Early History
The sport known in America as jai alai is just one of a family of ball-and-wall games known by that name in the Spanish Basque region. The family is called pelota vasca (Basque ball) in Spain.
Jai alai means "merry festival" in the Basque language. It was applied to the games because they were so often associated with festive events.
Versions of the game are played with the bare hand, with a gloved hand, with a strung racket, and with a solid paddle. There are also one-wall, two-wall, and three-wall versions, as well as a version played, much like a squash, on a small covered court called the trinquet.
The form of jai alai played in the United States is cesta punta, in which the players use long, basket-like gloves to propel the small, hard, rubber-cored ball at speeds of up to 160 miles an hour.
There are several theories about the origin of the sport. Some believe it descended from similar games played in ancient Egypt and Greece. Others think it originated in the ball games of pre-Columbian Central America; according to that theory, the idea for the game was brought back to Spain by the conquistadors.
The most likely theory is that jai alai grew out of the same family of games that originated in the French jeu de paume and culminated in court tennis.
Spanish explorers may not have brought the sport itself back from the Americas, but they did bring the rubber used in the lively ball that greatly speeded up the sport.
The various forms of jai alai were evidently popular throughout Spain in the 18th century. Sometime between 1777 and 1790, Goya did a drawing of a one-wall version of the sport, in which the players are using wooden paddles.
Jai alai's popularity subsequently dwindled in most of Spain, but the sport remained very popular in the Basque region of northern Spain (and part of southern France), where the modern version of the sport developed.
The wicker cesta, also known as a chistera, was invented in 1857 by a Basque, Juan Dithurbide. It was originally wielded by hand, like a racket. A Basque priest, Alberto Alcorta Tellechea, redesigned it with an attached glove so that it could be worn rather than held.
The cestas are still hand made by a few Basque craftsmen, using wicker from reeds that are found only near the Pyrenees Mountains. Each one is specifically tailored to the player who will use it. (Incidentally, cesta is the Spanish word for basket, while chistera means either "bag" or "fish basket.")
Balls are also made by hand by wrapping layers of nylon thread around a core of virgin de pola rubber and then stitching on a goat skin cover. The jai alai ball is about three-quarters the size of a baseball and is harder than a golf ball.
In the United States
During the late 1890s, jai alai spread to some other parts of the world, including Latin America, the Philippines, and Indonesia. It became especially popular in Cuba, and from there it was brought to Florida.
Jai alai first appeared in the United States during the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, which was also the setting for the Olympics. However, that was little noted nor long remembered.
Pedro Mir was the man most responsible for making jai alai popular in Florida and, for a time, in a couple of other areas of the United States. Born in Cuba in 1900 of Spanish descent, Mir had a Basque godfather who ran a jai alai fronton in Havana. He became a professional player when he was 13 and came to the United States at 23.
The first American fronton opened in Miami in 1924, mainly to showcase Mir's talents. It was destroyed by a hurricane and replaced by the present World Jai Alai fronton in 1926. Frontons were also built in New Orleans in 1925 and Chicago in 1927, but they were both forced to shut down when gambling on the sport was prohibited in Louisiana and Illinois.
Florida legalized parimutuel betting on jai alai in 1934. Mir was then hired by the Miami fronton and he remained there until his retirement in 1975, serving as chief judge and match-maker. He was primarily responsible for developing the rules under which jai alai is played in the United States.
As a betting sport, jai alai is patterned after horse racing. Singles players and doubles teams are assigned post positions from 1 through 8. They are paired off for round-robin competition that continues until three finalists have been selected. Those three then continue playing until one player or team has accumulated 7 points.
As in horse racing, there are win, place, and show bets, as well as perfecta and quiniela wagering. In a perfecta bet, the first two players or teams must finish in the order chosen. A quiniela wager requires the bettor to pick the two players or teams that finish first and second in any order.
Betting on jai alai was legalized by Connecticut in 1971 and in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1976.
Three frontons once operated in Connecticut, but they were forced out of business by competition from other forms of legalized gambling, including the state lottery and casinos operated by Native American tribes. The Newport fronton is still operating, but it subsists mainly on revenue from slot machines. At one time, there were 10 frontons in Florida, but only five are now open. There are also frontons in Mexico City, Acapulco, and Tijuana.
Originally, most of the players at American frontons came from Cuba. Then Spanish Basques were brought in. As the number of frontons increased after World War II, the need for players also grew and a training facility was established in Miami. A number of young American athletes went through a four- or five-year training program there before entering the professional ranks.