Where Basketball was Invented: The History of Basketball
Where Basketball Originated
It was the winter of 1891-1892. Inside a gymnasium at Springfield College (then known as the International YMCA Training School), located in Springfield, Mass., was a group of restless college students. The young men had to be there; they were required to participate in indoor activities to burn off the energy that had been building up since their football season ended. The gymnasium class offered them activities such as marching, calisthenics, and apparatus work, but these were pale substitutes for the more exciting games of football and lacrosse they played in warmer seasons.
James Naismith, The Person Who Invented Basketball
The instructor of this class was James Naismith, a 31-year-old graduate student. After graduating from Presbyterian College in Montreal with a theology degree, Naismith embraced his love of athletics and headed to Springfield to study physical education—at that time, a relatively new and unknown academic discipline—under Luther Halsey Gulick, superintendent of physical education at the College and today renowned as the father of physical education and recreation in the United States.
As Naismith, a second-year graduate student who had been named to the teaching faculty, looked at his class, his mind flashed to the summer session of 1891, when Gulick introduced a new course in the psychology of play. In class discussions, Gulick had stressed the need for a new indoor game, one “that would be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play in the winter and by artificial light.” No one in the class had followed up on Gulick’s challenge to invent such a game. But now, faced with the end of the fall sports season and students dreading the mandatory and dull required gymnasium work, Naismith had a new motivation.
Two instructors had already tried and failed to devise activities that would interest the young men. The faculty had met to discuss what was becoming a persistent problem with the class’s unbridled energy and disinterest in required work.
During the meeting, Naismith later wrote that he had expressed his opinion that “the trouble is not with the men, but with the system that we are using. ” He felt that the kind of work needed to motivate and inspire the young men he faced “should be of a recreative nature, something that would appeal to their play instincts.”
Before the end of the faculty meeting, Gulick placed the problem squarely in Naismith’s lap.
“Naismith,” he said. “I want you to take that class and see what you can do with it.”
So Naismith went to work. His charge was to create a game that was easy to assimilate, yet complex enough to be interesting. It had to be playable indoors or on any kind of ground, and by a large number of players all at once. It should provide plenty of exercise, yet without the roughness of football, soccer, or rugby since those would threaten bruises and broken bones if played in a confined space.
Much time and thought went into this new creation. It became an adaptation of many games of its time, including American rugby (passing), English rugby (the jump ball), lacrosse (use of a goal), soccer (the shape and size of the ball), and something called duck on a rock, a game Naismith had played with his childhood friends in Bennie’s Corners, Ontario. Duck on a rock used a ball and a goal that could not be rushed. The goal could not be slammed through, thus necessitating “a goal with a horizontal opening high enough so that the ball would have to be tossed into it, rather than being thrown.”
Naismith approached the school janitor, hoping he could find two, 18-inch square boxes to use as goals. The janitor came back with two peach baskets instead. Naismith then nailed them to the lower rail of the gymnasium balcony, one at each end. The height of that lower balcony rail happened to be ten feet. A man was stationed at each end of the balcony to pick the ball from the basket and put it back into play. It wasn’t until a few years later that the bottoms of those peach baskets were cut to let the ball fall loose.
Naismith then drew up the 13 original rules, which described, among other facets, the method of moving the ball and what constituted a foul. A referee was appointed. The game would be divided into two, 15-minute halves with a five-minute resting period in between. Naismith’s secretary typed up the rules and tacked them on the bulletin board. A short time later, the gym class met, and the teams were chosen with three centers, three forwards, and three guards per side. Two of the centers met at mid-court, Naismith tossed the ball, and the game of “basket ball” was born.
The History of Basketball at the YMCA
The sport of basketball has become a global phenomenon in the United States, as well as around the world as the second-largest sport, but is it known how it originated? Basketball was invented at the YMCA, 130 years ago. From the National Basketball Association to the Women’s Basketball Association, there is a global love for the now inclusive and diverse sport that started out in a YMCA facility.
So, just how did the sport start? James Naismith, a second-year graduate student who had recently been appointed a physical education instructor at the YMCA International Training School located in Springfield, Massachusetts, created the game in 1891. Naismith created the game with a group of young men that were said to be uninterested in exercise. Beginning with nailing two peach baskets on both ends of the gymnasium, it was decided that both teams had to get a soccer ball into the opposing team’s basket.
Naismith recalled the event during a radio interview in 1939 on WOR-AM in New York City by stating, “I called the boys to the gym, divided them up into teams of nine and gave them a little soccer ball. I showed them two peach baskets I’d nailed up at each end of the gym, and I told them the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team’s peach basket. I blew the whistle, and the first game of basketball began.” Over time, 13 rules were created and posted within the gym for the game. The game became popular within YMCA’s, then spread to college campuses. It took two years before iron nets with a “hammock style net” were utilized instead of the peach basket nets. Early NBA stars like Wilt Chamberlain, Christian Laettner and Cliff Robinson were introduced to basketball at the YMCA before becoming professionals.
Basketball was first introduced in the Olympics at the 1904 Games in St Louis, but was actually contested as a medal event during the 1936 Olympics. Women's basketball debuted at the Montreal Games.
Fast forward to the present day, we now have youth basketball leagues, clinics, and so much more available at YMCA’s and organizations alike because of Naismith. Currently, the United States of America is the most successful team in the history of Olympics basketball and the USA Olympic men’s basketball team has won the gold medal 16 times.
