Today is unofficially National Basketball Day, a day to celebrate the invention of the game and the man who created it, James Naismith.
Naismith was born on November 6, 1861 in Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States as a young man and attended university, where he studied physical education and played football, lacrosse, and other sports.
In 1891, Naismith was working as a physical education instructor at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. His boss asked him to create a new indoor game that would be safe and easy to learn. Naismith was inspired by a children’s game he played as a child called “duck on a rock,” in which players tried to knock a rock off a pedestal with a ball.
Naismith nailed two peach baskets to the balcony at both ends of the gymnasium and divided his students into teams of nine players. He instructed the players to try to toss the ball into the baskets, but they were not allowed to run with the ball or push or trip their opponents.
The first game of basketball was played on December 21, 1891. Naismith’s students loved the new game, and it quickly spread to other YMCAs and schools throughout the country.
Basketball is now played by more than 300 million people worldwide, making it one of the most popular team sports. The NBA, WNBA, and NCAA basketball tournaments are all watched by millions of fans around the world.
Thank you, James Naismith for inventing this great game!
