James Naismith

Of the three great American sports — Baseball, Basketball and Football — only one has a true inventor. On December 21, 1891, James Naismith, a Canadian-born physical education teacher, nailed peach baskets to two opposite walls of a gymnasium in Springfield Massachusetts, handed his students a soccer ball and announced thirteen (13) rules for his new game — and “basket ball” was born.

Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939), the son of Scottish immigrants, grew up in Ontario and was orphaned by age nine. (his parents died of typhoid fever.) After dropping out of high school at fifteen to become a lumberjack, he eventually returned to school, earning degrees from McGill University and Presbyterian College, where he studied to become a minister.

In 1890, he enrolled at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) international Training School in Springfield. While there, he and his fellow students were given the task of devising an indoor activity for the men at the YMCA to play during the winter, between football and baseball seasons.

At the time, calisthenics and gymnastics were the only indoor athletic activities, but they were deemed too boring by many of the men. The only stipulations for the new game were to “make it fair for all players and free of rough play.”

Naismith’s invention proved so popular, and his thirteen rules were soon published in a sports magazine to an enthusiastic response. in the following years, Naismith remained prominently involved with the game as it grew, particularly in the evolution of its rules into their current form. In 1898, he took a job at the University of Kansas, where he coached for ten years and remained as an athletic administrator and campus chaplain until shortly before his death at age seventy-eight (78).

ADDITIONAL FACTS

1. Naismith’s original rules did not permit dribbling — players could only pass the ball by passing.
2. Naismith became an American citizen in 1925.
3. In his senior year at McGill, an incident on the rugby field changed his life — another player uttered an explicative and upon seeing Naismith (an aspiring minister), he said, “I beg your pardon James. I forgot you were there.” At this point, Naismith realized that he might be able t help young men improve their lives through spiritual and physical development.
4. Naismith is the only coach at the University of Kansas History with a losing record. He notched fifty-five (55) wins and sixty (60) losses between 1898 and 1907.