nvention of the game[edit]
James Naismith published 13 rules for the new game. He divided his class of 18 into 2 teams of 9 players each and set about to teach them the basics of his new game of Basketball.
The objective of the game was to throw the basketball, into the fruit baskets nailed to the lower railing of the gym balcony. Every time a point was scored, the game was halted so the janitor could bring out a ladder and retrieve the ball. Later, the bottoms of the fruit baskets were removed. The first public basketball game was played in Springfield, MA, on March 11, 1892.[1] That day, he asked his class to play a match in the Armory Street court: 9 versus 9, using a soccer ball and two peach baskets. Frank Mahan, one of his students, wasn’t so happy. He just said: "Huh. Another new game".[2] However, Naismith was the inventor of the new game. Someone proposed to call it “Naismith Game”, but he suggested "We have a ball and a basket: why don’t we call it basket ball"?[3] The eighteen players were: John J. Thompson, Eugene S. Libby, Edwin P. Ruggles, William R. Chase, T. Duncan Patton, Frank Mahan, Finlay G. MacDonald, William H. Davis and Lyman Archibald, who defeated George Weller, Wilbert Carey, Ernest Hildner, Raymond Kaighn, Genzabaro Ishikawa, Benjamin S. French, Franklin Barnes, George Day and Henry Gelan 1–0.[4] The goal was scored by Chase.[5] There were other differences between Naismith’s first idea and the game played today. The peach baskets were closed, and balls had to be retrieved manually, until a small hole was put in the bottom of the peach basket to poke the ball out using a stick. Only in 1906 were metal hoops, nets and back boards introduced. Moreover, earlier the soccer ball was replaced by a Spalding ball, similar to the one used today.[6][7]
YMCA, U.S. Army spread development[edit]
It was the YMCA that had a major role in spreading basketball throughout the United States, Canada, and the world. In 1893, Mel Rideout arranged...