It has been mentioned before in our facilities, online, and in-person but it is important to reiterate getting children involved in group sports at early ages. Basketball, for example, can teach youth skills of: agility, strategy, balance, and endurance. Not only that, but the YMCA provides co-ed youth basketball leagues so that everyone is included, and no child is left out. It is said that, “Interaction between genders in a group sport encourages friendship and mutual respect. Each player is valued and recognized not only for their own unique athletic skill set but for how their talent completes a team, making it stronger and more united.” YMCA Youth Sports are the same in that we have caring coaches, and a network of resources to help shape your athlete into the best player they can be on and off of the court. Youth Basketball in particular focuses on good sportsmanship and YMCA Core Values: caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility.
So what's stopping you from experiencing YMCA Basketball? Find a Youth Basketball League near you, or train in one of our YMCA basketball courts today!
Historical development of basketball
Basketball
Historical development
Rules
Material support
Judging
Technique
Tactics
Education and training
Choosing a basketball
The idea of throwing a ball into a ring or a basket was born a very long time ago. Such games were familiar to the Normans, who lived more than 1000 years ago, as well as to the peoples of Central and South America (Maya, Aztecs, Incas, Florida residents).
Initially, the size of the field was different and ranged from 167.2 m² to 334.5 m², and therefore there were 5x5 games in practice. 7x7, 9x9. In some cases, the number of players reached 60! By mutual agreement, in 1895, the number of players was set at 5 athletes, which is customary for us.
The rules of basketball were first written down in the USA by Dr. J. Naismith (1861-1939) in 1891 on a rainy day. He was looking for a way at the American College of Springfield, USA (Springfield College), to conduct classes in the hall, and not on the street. These rules were published in 1894 years, which is considered the year of the birth of basketball.
For the first couple of years, the game was played with a soccer ball. But already in 1894, the first analogue of the modern basketball was introduced, but with football lacing. It was 10 centimeters larger than the football one (81 cm), weighing about 567 grams. The official size of 76 centimeters and the familiar seamless look of the basketball received in 1948.
Instead of the usual basket, rings and nets, peach picking baskets were used, attached to the balconies of residential buildings. At 1893rd year, Narragansett Machinery, sold an iron hoop with a closed rigid "mesh". In order to get the ball out of there, a ladder was used, which was later replaced by a pole. With the development of the game, the pole was replaced by a chain attached to the bottom of the net. Due to the construction of the basket, the game was played at a slow pace and was usually limited to 10-15 points. And only two decades later, in 1912, they guessed to make a slot in the basketball net, which immediately raised the pace of the game.
In 1903, it was decided that all lines of the court should be straight, since training and games were often held in halls and playgrounds that had an irregular shape and had various obstacles in the form of stairs, poles, etc. , which interfered with the game. Basketball stands of modern design took hold in the early forties of the 20th century. This allowed to increase the entertainment of the game.
In Europe, basketball began to spread in 1920, when the game was adopted by the French, Russians, Poles, Czechs and later - the inhabitants of the Baltic republics. In the 30s. Basketball has already spread throughout Europe. After the Second World War, basketball was greatly developed in the USSR and the countries of socialism, which reached world heights in this sport.
The International Amateur Basketball Federation (FIBA) was founded in 1932. The World Basketball Championships have been held every 4 years since 1950 for men and since 1953 for women; European championships - every 2 years since 1935 for men and since 1938 for women. Basketball has been an Olympic sport for men since 1936 and for women since 1976. Since 1958, for men and since 1959 for women, basketball competitions for the European Cup have been held annually.
Basketball
Historical development
Rules
Material support
Judging
Technique
Tactics
Education and training
Choosing a basketball
125 stories about the invention of basketball - Blogg on the floor - Blogs
Basketball, which Americans consider their national sport no less than baseball or American football, was actually invented by a Canadian.
Physical education teacher James Naismith, a Canadian of Scottish origin, invented a new sport exactly 125 years ago - on December 21, 1891. Basketball is one of the few sports that has an official birth date and can celebrate its birthday. Which we celebrate today, remembering how basketball appeared.
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James Naismith should never have been a PE teacher. His relatives insisted that he become a priest, and the decision to go to study as an athlete was perceived with horror: in the 1800s, sports in the United States were considered by many to be a tool of the devil, distracting young people from church, work and family. “Years later, I asked my sister if she forgave me for dropping out of my theology studies,” Naismith recalled. “No, Jim,” she replied.
James Naismith did not have a middle name. Many sources gave his full name as "James A. Naismith", to which Naismith himself joked that the "A" meant "anonymous".
James Naismith's childhood was not easy. His family emigrated to Canada from Scotland, his father worked for pennies at a sawmill. When he was not even 9 years old, some kind of curse fell on the family: first, James's grandfather died, the sawmill soon burned down, then his father caught typhus. Little Jim's uncle took him along with his younger brother and older sister to his place so that the children would not get infected. The elder Naismith soon died of an illness, and three weeks later his wife, who contracted typhus while caring for her husband, also died. So the Naismiths were orphaned, and their uncle and grandmother began to raise them (she will die in two years).
Future professor, doctor and inventor Jimmy Naismith was not a very good student at school. He preferred fresh air to his studies: working on a farm or logging, swimming in a river or fishing, and in winter - sledding or hockey. Three years before graduation, he announced to relatives that he was dropping out of school and would work full-time on a farm. He returned to school only at 19, when his uncle, having seen enough of James' poor carpentry skills, advised him to use his head instead of his hands.
