Origin of Basketball: Its History and Journey

Back in 1891, a Canadian physical education instructor Dr. James Naismith invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts. The reason for this invention was to play a game that is less prone to injuries as of soccer back in those days.

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Journey of Basketball

It consisted of peach baskets and a soccer-style ball. Dr. James Naismith published 13 rules for the new game. He had the class of eighteen so he divided them in two each with nine players and set about to teach them the basics of his new game. 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. But it was becoming time-consuming to call every time janitor so he removed the bottoms of the fruit baskets. The first public basketball game was played in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1892.

As Naismith invented the game some students of are used to call it as Naismith game but he suggested that “we have a ball and basket why don’t we call it a basketball” and hence the name basketball was invented. The eighteen players were John G. 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 Galen.

The game established fairly quickly and grew very popular as the 20th century progressed, first in US of America and then throughout the world. After the game became much popular the national basketball association (NBA) was formed in 1946 which was a professional game enterprise and it quickly became a multibillion-dollar firm.