Aussie Rules, OK: A Dictionary of Australian Rules Football, by Sean Coway, illustrations by Ron Seddon; Sky Publishing.
Australian football is played only in Australia and the tiny, eight-square-mile Pacific island of Nauru. But I like it better than our far more widespread and lucrative American football. Aussies don't wear those nasty helmets with face guards and all that thick padding. They just wear skimpy shorts and sleeveless T-shirts, revealing so much more skin to admire.
Aussies are also very much more intimate with each other physically. It is typical for one teammate to jump onto the shoulders of a mate to catch a pass. It's more like playing schoolyard leapfrog than playing what we recognize as traditional tackle football.
Some of the players, such as Shaun Hampson, look more like high-fashion models than what we think of as tough, hypermacho football players.
The exact origin of this local variant of football is unknown. Many scholars believe that American soldiers left a gym locker full of footballs behind when American forces under General Douglas MacArthur evacuated Down Under at the close of World War II. Since Aussies had never played the Stateside game, they invented a game in which to use the odd, pointed pigskin balls, combining elements from their more familiar rugby and cricket with beach volleyball attire, creating the first uniquely Aussie sport.