There was little entertainment in the countryside, and the children made up their own games. One of these, James's favorite game, was Duck on the Rock. Each player had a stone, one player (the "defender") put his on a large stone. Other children stood up 5-6 meters from the stone and tried to knock down the defender's stone with their stones. If they hit, they stayed in the game, but if they missed, they had to find their stone before they were pinned down by a defender. Naismith liked the game so much because it required accuracy, reaction, and the ability to dodge a defender.
When Naismith returned to school, he settled in quickly and was promoted to senior class twice during the school year. He was good at mathematics and natural sciences, but there were big problems with languages. However, he overcame them too, and once he, still a schoolboy, was called to replace an ill teacher in a rural school. Naismith's early students were the best in spelling and the worst in math. So he found out that it is often easier to teach others what he himself once had difficulty learning than what came easily.
Naismith's McGill University was one of the first in North America to introduce physical education into the curriculum. Especially popular was rugby, which gradually evolved into American football.
Naismith wandered into rugby practice one day. The center of the team broke his nose, and he needed a replacement from the audience. Naismith never played, but volunteered and was such a successful replacement for an injured man that he was offered a spot on the team. James agreed on the condition that he could use the injured player's kit (he had no money for his own). For the next six years, he played center on the varsity rugby team, never missing a game.
In his penultimate and senior year, Naismith was recognized as the best athlete at McGill University. In addition to rugby, he played football and lacrosse, as well as boxing.
Naismith's college motto was "Don't let anyone work harder than you today."
After completing his undergraduate studies, Naismith continued his studies at the Theological School at McGill, aspiring to become a Presbyterian minister, but did not leave the sport, the “devil's tool” - in fact, he was appointed athletic director of the university after the death of his predecessor.
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Naismith soon felt that he did not need to become a priest to change people's lives for the better. "I discovered the fact," he later wrote, "that there are other ways to influence the youth than by preaching." One of Naismith's acquaintances suggested that he become an intern at a college in the American Springfield, Massachusetts, where an educational physical education program was being developed.
Luther Gulick was in charge of the college's athletic department and is now recognized as the "father of physical education teaching" in the United States.
There were two programs in the college: one for preparing physical education teachers, the other for sports administrators. If the first showed interest in gymnastics, athletics and other sports indoors, because they knew that they would someday have to teach, then there was no enthusiasm in the future administrators when they were each driven into the gym for an hour . New games didn't appeal to them either. At a meeting between faculty, Naismith said that "the problem is not with the people, but with the system we use." Gulick reacted to these words like a real leader: he appointed Naismith responsible for inventing a new game.
So an intern, Naismith, was tasked with finding a way to get the students involved in something active in the gym. James initially refused this assignment, but soon left his job as a teacher of psychology, theology, wrestling and swimming (such a non-standard set) to invent a new sport for apathetic "clerks".
Before Naismith, these obnoxious students drove two instructors crazy. James was Luther Gulik's third and most likely last attempt to introduce winter sports into the educational curriculum.
A new sport would not be needed if it were not for winter. At the end of the 19th century, there were not enough games that could be played indoors - gymnastics and aerobics were popular, but not very exciting sports. And in the northern states, which is Massachusetts, it was no longer possible to play football, rugby, or baseball in the winter, and hockey had not yet managed to become popular on this side of the border and was too dependent on weather conditions.
Another problem was the lack of electrification of society. Under the artificial light in the hall, it was impossible to play sports that would require only accuracy. So at Springfield College, the challenge was to invent a new sport that could be practiced in a dimly lit gym during the winter.
In the photo: the hall in which Naismith introduced his students to a new game
He had 14 days to invent a new game.
* * *
At first, Naismith tried to modify existing sports. But rugby proved too traumatic even without tackles, football meant too many broken windows and equipment for other activities, and lacrosse was dropped from the list after a few Canadian students were found to be too good at it and any related him modifications.
The day before the deadline for inventing a new game ended, Naismith was in a panic - he hadn't come up with anything. Then he tried to approach the problem from a different angle. Why did attempts to modify the old fail? Because people liked those games as they are, without innovation. How is an abstract sports game built in general? Usually there is a ball in it. So the future game has a central element around which it is built.
But balls are also different. If the ball is small, you need a lot of equipment for it - sticks, bats, goals, pads, masks, and so on. And the more inventory, the more complicated the rules, but you need a simple game. Another small ball is easier to hide somewhere in a playful way. It is more convenient to work with a big ball.
The second task was to define the philosophy of the sport. Rugby couldn't be played in small halls because that would lead to a lot of injuries due to collisions. Collisions occur to stop the person running with the ball. “I sat at the table with these thoughts and said out loud: “If he does not run with the ball, he will not need to be captured. If he is not captured, there will be no roughness in the game.” I still remember how I snapped my fingers and shouted: “Found it!” Naismith later wrote. Thus was formed the basic principle of the new game - you can not run with the ball. Hardly a detailed description, but it was only the first stroke of a sketch of the future sport.
The third task is to justify the purpose of the game. At first, Naismith wanted the ball to be thrown into opposing goals, like in lacrosse - a net of 2 by 2.5 meters. But if the ball is thrown too hard, they will hit another player and injure him, and this again does not fit. And then Naismith remembered his childhood and playing Duck on the Stone. It was not about strength, but about precision, which was exactly what Naismith was looking for in his new game: “I thought that if the target to be hit was horizontal instead of vertical, then the players would have to throw the ball in an arc. Strength, the essence of rudeness, will be useless.
