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In sports, ahash mark orhash line is a short line/bar marking that is painted perpendicular to thesidelines or sidebarricades, used to helpreferees andplayers recognize on-field locations and visually measure distances. Hash marks serve the same function as thegraduated markings onmeasuring tools such asrulers.
Inice hockey, the hash marks are two pairs of parallel lines on either side of the face-off circles in both ends of the rink. Players must remain on their team's side of the hash mark nearest their own goal during aface-off until the puck hits the ice.
InAmerican football andCanadian football, the hash marks are two rows of lines near the middle of the field that are parallel to the side lines. These small lines (4 in [10 cm] wide by 2 ft [61 cm] long) are used to mark the 1-yard sections between each of the 5-yard lines, which go from sideline to sideline. All plays start with the ball on or between the hash marks. That is, if the ball is downed in between a hash mark and the nearest sideline, it must be placed on that hash mark for the next play.
Prior to the adoption of hash marks (which were first utilized at thefirst NFL playoff game in1932), all plays began where the ball was declared dead, includingextra point attempts.
The hashmarks in that indoor 1932 playoff game were originally 30 feet (9.1 m) from the sideline, and that width was adopted by the NFL for the1933 season. It was increased to 45 feet (14 m) from the sideline (70 ft [21 m] apart) in1935, 60 feet (18 m) from the sideline (40 ft [12 m] apart) in1945, and to the current 70 feet 9 inches (21.56 m) from the sideline (18+1⁄2 ft [5.6 m] apart) in1972.[1]
In most forms of professional football in the U.S., including theNational Football League and most forms ofindoor football, the hash marks are in line with thegoal posts, both being 18 feet 6 inches apart in the NFL and between 9 and 10 feet (2.7 and 3.0 m) in indoor football.High school football,college football andCanadian football have hash marks significantly wider than the goal posts. The college football standard, which was the previous standard in the NFL (1945–1971), is 40 feet apart, (20 yards from the sidelines)[2] introduced in1993.[3][4] Previously, the college width was the same as the high school standard (with the exception of Texas, which currently uses the current college width), at one-third of the width of the field (53+1⁄3 feet [16.3 m]).
The Canadian standard for amateur play is 51 feet (16 m) in width, 24 yards from each sideline. TheCanadian Football League formerly used this spacing, but narrowed the hash mark spacing to 9 yards (8.2 m) in 2022.[5] A Canadian football field width is 65 yards (195 ft; 59 m), 35 feet (11 m) wider than in the American game.[6]
The field shall be 110 yards long by 65 yards wide [...] Twenty-four yards in from each sideline each 5-yard stripe shall be marked by a short cross stripe parallel to the sidelines (Hash Marks).
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