Dr. James Naismith: The Sport Of Basketball

Scores during basketball games tend to reach high numbers, but the first recorded game ended in a 1-0 score. Basketball is a game of skill, finesse, and accuracy. The goal of basketball is to score more points than your opponent by shooting a ball into a hoop to receive points. Games are played inside a gymnasium using a round ball and two iron hoops that are 90 feet away from each other and both 10 feet above the ground. The basketball season starts at the end of fall and finishes in the beginning of spring. Dr. James Naismith, a physical education teacher, invented the game of basketball on December 21, 1891, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Basketball, as we know it today, originated from a simple gym class game using a soccer ball and two peach baskets.
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Orphaned at nine years old, Naismith was raised by his uncle on his uncle’s farm. James played football, soccer, and gymnastics as a child. At McGill University, in Quebec, Canada, Naismith graduated with a bachelor’s degree
Luther Gulick, principle of the YMCA Training School, presented James with a 14-day deadline to create a new gym class sport (Hiskey). Naismith needed a new class game because the harsh Massachusetts winter confined the class indoors. He wanted his gym class to use skill, finesse, and accuracy in this game, while also not having the same physicality of football (“Who Invented Basketball?”). Track and field athletes needed a way to stay in shape during the winter months without obtaining an injury (Hiskey). James thought back to his childhood to think of a new idea. He remembered playing a game called duck-on-a-rock outside of his one-room schoolhouse in Canada. “The game involved attempting to knock a ‘duck’ off the top of a large rock by tossing another rock at it”