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5 days ago · James Naismith (born November 6, 1861, Almonte, Ontario, Canada—died November 28, 1939, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.) was a Canadian-American physical education director who, in 1891, invented the game of basketball as a way to make physical education more enjoyable and less dangerous.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Throwing a ball into half-bushel peach baskets was what Canadian-American educator James Naismith, at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, suggested in December 1891 when asked to devise an indoor game that could keep men physically fit during the winter.
- James Naismith
- He Was Canadian
- Naismith Was An Orphan
- He Was A Talented Athlete
- He Scored The First-Ever Touchdown in Indoor Football
- Naismith Invented Basketball
- He Named It ‘Basketball’ After The Peach Baskets Originally Used
- He Played in The First Public Basketball Game
- He Had A Medical Degree
- Naismith Was Not Interested in Self-Promotion Or Glory
- He Died in 1939 After A Brain Haemorrhage
James Naismith was born on 6 November 1861 in Almonte, Ontario in Canada. Naismith spent much of his childhood outside playing catch, hide-and-seek or ‘duck on a rock’, a medieval gamein which one person guards a large stone from other players, who try to knock it down by throwing smaller stones at it.
His Scottish parents, John Naismith and Margaret Young, died when Naismith was very young. He therefore lived with his aunt and uncle for many years while attending school at Bennies Corners near Almonte.
In 1883, Naismith entered McGill University in Montreal. Despite being described as having a slight figure at 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 81kg, he was a talented athlete. Naismith represented McGill in American football, lacrosse, rugby, football and gymnastics. He played centre position on the football team and designed some padded protecti...
Naismith taught physical education at McGill, becoming their first director of athletics. Yet he left in 1890 to study at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. While on the Springfield team, Naismith scored the first touchdown of an indoor football game. It was played at the now-iconic sports arena, Madison Square Ga...
In the autumn of 1891, the rowdy sports students at Springfield, only allowed to play sports indoors during the harsh weather, were in need of an “athletic distraction”. Applying his college experience, Naismith selected features of football, American football, field hockey and other outdoor sports for his new game. In theory, he removed any contac...
While designing his new game, Naismith had tried to reduce body contact by making the goal tricky to guard. Rather than on the ground, the goal was suspended above the player’s heads, and they would have to score by throwing the ball soft and high, which had worked well in his favourite childhood game ‘duck on a rock’. He asked the janitor to find ...
On 12 March 1892, Naismith joined his close friend Amos Alonzo Stagg and other Springfield staff in a game against the students. The students won 5-1, with Stagg scoring the only basket for the faculty. The Springfield Republican reported, “over 200 spectators crammed their necks over the gallery railing of the Christian Workers gymnasium while the...
In 1898, Naismith joined the University of Kansas physical education team at Lawrence. There, he founded the Kansas Jayhawks basketball program, training a long line of prestigious basketball coaches including Phog Allen, who earned the title ‘the father of basketball coaching’. Naismith continued to work at the University of Kansas until he retire...
By the early 20th century, enough college teams had been created on the east coast that the first intercollegiate competitions began. In 1936, the sport even became an official event at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Yet while the sport continued to grow, Naismith saw basketball more as an interest, favouring gymnastics or wrestling as better types...
He died nine days later on November 28, 1939, in his Lawrence, Kansas, home at the age of 78. His work, Basketball – its Origins and Development, was published posthumously in 1941 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, was named in his honour. Naismith’s enduring legacy, of course, was the game of basketba...
In 1925, Naismith accepted American citizenship. In 1936, three years before his death, he had the opportunity to see his sport in action at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, the first time men’s basketball was officially recognized as an Olympic Sport (it had been a demonstration sport in 1904).
May 9, 2018 · From 9 through 15 February 1936, the heart of basketball season, one penny from each ticket sold at high school, college, and professional basketball games in the United States and Canada went to the Naismith travel fund. The campaign caught the public's fancy.
Nov 8, 2021 · 1891. First basketball game played. On December 21, 1891, 30-year-old James Naismith introduces the first game of basketball. Based on 13 rules created by Naismith, the game is tested by...
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History of Basketball. In the early 1890s Naismith found himself tasked with developing a new game when he worked for the YMCA. He turned to a game from his childhood known as “Duck on a Rock”.
