Development of Basketball

Most sports develop over time out of games that people begin to play informally. Not so with basketball. The history of Basketball shows that it was a game that was intentionally invented. In 1891, James Naismith was trying to create an indoor sport that his kids at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts could play in the brutal New England winter. His kids played soccer and football all during the fall season, but when winter came it was way too cold to play these sports. He wanted them to stay in good shape but he had nothing for them to do. Dr. Naismith combined elements of outdoor games like soccer and lacrosse with the concept of a game that he played when he was a child, Duck on a Rock. To win Duck on a Rock, players threw rocks to try to hit a target that was placed on top of a large boulder. A ball and a hoop are the simple things of the sport that now have players and crazy fans in nearly every part of the world.

Naismith’s class played the first game of basketball using a soccer ball and two peach baskets attached to a balcony ten feet above the floor. There were 18 kids in the class so he divided them in half making nine players on each team. The gym they played in was only 50 feet by 35 feet (Modern courts 94 feet by 54 feet). The final score to the first ever basketball game was 1-0. One of the students made the only goal from about 25 feet out, which was half court in that small gym.

Naismith wrote a set of 13 original rules in December, 1891 and they were published in January of 1892.

1. The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.

3. A player cannot run with the ball. The player must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance to be made for a man who catches the ball when running at a good speed if he tries to stop.

4. The ball must be held in or between the hands; the arms or body must not be used for holding it.

5. No shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping, or striking in any way the person of