Played mumblypeg (var. sp) every noon hour in grade school. This was in New Mexico and Colorado. My grandfather taught me and he had learned it in Chicago. It was the kind where one threw a pocket knife from various set positions, sticking it into the grass. One of the easy moves was to hold the left ear with the left hand and throw the knife through the gap that made. Each of us had put a penny in a pot and the one to complete all the moves without a mistake took the pot. In those days every grade school boy carried a pocket knife.
There must be many variations; never saw it with marbles- maybe that one is regional.