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Gamefowl in the U. S. belong to three main strains: Old English, Oriental and Modern English, a combination of Old English and Oriental. There are more than 250 variations of the three strains, with names like Crazy Snakes, Kansas Sluggers, Gordon Games, Mortgage Lifters, Meal Tickets. Roughhouse Blues. Cockers also belong to three main types. In such pits as "The Sag" in Chicago, disreputable cockers hold ill-conducted contests between second-rate birds. A larger class of cockers are poultry breeders, farmers, country folk who raise gamefowl for profit, pit them at well-advertised meets such as the Orlando tournament in Florida. The third class of cockers are wealthy individuals like the members of the Heel Tap Club, who breed and fight gamecocks for the amusement of making huge sidebets. Lest their names become known, such breeders almost never pit their birds at well-known meets.
Principal cockfighting centres in the U. S. are at Stevenson and Uniontown. Ala.; Biloxi, Miss.; Little Rock; New Orleans; Bartlesville, Okla.; El Paso; Highlandtown, near Baltimore; Memphis; Lexington; the Sierra Game Club in Grass Valley, Calif.; Bismarck, Mo.; Grand Rapids; Newark; Aiken, S. C., where North and South Carolina breeders have been holding interstate mains for two centuries. Because cockfighting, though firmly established and thoroughly organized, needs to be furtively conducted, there are no precise statistics on the sport. Cockers estimate that 1,000 mains are held in the U. S. every year, that wagers, purses and admission fees amount to more than $5,000,000 per year. Three cockfighting periodicals—Grit and Steel, Game Fowl News, Feathered Warrior—have a combined circulation of about 15,000. Second-rate gamecocks can be bought for $20 and more. First-rate gamecocks are given away or stolen, almost never sold.