Naismith also decided that the goal should be suspended over the heads of the players so that the defenders could not crowd around it and block the path of the ball. We are already groping for something similar to the basketball we know, aren't we?
* * *
On the morning of December 21, 1891, an enthusiastic James Naismith arrived at work. Naismith had two soccer balls to choose from - one for rugby, the other for football. The rugby ball is stretched out so that it can be carried in the hands, James concluded, and this is not necessary in the new game. Therefore, a round projectile was chosen.
The first version of our usual basketball basket was a pair of half-meter by half-meter boxes. True, they existed only in Naismith's imagination - the janitor of the college did not find suitable ones and offered two baskets of peaches. Thus, the "basket ball" was born. Remember this name forever - Pop Stebbins - that was the name of the janitor who found the peach baskets in his pantry.
The baskets were fixed at a height of 10 feet (305 cm). It was at this height that the lower railings of the balconies above the playground were located, and it is at this height that basketball hoops around the world are now located. “If the railing was 11 feet high, that’s where I would have secured it,” Naismith said. But the dynamics of basketball would change if it became more difficult to score from above or shoot from afar.
Naismith wrote the rules for the new game in less than an hour, then gave them to a college stenographer, Miss Lyons, to type them out.
There were only 13 rules. They were attached with a pair of thumbtacks on the bulletin board in the gym - and so they became official.
First rule: the ball can be thrown in any direction with one or both hands . Naismith believed that the rugby rule that the ball can only be passed back was not required in his game.
Second rule: the ball may be hit in any direction with one or both hands (but not with the fist) . James didn't want a hard-fisted ball to hit anyone in the nose, or worse, out the window. Kicking the ball is illegal in most modern versions of basketball rules.
Third rule: A player may not run with the ball. He must throw it from the place where he caught it; some movement is allowed if the ball was caught at high speed . At first, the only way to play was to either pass or roll the ball on the ground. Dribbling was first used by Yale University students in 1897 year, it soon spread. At first it was possible to make only one hit to the floor, since 1909 the restrictions were removed. In 1903, players who dribbled were banned from throwing until 1915.
In 1927, the Basketball Rules Committee attempted to remove dribbling from the rules of basketball. In response, basketball coaches, led by Fogh Allen, a former student of Naismith, formed the National Basketball Coaches Association. This organization still exists today, and thanks to it the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Student Basketball Hall of Fame and the NCAA Basketball Tournament were organized. And it all started with a protest against the return to authentic basketball without dribbling.
Fourth rule: the ball may be held in or between the hands; other parts of the hands or body must not be used . Naismith didn't want the ball to be gripped so tightly that it couldn't be pulled out. Now there is no such rule in basketball, but no one really wants to hold the ball with their feet or under their arms.
Fifth rule: it is forbidden to push with the shoulder or arms, grab, trip, hit an opponent in any way; the first violation is considered a foul; the second disqualifies him until the next hit or, if he intends to injure the player, until the end of the game without the right to substitute . Naismith had the hardest time with this rule when he later referred women's matches: “Everything worked out well until I called a foul on one of the girls. She asked: “Did you whistle me a violation?”, And then told me what kind of character I have, where I came from and where I should go.”
Sixth Rule: It is a foul to hit the ball with the fist and violations of rules 3, 4 and 5 . Gradually, violations for which fouls were given were added. And some - on the contrary, were removed, instead of a foul, a change of possession was awarded. For example, up to 19For 22 years, running with the ball was considered a foul. Since 1922 - only the wrong dribbling. Now in the NBA there are 11 situations that are punishable by personal fouls - and almost fifty violations for which you can whistle a technical foul.
Seventh rule: three fouls in a row by one team count as 1 point to their opponent (consecutive means that during this time the opponent has not fouled even once) . In 1893, a point was awarded for each foul, and in 1894, free throws were introduced for fouls, the rules for which were changed many more times.
Eighth rule: A point is awarded if the ball is thrown through the air or ricochets off the ground into the basket and stays there without the defenders having the right to touch the basket. If the ball hangs on the edge of the basket and the opponent moves the basket, it is considered a pocketed ball . In 1896, hitting the ball into the basket began to count as two points.
Ninth rule: if the ball goes out, it must be thrown into play by the person who first touched it. In case of dispute, the referee throws in the ball. Five seconds are given to enter the ball from out. If the ball is not thrown within this time, it is passed to the opponent. If either side continues to drag out the game, the referee shall award them a foul . These five seconds to enter the ball from out have been preserved in the rules to this day.
The modern rules for who should throw in the ball didn't come into existence until 1914 - and before that they were pushing behind the ball, trying to catch the ball, like in "Duck on the Rock". It used to be funnier. According to Naismith's memoirs: “I remember playing in a hall with a balcony. At the beginning of the first half, the ball flew there, and the players of one team immediately rushed in a crowd to the stairs, and there were so many of them that they could not push through. Two players from the other team tried to throw their partner up so that he would grab onto the balcony railing, pull himself up and get to the ball first.
Tenth Rule: Linesmen must evaluate the players, keep a record of fouls, report to the referee when the team has committed three fouls in a row. He has the right to disqualify players based on rule #5 . Naismith, even before testing his sport, understood that one referee was unlikely to be able to cope with the maintenance of the game. Therefore, out of 13 rules, two are dedicated to judges at once.
