h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Your version sounds much cooler than the way we played it in middle school (grades 6-8) in Michigan circa 1985. There was nothing about trying to get a coin hanging over the edge of the table. That would have required too much skill for impatient youths just beginning to sacrifice all their spare time to watching MTV. In our version, the defender formed soccer-like goalposts on his edge of the table, and the player with possession of the ball had to flick one coin between the two others and through the goal. The defender could use one finger to block like a goalie. (This was still done after passing one coin between the other two several times until you were close to the goal.)

The extra point was scored in a similar way, spinning the coin, capturing it between thumbs, but the goal posts were aimed upwards like American football goal posts, so there was no upper boundary to the goal. As long as you passed the coin above the bottom limit of the goalpost and between the two vertical posts, it was a score. This part of the game was sometimes played like basketball as a whole game unto itself, with the defender holding fingers like a hoop for the coin to be shot through.