The Origin Of
Basket Ball

Basket ball was created, or shall I say invented, by Dr. James Naismith. Here are some highlights from his "Naismith Speech" where he tells the story of how he created the game we now know as basketball. The speech can be found in full text by clicking here.

Naismith Speech--Highlighted Overview

Springfield College, January 5, 1932

In 1890, when James Naismith first entered Springfield College, only football, baseball and track existed. Football was in the fall while baseball and track were in the spring.

There was a need for something interesting to do indoors in the winter. James Naismith was in Dr. Gulick's seminar in psychology when Gulick said, "There is nothing new under the sun, but all new things are simply a recombination of the factors of existing things." Naismith thought this over and said to his professor, "If that is true, we can go to work to invent a new game." Nothing was thought about it until . . . . .

Some time later in a faculty meeting Dr. Gulick addressed a concern of Dr. Clark about having a class full of young men on the football team who did not enjoy working on the parallel bars, etc.. Dr. Gulick said it is different with these men. He said, "The difficulty is, with that particular group of men what we want is recreative work; something that will please them and something they will want to do."

Here is James Naismith's recollection of what he said to get himself into the project that has changed so many lives.

"I told Dr. Clark that if he would play games, he would get the attention of these fellows. After a little while, Dr. Gulick said 'Naismith, I wish you would take charge of that class.' If I ever tried to back out of anything, I did then. I did not want to do it. I had charge of a group interested in boxing, wrestling, fencing, and swimming and I was perfectly satisfied with my work. Dr. Gulick said he wanted me to do it. I thought Dr. Gulick had imposed on me by giving me something I did not want to do and compelling me to do it. As we walked along the hall, talking about it, he said 'Niasmith, this would be a good time for you to invent that new game you said you could.' I closed my fist, but I saw a peculiar twinkle in his eye which seemed to say 'put up or shut up.' He only gave me two restrictions. I had to make up a game, and that game must interest the group."

Naismith tried indoor football, but that ended up with broken arms and legs. He tried soccer, but that broke all the windows. He tried lacrosse, but nothing seemed to work. Everything seemed to be too rough for the indoors.

Then one day Naismith was thinking about a game he used to play called Duck on the Rock. One player would put their stone on the rock and then the other players would use their stone to try and knock it off. Sometimes a player would throw a stone in such a way that it would knock the other stone off and then come back again. This gave Naismith an idea. Instead of throwing the ball straight for the goal, as in soccer or lacrosse, it should have some sort of curve. It should not be about power and speed but instead be about skill, accuracy, and patience. He thought a circle on the floor would make a good goal, but then decided to raise the goal so that nobody could stand in it. This way there would be the chance to score once in a while.

Naismith then went to work combining many sports to create the format and rules of the game. He came up with thirteen rules. He then asked for some boxes, but all that were available were some old peach baskets. So he nailed those up as goals. The first reaction of Naismith's class was the dread of another new game, but Naismith insisted they try it. Naismith tossed the ball up for the first time; soon he had a different problem on his hands. Now he could never get the class to leave; he had to chase them out at the end of the period.

The big reasons Naismith had a hard time chasing the boys out of the gym were the new found fun they were having, and the girls. Everyday the girls would come down and watch the boys play. Soon more than 100 people would come and watch at the close of that class period. It was not long until everyone wanted to play; the girls even played in bustles, hoops, and high heels.

Naismith had reached his goal of entertaining the class and also created one of the most popular sports today. It was what he called basket ball.

Naismith also left the game of basket ball with an expectation that it would be played with character and sportsmanship. He thought basket ball presented an opportunity to develop character that would live with participants for life. He said, "That is what we are after. It is not the money we are going to get out of it."

A Little Extra About Naismith

Naismith was a prolific student who got degrees in the four diverse fields of Philosophy, Religion, Physical Education, and Medicine. Naismith never got to see the extreme popularity his sport gained. Examples today include "March Madness," but Naismith did get to witness basketball as it became an Olympic sport at the 1936 Games in Berlin. Naismith was a humble man and never sought publicity or engaged in self-promotion. In 1959, 20 years after his death, Naismith was made part of the world's only Basketball Hall of Fame.