Eleventh rule: The referee must keep an eye on the ball and determine when it is in play, out of play, who is in possession of the ball, keep a record of the time. He must determine the hit of the ball in the basket and keep the score, as well as perform other duties related to the work of the chief referee .
Twelfth Rule: The game consists of two halves of 15 minutes each with a 5-minute break. Soon the time for the game was increased to 40 minutes.
Thirteenth Rule: The side that scores more goals will be declared the winner. In the event of a draw, the game may be continued until the decisive ball by agreement of the team captains.
Now there are 13 rules in the NBA code, but they are all described in much more detail. There are ten rules in the NCAA and FIBA. But with paragraphs and subparagraphs, their number reaches several hundred.
* * *
Photo: First team and James Naismith
The first game went 9 on 9 - simply because there were 18 students in the group. The walls of the hall served as the boundaries of the site, the lighting was weak, and the players did not have any special equipment. Naismith placed the players on the court like in lacrosse - three for defense, three for center, three for offense, called two players, tossed the ball - and a new game was born.
Naismith later recalled: “After a few minutes, it became clear to the experimenter that the game was a success. The players seemed to enjoy the vicissitudes of the game with all their hearts, especially trying to avoid a collision with an opponent. The game captivated the students so much that they wanted to continue it even after the lesson was over.
The hardest thing for early basketball players to adjust to was the sudden stop after receiving the ball. The natural instinct is to keep moving with the ball. But this was a violation, and according to the rules, the player was removed from the court after a foul until the next hit. “It happened that there were half a team in the penalty area,” Naismith recalled.
Rudeness was also present. The list of injuries in the first game, according to Naismith: several black eyes, one dislocated shoulder, one loss of consciousness. Not bad for half an hour of play.
Only one ball was scored in the game. The author of the historic hit was William Chase, who threw the ball into the basket from 8 meters.
At this moment, a new problem was discovered - the abandoned ball had to be taken out of the basket. They called Stebbins with a ladder.
After the game, it turned out that someone removed the rules from the bulletin board. It turned out that it was one of the players, Frank Mahan, who wanted to keep a memento. But after a couple of weeks, his conscience tormented him and he decided to return them to Naismith.
The same Mahan asked Naismith after Christmas if he had already come up with a name for the new game? Naismith answered no, then Mahan offered two options - "Naismith ball" and "basket ball", and the modest inventor chose the second, more euphonious option.
Until 1921, it was written in two words - "Basket Ball", sometimes with a hyphen. And 30 years after the invention of basketball, journalists decided to shorten the name to one word.
Among the 18 participants in the first basketball game was even a Japanese - Genzabaro Ishikawa, who would later introduce his homeland to a wonderful new game. Other participants in the first match brought basketball to France, India, Great Britain and Persia.
* * *
Soon rumors about a new, as yet unnamed game spread around the school, and spectators began to come to the matches. Two weeks later, 100 people turned up at one of the games - including a group of students from Buckingham Women's College who were returning from lunch and accidentally walked past the hall and heard a noise. The Buckingham teachers approached Naismith after the game and asked if they could also play basketball. Naismith didn't mind, and the first women's basketball team was born. They were opposed by a team of stenographers from Springfield College.
The very first women's basketball game, like the men's a couple of weeks before, was refereed by Naismith himself. And in one of the first games, his future wife also took part (married in 1894) - Maud Naismith, nee Sherman. They met because the future inventor of basketball rented a room in the Sherman family house - the house was close to the college where Naismith worked.
Two years after the invention of basketball, at another college in Massachusetts, Senda Berenson decides to adapt Naismith's rules for women. So basketball began to develop in another, independent of the main direction - and turned into "baskett" - a variant of basketball 6 on 6, which among women finally lost competition to real basketball only by 1970th.
* * *
Basketball instantly spread across America - and "fault" for this is the Christmas holidays for students. Traveling to their hometowns in the United States and Canada, they enthusiastically talked about the new game and demonstrated it at local chapters of the Young Christian Association (YMCA).
Soon a team of students captained by Mahan began touring the country playing exhibition basketball games, often in conjunction with a group of acrobats from the same college.
Naismith's idea was that basketball could be played by any number of people. But after some experimentation, in which the number of players on the court reached 50, the matches were limited to the standard 9 on 9, as in the very first match in history. By 1897, the number of players on one team was limited to five.
Pretty soon, Naismith's students organized a full-fledged team and began to challenge other students and college staff to matches. So they won both a team of students from another faculty (future physical education teachers) and a team of their teachers.
That game - March 11, 1892 - is recognized as the first public basketball game attended by 200 spectators. Naismith himself also spoke for the teaching team, one of only two occasions in his life when he participated in a game he invented. And the only goal for the teachers was thrown by Amos Alonzo Stagg, in the future one of the greatest coaches in American football.
A year later, Stagg will go to work as a coach (football, baseball and basketball at the same time) at the University of Chicago, where he will soon popularize 5-on-5 basketball - a variant that will become canon.
“If you saw our first matches, you would laugh,” Naismith recalled much later. - Adult men played, most with mustaches, someone even had a beard. They were wearing long pants and short sleeve shirts. Someone could take aim with a ball raised above his head for so long that it was simply taken out of his hands. It was an endless source of fun - no matter how often the ball was lost in this way, the player always turned around with his hands up and a puzzled expression on his face - "Who did this?".
