7 James A. Naismith 7School, afterward Springfield (Mass.) College, invented
the game of basketball.
As a young man, Naismith (who had no middle name
but adopted the initial “A.”) studied theology and excelled
in various sports. In the autumn of 1891 he was appointed
an instructor by Luther Halsey Gulick, Jr., head of the
Physical Education Department at Springfield. Gulick
asked Naismith and other instructors to devise indoor
games that could replace the boring or dangerous exercises
used at the school during the winter. For his new game
Naismith selected features of soccer, American football,
field hockey, and other outdoor sports but (in theory)
eliminated body contact between players. Because his
physical education class at that time was composed of 18
men, basketball originally was played by nine on each side
(eventually reduced to five).
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 Jan. 15, 1892, issue of the Triangle, the
YMCA Training School’s campus paper. Naismith’s original
rules, prohibiting walking or running with the ball and
limiting physical contact, are still the basis of a game that
spread throughout the world.
In 1898 Naismith received an M.D. from Gross Medical
College, Denver, Colo., afterward the University of
Colorado School of Medicine. From that year until 1937
he was chairman of the physical education department at
the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where he also coached
basketball until 1908. In addition to basketball, he is