Section 1.1
Origins: James Naismith and the First Game
Who invented basketball, and why
Basketball was invented by James Naismith, a Canadian-American physical educator,James Naismith - Wikipediawas a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball
Open source who designed the game in 1891 while teaching at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. He created it because he realized he needed to invent an indoor game for students to play during the winter months, when the weather conditions made outdoor sports impractical.
According to Springfield College's own account, his supervisor Luther Gulick had raised this challenge more generally in a class discussion, stressing the need for a new indoor game that was interesting, easy to learn, and playable in winter by artificial light, before it fell to Naismith specifically to answer it.Where Basketball was Invented: The History of BasketballIn 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.
Open sourceThe game also had to avoid the roughness of football, soccer, and rugby, since that kind of play would risk injuries in a cramped indoor gymnasium.
He wrote up thirteen original rules for the game, which were posted on a gymnasium bulletin board,Naismith Invents Basketball | History | Research Starters | EBSCOhostNaismith’s thirteen original rules, which included fouls, goals, and out-of-bounds penalties, were posted on the bulletin board at the Armory Street YMCA gymnasium.
Open source and the first game was played in December 1891, with nine players on each side using a soccer ball and two peach baskets nailed to a balcony rail as goals.