* * *
In January 1892, the rules of basketball were published in the Springfield College newspaper, The Triangle. She, of course, had nothing to do with the "triangular attack": the triangle was the emblem of the YMCA, which was once invented by Naismith's college boss Luther Gulick.
Triangle received so many requests for a copy of the rules that they published a separate booklet that also described the necessary equipment for the game.
Already in April 1892 years about the game was written in the New York Times - under the heading "The new ball game, a replacement for football without rudeness."
The first basketball was made by the bicycle factory Overman Wheel Co. from Massachusetts. It was lighter and larger than the soccer ball that had been played before.
The first balls were brown, and only many years later they began to make them orange - so that the audience could see the ball better from the stands.
In the late 1890s, Naismith asked AJ Spaulding to develop an improved version of the basketball. And 120 years later, Spalding balls are official in the NBA, but only earlier they were not very even, not very round and with lacing, which made dribbling difficult.
Pictured: Spalding's ball manufacturing
Ten years later, Spaulding would also produce the first dedicated basketball shoe.
With the spread of the game, the first inconvenience also appeared: climbing the ladder to get the ball out of the basket after each hit was annoying. At Springfield College, a special person sat on the balcony to take the ball out of the basket. Then someone suggested cutting the bottom of the baskets - alas, history has not preserved the name of the author and the place of this important invention. But even the bottom was cut out not so that the ball would fall through, but so that it could be pushed out of the basket from below with a stick. “Since the stick was often not available,” Naismith recalled, “we had to use other objects. Fortunately, the inexperience of the players led to the fact that the ball was thrown into the basket very rarely.
In 1898 the baskets were changed to rings with a net attached. By 1912, rings with a hole in the bottom of the mesh were already common.
Since most of the halls had balconies, spectators sat behind the rings, and some unscrupulous fans could interfere with the ball entering the basket. And the organizers of the matches came up with another important element of basketball - the shield. True, no one imagined that the shield would make it easier for the ball to hit the basket and increase the effectiveness, and, consequently, the entertainment of the sport.
In 1895, the first university match was played between Minnesota Public School of Agronomy (now the University of Minnesota at St. Paul) and Hamline College (now Hamline University). Although the first student team appeared in Vanderbilt in 1893, it did not play with other colleges.
Basketball was spreading at such an alarming rate that the YMCA banned it in some parts of the US - basketball games were crowding other sports out of gyms. Then basketball players had to move to ballrooms, arsenals, hangars and other large indoor facilities.
It's funny, but in Springfield itself basketball took root not on the first try - in 1899 the basketball team was disbanded and returned only in 1907.
One of Naismith's students in Springfield was William Morgan. In 1895, he decided to invent his own game - so in Holyoke, 10 kilometers from Springfield, "mintonette" was born. We know him now by the name "volleyball".
Already in 1896, just five years after the invention of basketball, the first professional basketball game took place. It was held in the ballroom, and so that the ball would not fly away to the audience, the parquet was fenced with wire mesh. This is how the first term for the name of basketball and basketball players appeared - “Cage Game”, “cagers”, “cell players”. It was easy to get hurt on the wire, so it was usually replaced by a net of ropes - and so the professionals played up to 1940s. In college basketball, the "cage" was banned almost immediately.
On the photo: caged basketball
In 1898 the first professional league was born. Six teams made up the National Basketball League - this name (NBL) in forty years will be inherited by the parent league of the NBA. Players earned about $10 per match.
* * *
In 1898, Amos Alonzo Stagg, already a football coach at the University of Chicago, was approached for advice. The University of Kansas needed a teacher of physical education - but this position also included the post of a chaplain who would gather students for prayer every morning, so there was no way to find the right candidate. Stagg sent an urgent telegram to the Treasury: “I recommend James Naismith, inventor of basketball, physician, Presbyterian minister, excellent sportsman, does not drink or smoke, does not swear. Write to the Denver YMCA” (which was where Naismith worked at the time). Of course, after such a recommendation, it was impossible not to invite Naismith. James joked for a long time that he got this job only because he knew how to pray.
Naismith wanted to incorporate basketball into his curriculum, even though the only sports hall was not suitable for the sport. It was in the basement, it was only 10 meters wide and 25 meters long, in the center of the hall there was a column supporting the ceiling, and the ceiling itself was a little over three meters. This did not stop Naismith and he organized a basketball team from his students, mostly football players. Matches were played away, on neutral grounds, in factory premises and even at the rink.
Kansas City's YMCA won 16-5 for the first time in Kansas basketball history. It included Jesse James Jr., the son of a famous bandit.
In Kansas, Naismith continued to invent sports - but neither vor tag, nor highball, nor vrille caught on.
Naismith never cared if the team he coached would win or lose, so he—still a basketball coach at the University of Kansas—was trusted to referee his own team's games.
From Naismith himself comes the greatest branch of student (and not only) coaches. Under his leadership, the famous Forrest "Fog" Allen played, who then replaced Naismith in Kansas. Allen coached two other future great coaches - Adolph Rapp, who built the basketball program at the University of Kentucky, and Dean Smith, who led the University of North Carolina team and educated many coaches and players - from Larry Brown to Michael Jordan.
