Most of you
probably realize that James Naismith invented the great sport of basketball, but
I'll bet you didn't know this:
Naismith came up with his idea in December, 1891 at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Naismith coined 13 original rules of basketball on two typewritten pages, and posted them to the gymnasium wall at the YMCA shortly before the first game ever played took place.
Early shooters would not have known the phrase "nothing but net" as initially the ball was shot into normal un-altered peach baskets, with ladders close by for retrieving the ball.
Naismith's rules indicated that the new sport should be played with an ordinary Association foot ball. The second syllable of the word "Association" later gave this type of ball its more American name, soccer ball.
In the earlier games, rules stipulated that you could not move while in possession of the ball. The smarter players soon figured out that they would not technically violate this rule if they tossed it a few feet ahead, and then picked it back up. This practice eventually led to what we now refer to as dribbling.
The first of the original rules to be revised was #9: "When the ball goes out of bounds it shall be thrown into the field and played by the person first touching it. After many injuries, including a gash to the face when a player slid into a steam heater going after the ball, the rule was changed to award the ball to the team that had not touched it last.
An early suggested name for the new sport was "Naismith ball", but its inventor wouldn't hear of it.
Naismith kept the original rules folded in his desk for many years, and that original copy is now valued at well over $1 million.
The new sport was played for several years before finally removing the bottom of the basket around 1906.
Originally, there were two referees, one to call fouls and one to call all other violations.
Once Naismith was asked to referee a pickup game by a group of players who didn't realize who he was. One of the player's accused Naismith after the game of knowing nothing about the sport. He was embarrassed later that evening when Naismith was the featured speaker at a banquet the player was attending.
Since Naismith invented the sport to "further the moral development of those who played it", he did not see the need for coaches, and preferred instead that decision making should come from the players.
Naismith played in a basketball game only twice in his life.
The 1923 Kansas team of Naismith and assistant coach Phog Allen was top-ranked. One of its players was Adolph Rupp, who later became one of the winningest college coaches of all time, while at Kentucky.
Basketball continues to this date to be one of the most popular sports with young boys and girls alike. It is one of the few sports in which the player can improve his skills even when practicing alone.
