canada, Italy, Japan and other countries.

At one time, Spencer said there were Olympic aspirations for the game. "Do I think that's really ever going to happen? I doubt it, when they cut baseball," he said.

Because many players likely haven't played it before, novices can fare well, Spencer said.

Strategy is important, he said. If a player can trick an opponent into thinking he's going to move one way, but then moves another, the opponent likely won't be able to stop sliding in the wrong direction.

Some players wear pads and helmets, but that seems optional.

"What I like to tell people is, leave it minimum," Spencer said. "The playing field is relatively even if the equipment is even."

One all-or-none equipment item is broomball shoes, which have spongy soles that provide more grip than sneakers.

"Everybody's got to be wearing them, or people are going to be frustrated," Spencer said.

Marcy SlezakBurt, 32, of suburban Pittsburgh, got the broomball rolling, so to speak, by suggesting the game to the Pittsburgh Sports League.

"It's all skill and a lot of sliding around," SlezakBurt said.

SlezakBurt has another reason to love the game. It's how she met her husband Tim Burt, who has played the game since 1992.

Tim was playing broomball with some people from his work at a rink where Marcy figure skated. She decided to give the game a shot.

When Tim proposed, he did so by placing a sign on a Zamboni, she said.

"I wasn't looking and he said, 'Hey look, they're putting ads on the Zamboni,'" she said. "He got down on one skate and proposed."

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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