James Naismith - Basketball

Old Basketball

New Basketball

Old Game

New Game

Naismith was born on November 6,1861 in Almonte, Canada. He died on November 28, 1939 in Lawrence, Kansas.

James came up with the game of basketball in 1891.It was played with two peach baskets set on high steel pools and a soccer ball.

James Naismith Basketball"Basket Ball"

Naismith meant for basketball to be an indoor winter sport. Everytime a player would score the reff had to climb up and get the ball out of the basket. Eventually he made a hole in the bottom of the hoop.

Old Shoes

New Shoes

Naismith wrote the rules for basketball in one hour. Most of the rules in basketball have stayed the same. Fouls, traveling, one and one, referee, and winning. The things that are different from today are the out of bounds rule, how much time a game has, and the throwing direction rule.

New Hoop

Old Court

New Court

Old Hoop

"The invention of basketball was not an accident.It was developed to meet a need.Those boys would simply not play Drop the Hankerchief."

Basketball is the only all American origin sport that grew to be played in every country. The first professional league was established in 1898. They were payed $2.50 for home games and $1.25 for away games. The NBA was founded in NYC on June 6,1946. Players get payed millions of dollars if they get to be on one of the 30 teams.

The first game was played by Naismith's gym class.He wrote the 13 rules on the board and played nine versus nine.Boys would tackle the kids running with the ball since dribbling was not a rule.

James practicing

Naismith testing his game