In the photo: Michael Jordan and Dean Smith
Naismith did not believe that Allen would become a coach, much less a teacher of new coaches. When Allen, still a student, was invited by Baker University to coach their basketball team, Naismith took it as a joke and told Adolf, "You can't coach in basketball, you just have to play it." We can say that for Naismith, the work of a coach was equivalent to the work of a physical education teacher. Only 16 years have passed since the invention of basketball until that incident, but the sport has developed rapidly.
Ironically, the first basketball coach in the history of the University of Kansas is also the worst. Naismith remains the only one who failed to achieve a positive balance of victories in Kansas - 55-60.
* * *
Naismith ignored his invention for a very long time. For him, it was just a small game that was inferior to gymnastics and wrestling in its usefulness.
Naismith once taught a class comparing his first basketball rules with the new ones. After a while, when he needed those rules again, he found that he had forgotten them in the classroom at the time. The search led nowhere, and soon Naismith lost hope of finding the artifact. But after 12 years, he was looking through his documents and found an unmarked envelope dated 1891 year. Naismith opened the envelope and two of the most important pages in basketball history fell out.
In 2010, two rule pages were purchased at auction for $4.3 million and donated to the University of Kansas Museum.
After Fogh Allen succeeded Naismith as head coach of the Kansas basketball team, Naismith was appointed the university's athletic director and physical education instructor. But one paperwork was not enough for him: he wrote books, patrolled the US-Mexican border at 1916, taught sports medicine, went to France during the First World War, where he taught hygiene to American soldiers. The main thing in the training was to make sure that the soldiers did not go to the brothels.
Naismith became a US citizen only in 1925, almost 35 years after he moved from Canada. By this point, professional basketball was in full bloom, tough, aggressive, played in cages—nothing like the game Naismith had invented as an easy winter game where players wouldn't get hurt.
Pictured: Naismith and his wife in 1928
Among Naismith's students in Kansas was John McLendon. He passionately loved basketball, but could not play with Fog Allen - John was black, and blacks began to be allowed on the team only in 1951. So McLendon learned basketball from Naismith. And he became one of the greatest coaches in the history of college sports. John has many titles in the status of "the first black coach in ...", but his main achievements are the improvement of pressing tactics and the invention of the "four-corner attack", which Dean Smith would later develop. John McLendon has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame twice, for coaching and for his contributions to basketball.
In 1932, a meeting of the Council of American Coaches was held. Naismith did not participate in it, but sent several suggestions to improve the game. One of these was the idea to give the defending team 30 seconds to take the ball away, and the violation would be punished with a free throw. In fact, the inventor of basketball could reinvent basketball again - his visionary thought preceded the advent of the 24-second counter in the NBA by 20 years. But he believed that it was more important to motivate the defense to take away possession from the attack, and not the attack - rather to throw the ball into the ring.
In the same letter to the board, Naismith proposed awarding 4 points from a distance instead of 2. Once again, he was ahead of his time - the 3-point line did not first appear until 1961 in the ABL (in 1979 in the NBA).
* * *
In 1936 basketball was introduced into the program of the Olympic Games. Fogh Allen dreamed of seeing 75-year-old James Naismith and his wife in Berlin. Spouse ticket money was collected all over America - many colleges, schools, churches, amateur and even professional teams gave away a cent from every ticket sold between 9to February 15, 1936 - Naismith Weeks. As a result, 5 thousand dollars were collected - much more than required.
In Berlin, Naismith saw how widely his invention had spread throughout the world. But he considered basketball an international game from the very first match - the one that took place 125 years ago. Americans and Canadians, as well as an Englishman, a Japanese, a Frenchman participated in that game. For Naismith, this was confirmation that his game would be understandable and close to any person on the planet.
Specially for Naismith, a mini-opening ceremony of the Olympics was held - with the participation of the basketball teams of the tournament. 20 teams marched in front of Naismith, moved to tears. And then they went to the site - in the open air, without any protection from the rain (the gold match was played in the downpour), with sand and sawdust instead of parquet.
In the photo: Olympic basketball in the open air
Naismith was also entrusted with the honorary right to be the first to throw the ball into the game - the Olympic tournament opened the match between Estonia and France.
The coaching staff of the first Olympic teams included 17 (!) graduates of Springfield College. The college clearly coped with the task of preparing teachers of physical culture.
Naismith also presented the first Olympic medals. All of them went to American teams, and James was a citizen of two countries that played in the pouring rain in the final - the United States and Canada. Mexico took bronze.
* * *
Not much was known about the origins of basketball until 2006, when Naismith's 74-year-old granddaughter Helen decided to sort through five dusty boxes of documents left over from James Naismith. There were letters, photographs, the first rules, Naismith's description of the first game, and many other useful artifacts that told the story of the invention of basketball.
Naismith never tried to capitalize on his invention - he never even registered a patent for the game, and he always turned down advertising contracts - only towards the end of his life, according to friends, he advertised a Rawlings basketball. One day, a lawyer came into his office and promised him a share of every basketball ticket sold. Naismith promptly kicked the lawyer out of his office.
Not everyone agrees that Naismith invented basketball. Descendants of Lambert Gill, director of the YMCA in the village of Herkimer, New York, claim that it was 19Gill invented the sport in 1890, and the first game was played on February 7, 1891. But the Gill family never provided any hard evidence, except for a photograph of the Herkimer team, in which it is not at all clear what sport the players were involved in.
Naismith is honored by the NCAA's flagship awards - Naismith's name is given to the best player and best coach in college basketball.
