James Naismith
Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, sports coach, and innovator
1861 CE to 1939 CE
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.
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James Naismith invents basketball in the United States in 1891.
A native Canadian, Naismith teaches physical education from 1891 and becomes the first McGill director of athletics, but then leaves Montreal to become a physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
At the Springfield YMCA, Naismith struggles with a rowdy class that is confined to indoor games throughout the harsh New England winter, thus is perpetually short-tempered.'
Under orders from Dr. Luther Gulick, head of physical education here, Naismith is given fourteen days to create an indoor game that will provide an "athletic distraction"; Gulick demands that it not take up much room, can help its track athletes to keep in shape, and explicitly emphasizes to "make it fair for all players and not too rough".
In his attempt to think up a new game, Naismith is guided by three main thoughts.
Firstly, he analyzes the most popular games of the times (rugby, lacrosse, soccer, football, hockey, and baseball); Naismith notices the hazards of a ball and concludes that the big, soft soccer ball is safest.
Secondly, he sees that most physical contact occurs while running with the ball, dribbling or hitting it, so he decides that passing is the only legal option
Finally, Naismith further reduces body contact by making the goal unguardable, namely placing it high above the player's heads.
To score goals, he forces the players to throw a soft, lobbing shot that had proven effective in his old favorite game duck on a rock.
Naismith christens this new game "Basket Ball" and puts his thoughts together in thirteen basic rules.
The first game of "Basket Ball" is played in December 1891.
In a handwritten report, Naismith describes the circumstances of the inaugural match; in contrast to modern basketball, the players play nine versus nine, handle a soccer ball, not a basketball, and instead of shooting at two hoops, the goals are a pair of peach baskets.
The final score is 5–1 in favor of the students, with the only goal for the faculty being scored by Amos Alonzo Stagg.
A crowd of two hundred spectators watches the game.