Quezi

Basketball about to Score - courtesy j9sk9s - CC-BY

In 1891, Dr. James Naismith, instructor at the International Young Men’s Christian Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, looked for indoor games to keep his students occupied and at good levels of fitness during the long New England winters.  He wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket still had its bottom, and balls had to be retrieved after each “basket.”  This proved cumbersome, so a hole was drilled into the bottom of the basket, allowing the balls to be poked out with a long stick each time.  The peach baskets were used until 1906 when they were replaced by metal hoops with backboards.  Now the ball passed through the hoop setting the stage for the modern game.  Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball. The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that the orange ball that is now in common use came about.

Basketball’s early advocates were sent to YMCAs throughout the United States, and the game rapidly spread through the USA and Canada.  By 1895, it was well established at several  schools too.   The first pro league (the National Basketball League), was formed in 1898. That league only lasted five years.

Dr. James Naismith was influencial in establishing college basketball and he coached at the University of Kansas for six years.  On February 9, 1895, the first intercollegiate game was played at Hamline University between Hamline and the School of Agriculture, which was affiliated with University of Minnesota.  The School of Agriculture won a 9-3 game.

Teams were numerous throughout the 1920s. There were hundreds of men’s professional basketball teams in towns and cities all over the United States, and little organization of the professional game. These teams, including the still thriving Harlem Globetrotters, played up to two hundred games a year on their tours.  Today virtually every high school in the United States fields a basketball team in varsity competition.

Men’s Basketball was first included in the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, although a demonstration game was held in 1904.  Men’s Basketball has been played consistently at the Summer Olympic Games ever since.  The United States men’s basketball team won all of the gold medals in the men’s competition from 1936 to 1968. The Olympics included women’s basketball starting in 1976. The USA women’s national basketball team won the silver medal at the 1976 games, a bronze medal in 1992, and a gold medal at all other competitions.

In 1946, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) was established. The first game was played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between the Toronto Huskies and New York Knickerbockers on November 1, 1946. Three years later, in 1949, the BAA merged with the National Basketball League and formed the National Basketball Association (NBA).  In 2001, the NBA formed a developmental league, the NBDL. As of 2008, the developmental league has sixteen teams.

And if you are a die-hard fan of basketball, you may want to live here.

For more information about the history of basketball