In 2010, a bronze sculpture was installed at Springfield College in honor of the most famous worker of this university - James Naismith.
* * *
“I'm not worried about the future of basketball because the game itself is interesting no matter how much they try to change it. If the sport is interesting, it will always exist, and basketball is just like that ... It's a good, solid game. By 1939, when James Naismith passed away, almost every school and college in the United States had a basketball team, and about 20 million people around the world played basketball. Now their number reaches 300 million.
The first members of the Basketball Hall of Fame included Naismith, Luther Gulick, Amos Alonzo Stagg, and the entire first basketball team, which played its first basketball game on December 21, 1891. The Hall itself is located in Springfield, the birthplace of basketball, and is named in memory of Dr. James Naismith - Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame.
"I want to leave this world in a slightly better state than the one I found it in." - James Naismith, inventor of basketball.
” He felt that the kind of work needed to motivate and inspire the young men he faced “should be of a recreative nature, something that would appeal to their play instincts.”
Duck on a rock used a ball and a goal that could not be rushed. The goal could not be slammed through, thus necessitating “a goal with a horizontal opening high enough so that the ball would have to be tossed into it, rather than being thrown.”:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13128999/KELDON_JOHNSON_MBB2018_01_CW_600x900.jpg)
Naismith’s secretary typed up the rules and tacked them on the bulletin board. A short time later, the gym class met, and the teams were chosen with three centers, three forwards, and three guards per side. Two of the centers met at mid-court, Naismith tossed the ball, and the game of “basket ball” was born.
Naismith created the game with a group of young men that were said to be uninterested in exercise. Beginning with nailing two peach baskets on both ends of the gymnasium, it was decided that both teams had to get a soccer ball into the opposing team’s basket. 
Each player is valued and recognized not only for their own unique athletic skill set but for how their talent completes a team, making it stronger and more united.” YMCA Youth Sports are the same in that we have caring coaches, and a network of resources to help shape your athlete into the best player they can be on and off of the court. Youth Basketball in particular focuses on good sportsmanship and YMCA Core Values: caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility.
Such games were familiar to the Normans, who lived more than 1000 years ago, as well as to the peoples of Central and South America (Maya, Aztecs, Incas, Florida residents). 
It was 10 centimeters larger than the football one (81 cm), weighing about 567 grams. The official size of 76 centimeters and the familiar seamless look of the basketball received in 1948. 
, which interfered with the game. Basketball stands of modern design took hold in the early forties of the 20th century. This allowed to increase the entertainment of the game. 
“No, Jim,” she replied. 
Three years before graduation, he announced to relatives that he was dropping out of school and would work full-time on a farm. He returned to school only at 19, when his uncle, having seen enough of James' poor carpentry skills, advised him to use his head instead of his hands. 
He was good at mathematics and natural sciences, but there were big problems with languages. However, he overcame them too, and once he, still a schoolboy, was called to replace an ill teacher in a rural school. Naismith's early students were the best in spelling and the worst in math. So he found out that it is often easier to teach others what he himself once had difficulty learning than what came easily. 
Another small ball is easier to hide somewhere in a playful way. It is more convenient to work with a big ball. 
And then Naismith remembered his childhood and playing Duck on the Stone. It was not about strength, but about precision, which was exactly what Naismith was looking for in his new game: “I thought that if the target to be hit was horizontal instead of vertical, then the players would have to throw the ball in an arc. Strength, the essence of rudeness, will be useless. 
True, they existed only in Naismith's imagination - the janitor of the college did not find suitable ones and offered two baskets of peaches. Thus, the "basket ball" was born. Remember this name forever - Pop Stebbins - that was the name of the janitor who found the peach baskets in his pantry. 
Naismith had the hardest time with this rule when he later referred women's matches: “Everything worked out well until I called a foul on one of the girls. She asked: “Did you whistle me a violation?”, And then told me what kind of character I have, where I came from and where I should go.” 
In 1893, a point was awarded for each foul, and in 1894, free throws were introduced for fouls, the rules for which were changed many more times. 
Therefore, out of 13 rules, two are dedicated to judges at once. 
The walls of the hall served as the boundaries of the site, the lighting was weak, and the players did not have any special equipment. Naismith placed the players on the court like in lacrosse - three for defense, three for center, three for offense, called two players, tossed the ball - and a new game was born. 
And the only goal for the teachers was thrown by Amos Alonzo Stagg, in the future one of the greatest coaches in American football. 
And the organizers of the matches came up with another important element of basketball - the shield. True, no one imagined that the shield would make it easier for the ball to hit the basket and increase the effectiveness, and, consequently, the entertainment of the sport. 
In 1895, he decided to invent his own game - so in Holyoke, 10 kilometers from Springfield, "mintonette" was born. We know him now by the name "volleyball". 
This did not stop Naismith and he organized a basketball team from his students, mostly football players. Matches were played away, on neutral grounds, in factory premises and even at the rink. 
After a while, when he needed those rules again, he found that he had forgotten them in the classroom at the time. The search led nowhere, and soon Naismith lost hope of finding the artifact. But after 12 years, he was looking through his documents and found an unmarked envelope dated 1891 year. Naismith opened the envelope and two of the most important pages in basketball history fell out. 
Spouse ticket money was collected all over America - many colleges, schools, churches, amateur and even professional teams gave away a cent from every ticket sold between 9to February 15, 1936 - Naismith Weeks. As a result, 5 thousand dollars were collected - much more than required. 
