Basketball
Born in the Ontario village of Almonte in 1861, James Naismith was a hardworking athlete who excelled at many sports, and who chafed when the long Canadian winter kept him from playing outdoors, resulting in added pounds and lost strength.
Naismith moved to Massachusetts, where he taught physical education at a small Christian college. The winter weather of New England was no better than that of Ontario, but the school had an assembly hall with moveable benches and a hardwood floor. Naismith concocted a game suited to the room’s high ceiling and rectangular plan, a game that combined elements of soccer, football, hockey, and baseball and that emphasized teamwork and friendly, nonviolent competition. Naismith’s invention made use of a regulation soccer ball that, instead of being kicked, was bounced or passed by hand from one end of the room to the other and launched into a peach basket hung at either end—which gave the new game its name, basketball.
James Naismith holding a ball and a peach basket, the first basketball equipment. Credit: UPI/Bettmann Archive
James Naismith holding a ball and a peach basket, the first basketball equipment. Credit: UPI/Bettmann Archive
First played with nine members on each team, Naismith’s game quickly spread throughout New England, and then elsewhere in the United States. By 1896 enough colleges had formed teams that the first extramural competition was held, but now with only five players to a team.
Two years later, the first professional basketball league was organized. In the next few years, with Naismith’s approval, new rules were devised to insure that the game would be played in a friendly spirit. Most important of the new rules were those defining fouls and the penalties for them, most of which allowed the fouled player to take possession of the ball and sometimes to throw it without opposition. Other rules helped speed the game by pitting play against a clock, and not by an accumulation of points, which could
Naismith moved to Massachusetts, where he taught physical education at a small Christian college. The winter weather of New England was no better than that of Ontario, but the school had an assembly hall with moveable benches and a hardwood floor. Naismith concocted a game suited to the room’s high ceiling and rectangular plan, a game that combined elements of soccer, football, hockey, and baseball and that emphasized teamwork and friendly, nonviolent competition. Naismith’s invention made use of a regulation soccer ball that, instead of being kicked, was bounced or passed by hand from one end of the room to the other and launched into a peach basket hung at either end—which gave the new game its name, basketball.
James Naismith holding a ball and a peach basket, the first basketball equipment. Credit: UPI/Bettmann Archive
James Naismith holding a ball and a peach basket, the first basketball equipment. Credit: UPI/Bettmann Archive
First played with nine members on each team, Naismith’s game quickly spread throughout New England, and then elsewhere in the United States. By 1896 enough colleges had formed teams that the first extramural competition was held, but now with only five players to a team.
Two years later, the first professional basketball league was organized. In the next few years, with Naismith’s approval, new rules were devised to insure that the game would be played in a friendly spirit. Most important of the new rules were those defining fouls and the penalties for them, most of which allowed the fouled player to take possession of the ball and sometimes to throw it without opposition. Other rules helped speed the game by pitting play against a clock, and not by an accumulation of points, which could