Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith at a YMCA training school in Massachusetts. Naismith came up with 13 original rules for the new indoor winter sport and used peach baskets nailed to the balcony as the first goals. The first game was played with a single basket being made, and the new sport quickly spread across the country through YMCA organizations. While competitively a winter sport, basketball is played year-round both formally and informally by people of all ages.
Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith at a YMCA training school in Massachusetts. Naismith came up with 13 original rules for the new indoor winter sport and used peach baskets nailed to the balcony as the first goals. The first game was played with a single basket being made, and the new sport quickly spread across the country through YMCA organizations. While competitively a winter sport, basketball is played year-round both formally and informally by people of all ages.
Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith at a YMCA training school in Massachusetts. Naismith came up with 13 original rules for the new indoor winter sport and used peach baskets nailed to the balcony as the first goals. The first game was played with a single basket being made, and the new sport quickly spread across the country through YMCA organizations. While competitively a winter sport, basketball is played year-round both formally and informally by people of all ages.
Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith at a YMCA training school in Massachusetts. Naismith came up with 13 original rules for the new indoor winter sport and used peach baskets nailed to the balcony as the first goals. The first game was played with a single basket being made, and the new sport quickly spread across the country through YMCA organizations. While competitively a winter sport, basketball is played year-round both formally and informally by people of all ages.
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 1
basketball,
game played between two teams of five players each on a rectangular court,
usually indoors. Each team tries to score by tossing the ball through the opponent’s goal, an elevated horizontal hoop and net called a basket.
The only major sport strictly of U.S. origin, basketball was invented by James Naismith (1861–1939) on or about December 1, 1891, at the International Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Training School (now Springfield College), Springfield, Massachusetts, where Naismith was an instructor in physical education.
James NaismithUPI/Bettmann Archive
For that first game of basketball in 1891, Naismith used as goals two half- bushel peach baskets, which gave the sport its name. The students were enthusiastic. After much running and shooting, William R. Chase made a midcourt shot—the only score in that historic contest. Word spread about the newly invented game, and numerous associations wrote Naismith for a copy of the rules, which were published in the January 15, 1892, issue of the Triangle, the YMCA Training School’s campus paper.
While basketball is competitively a winter sport, it is played on a 12-month basis—on
summer playgrounds, in municipal, industrial, and church halls, in school yards and family driveways, and in summer camps—often on an informal basis between two or more contestants. Many grammar schools, youth groups, municipal recreation centres, churches, and other organizations conduct basketball programs for youngsters of less than high school age. Jay Archer, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, introduced “biddy” basketball in 1950 for boys and girls under 12 years of age, the court and equipment being adjusted for size.
