In His Own Words: How A Gym Teacher Invented Basketball In 1891

[oarabbus]

Most people are familiar with at least a few details of basketball's humble origin story: the creative gym teacher who thought it up, the simple peach baskets for hoops, and the sport's initial lack of dribbling.

But now, thanks to the discovery of a 1939 recording of a radio interview, we can hear James Naismith describe in his own words the invention of one of the world's most popular sports.

Naismith was a physical education teacher at what's now Springfield College in Massachusetts. That winter, a blizzard pounded the region and Naismith's students had cabin fever from being cooped up inside. To ward off the boredom, Naismith got creative with an old soccer ball.

"I called the boys to the gym, I showed them two peach baskets I had 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," he said. "I blew a whistle, and the first game of basketball began."

A University of Kansas professor, Michael Zogry, found the recording in the Library of Congress while he was researching Naismith. It's full of gems about how the game evolved in it's earliest stages. For example, when Naismith first introduced the game, the only rule was to put the ball in the basket.

"The boys began tackling, kicking and punching in the clinches," Naismith said. "Before I could pull them apart, one boy was knocked out, several had black eyes, and one had a dislocated shoulder."

So, Naismith added a few more regulations — the modern game still remains largely unchanged from his original 13 rules — and the sport took off. American colleges were quick to adopt basketball and not long after the turn of the century, the game had also spread to Europe.

The rest, as they say, was history.

"In 1936, I saw it played for the first time at the Olympic games," Naismith said gleefully in the interview. "And the whole thing started with a couple of peach baskets I put up in a gym 48 years ago."

Link to Naismith recording here: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...m_content=2043

Pretty cool stuff though.

[Pushxx]

There are a lot of NBA players that would relish being able to tackle, kick, and punch in basketball.

[MMM]

So this softening of the game has been going on for some time now

[jongib369]

Thanks for posting! Obviously, I love these kind of posts. I've always wanted to put a voice behind the man who invented the game I love so much.

[Kvnzhangyay]

So this softening of the game has been going on for some time now

The softening of the game is just what basketball really is

Basketball, has, and always has been ideally a game of finesse

[oarabbus]

The softening of the game is just what basketball really is

Basketball, has, and always has been ideally a game of finesse

Did you even read, the first game ever played was BasketBRAWL

[DoctorP]

Thanks for sharing.

[90sgoat]

People don't have any idea how much more violent society was back in the 1700-1800s.

Everyone got beat, it was a fact of life, teachers beat students, husbands beat wives, wives beat kids, older kids beat younger kids, the master beat his apprentice and brawls would break up every single night in every pub or bar.

These 1890s basketball players would make James Harden cry then they'd light up some tobacco on court and drink some gin.

[90sgoat]

The softening of the game is just what basketball really is

Basketball, has, and always has been ideally a game of finesse

Yes, it was primarily created as a non violent alternative to football and rugby. Doesn't mean it was intended to be a ***** sport.

[Wally450]

I was wondering if somehow they revived him in 2015 and he saw what the game of basketball was in terms of rules and stuff, would he change the rules and stuff because it wasn't what he envisioned? He could say "F*ck you, I invented the game, I can change what I want".

[DoctorP]

People don't have any idea how much more violent society was back in the 1700-1800s.

Everyone got beat, it was a fact of life, teachers beat students, husbands beat wives, wives beat kids, older kids beat younger kids, the master beat his apprentice and brawls would break up every single night in every pub or bar.

These 1890s basketball players would make James Harden cry then they'd light up some tobacco on court and drink some gin.

Was there even air conditioning back then? Miami without A/C is almost unliveable. People probably smelled more and were sweatier. We have it good in the industrialized world.

[90sgoat]

Was there even air conditioning back then? Miami without A/C is almost unliveable. People probably smelled more and were sweatier. We have it good in the industrialized world.

They for sure didn't have aircon, but they would have had fans and probably had ice imported from the north. The British had ice from the Himalayas brought to their southern areas such as Burma to use for aircon. I wouldn't want to live in Burma without aircon either.

[Collie]

The world was presumably also had tamer climates then due to no global warming shit.

[RoseCity07]

Kobe would have quit had the game been that rough. The game became soft enough for him to play by the late 90's. Just in time.

[jlip]