There was nothing wrong with it then or now. But things have become so screwed up and bass-ackward everyone wrings their hands over normal behavior ...
I'll get off my soapbox now.
Good points. My school played a hideous game that lots of people loved, like dodgeball but with two teams, and those boys would SLAM that ball at you, even in your face. I of course hated it and I got in trouble once feigning an injury to get out of it. We also played on asphalt and every fall was thus bloody. I remember drops of blood always on the playground! Recess was rough. And long. At least two a day, one was an hour long. I bet the boys especially needed that.