What began as a winter pastime with 18 men in a YMCA gymnasium in Springfield, Mass, has grown into a professional sport which in excess of 300 million people play worldwide. The man who created this instantly successful sport was Dr James Naismith. At the request of his superior, Dr Luther H Gulick, he devised a energetic pastime well-suited for playing indoors when cold.
The game borrowed ideas from American football, soccer, and hockey, and the first game was played with a soccer ball. After considering ideas for the game, Naismith derived basketballs original 13 rules and eventually, the sport of basketball. The first basketball game was played with a soccer ball, peach baskets and nine members in each side.
This first match is believed to have occurred on Dec. 21, 1891. The first recognized basketball contest was played in the YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with nine players, on a court around half the size of todays Streetball or National Basketball Association (NBA) court. “Basket ball”,a name proposed by one of Naismith’s students, was popular from the beginning. Teams had nine players, and the goals were wooden peach baskets which were attached to the wall.
Basketballs first public contest was in Armory Hill YMCA on March 11, 1892, with an assembly of 200 people on hand, as naismiths students winning over the teachers 5-1; Amos Alonzo Stagg was the solitary scorer for the teachers. Basketballs first womens game was March 22, 1893 at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. The first college basketball contest occurred on Feb. 9, 1895 Minnesota State School of Agriculture winning against Hamline 9-3. The first women’s basketball college contest occurred April 1895 between Stanford and California. The professional basketball league started in 1898 and was known as the National Basketball Association (not the same as todays nba). The first national AAU basketball tournament was in 1897.
Wisconsin claims to be the first state with a high school state tournament, which was won by Fond du Lac in 1905. High school basketball attracted national attention 12 years later in 1917. By 1897-1898, teams of five became standard. Basketballs earliest devotees were dispatched to YMCAs throughout the United States, and quickly took root through north america.
By 1895, it was solidly establlished at several women’s high schools. Basketball became popular nationwide and to Canada and other parts of the world, played by both women and men; it also was promoted to a cherished informal outdoor game. Women’s basketball began in 1892 at Smith College when Senda Berenson, also a sports teacher, adapted Naismith’s rules for women. In the years before World War I, the Amateur Athletic Union and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (forerunner of the NCAA) sought to dominate the rules of basketball.
U.S. servicemen in world war ii (1939-1945) popularized the sport around the world. A number of U.S. colleges adopted the game between about 1893 and 1895. In 1934 the first college games were staged in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, and college basketball attracted even wider support. By the 1950s basketball had become a major college sport, thus paving the way for a growth of interest in professional basketball.
Interesting Basketball facts
Basketball was originally played with an association football ball. The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, who wanted a ball that would be more visible to both participants and spectators, introduced the orange ball that is now in common use. Running with the ball was not part of the original game except for the “bounce pass” to team mates. Passing the ball was the primary means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually established but limited by the irregular shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a major part of the game around the 1950s as manufacturing allowed for a spherical ball.
The first pro league, the National Basketball League, was created in 1898 to protect players from exploitation and to advance a less rough game. This league only lasted five years before disbanding; its demise spawned a number of loosely designed leagues throughout the northeastern United States. One of the first and greatest pro teams was the Original Celtics, devised about 1915 in New York City. They played as many as 150 pastimes a season and dominated basketball until 1936.
The Harlem Globetrotters, founded in 1927, a notable exhibition team, developed a range of highly entertaining court antics and outstanding teamplay. Basketball joined the olympiad in 1936, in Berlin, when the USA winning against Canada 19-8 for the gold medal. The game was played outdoors, in the mud and rain, on a tennis court. In 1949 two subsequent professional leagues, the National Basketball League (formed in 1937) and the Basketball Association of America (1946) came together to create the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Boston Celtics, led by their center Bill Russell, dominated the NBA from the late 1950s through the 1960s. By the 1960s, pro teams from coast to coast played before crowds of many millions annually. Wilt Chamberlain, a center for the Los Angeles Lakers, was another top basketball player during the era, and his tussles with russell were big attractions. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, also a center, established himself in the course of the 1970s. Jabbar perfected his famed “sky hook” shot while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers and run-rings around the opposition.
The NBA lost popularity in the late 1970s, but was resuscitated, principally through the increasing magnetism of its generally magnificent players. Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, and Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers are renowned for introducing passion into the league in the 1980s through their superior ball control and ten year of opposition. In the course of the late 1980s Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls became a superstar and assisted with the bulls domination of the NBA in the course of the early 1990s. A new generation of stars, including Shaquille O’Neal of the Orlando Magic and Larry Johnson of the Charlotte Hornets, have pushed further the NBA’s rise in support.
In 1959 a Basketball Hall of Fame was founded in Springfield, Massachusetts. Its rosters mean the names of great players, coaches, referees, and people who have contributed significantly to the development of the game. Although no-one is sure that basketballs origins was rooted in the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame, a version of that game was available for at least 50 years prior to Naismith’s creation in the writings of John Lloyd Stephens and Alexander von Humboldt. Stephen’s works especially, which included drawings by Frederick Catherwood, were available at generally educational institutions in the 19th century and also were publicly accessible.
The history of Basketball is as fascinating as any other sport and now is one of the most popular games in the world.
