I am going to explain this game as I remember the game.

The more people playing the better.
In my case the neighbours children from little to teenagers would gather at our front lawn of our home or in a field, parks etc, and we would choose a person to go into the middle, sometimes it was two people.

At the start of the game, at one end of the field the rest of the children would line up with all the children facing the one or two in the center field.

One of the people in the center calls out someone’s name, someone who is in the line of children.

Often the persons name that was called out was a mate of the caller or someone who they wanted to take down and see if they could beat that person.

So it became a furious challenge to catch the person and a furious challenge to not get caught, with all the other children cheering on in full voice.

That one person who was called out had to run as fast as he or she could to avoid being tackled or caught by the person/s in the middle.
In other words it was a fast and furious full on run to be avoided and not caught, and a fast and furious run by the person trying to catch the person trying to get past them to the safely of the other side of the field.

In general it was a fair game, and the one in the middle would call out someone who was big and fast thus giving the smaller children the glory of getting to the other side untouched if they all had to run as one when the call of, “Bullrush!” was cried in triumph by the many.

If you were brought down or caught, you had to join the players in the middle, until everyone else is caught.

If you got to the other side all the children yelled at the top of their voices, “BULLRUSH!” and they all, like a herd of buffaloes rushed to the other side leaving the person in the middle trying to find someone to catch or tackle.

Many schools and such have banned it mostly due to a fear of the children getting hurt.

But I never saw anyone seriously hurt, and if you got hurt you got up, looked at everyone staring at you waiting for you to get back into the game. You swallowed your pride, brushed off the dirt and grass, maybe wiped away a tear or two, accepted the pain and got back into the game, a tad tougher than when you were brought down, and a bit bruised, but feeling good and keen to have another go.

Many would call this a character building game due to the fast and furious pace where you got to test your running, dodging, jumping, and active skills against others of various ages.

I remember little children playing and someone in the middle would call a small child’s name and we would all pretend to catch them and run after the child, with the little one running as fast as those little legs would carry he or she, and when the child triumphly got to the other side the cry of “BULLRUSH!” went up and off went everyone else yelling and screaming with joy, and sometimes many children running straight at the catcher in the middle.
It was very exciting when it got down to about 1 or 2 players left to run, and the multitude were in the center.

So the one’s who had to run had to really test their speed, agility, and dodging to get passed everyone to the other side, with everyone yelling, especially any observers.

This game is very very popular or used to be before electronic gaming.

It was a way for new kids on the block to meet the children of the street and was some harmless fun.

This is a great way for boys and girls to have loads of fun on a boring day.

Adults play this game as well and have loads of fun doing it.

All the best from
James M Sandbrook.

15th of February, 2021.