James Naismith

James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) is a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, sports coach, and innovator.

He invents the game of basketball at age thirty in 1891.

He writes the original basketball rule book and founds the University of Kansas basketball program.

Naismith lives to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Tournament (1939).

Born and raised on a farm near Almonte, Ontario, Naismith studies physical education at Montreal’s McGill University before moving to the United States, where he designs the game of basketball in late 1891 while teaching at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Seven years after inventing basketball, Naismith receives his medical degree in Denver in 1898.

He then arrives at the University of Kansas, later becoming the Kansas Jayhawks' athletic director and coach.

While a coach at Kansas, Naismith coaches Phog Allen, who later becomes the coach at Kansas for thirty-nine seasons, beginning a lengthy and prestigious coaching tree.

Allen then goes on to coach legends including Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith, among others, who themselves will coach many notable players and future coaches.

Despite coaching his final season in 1907, Naismith is still the only coach in Kansas men's basketball history with a losing record.