 |
By Gary Mols,
Island Murphy Beds & Closets |
Canadian Christian Minister invents the game of “Basket Ball”
For centuries in Europe, only people from the “privileged classes” had time for “leisure” sporting activities. These activities (events) were usually based on training for “combat”. When a country was intent on waging war, it had specialists who would train its citizens in the techniques of individual and group fighting techniques. These included archery, spear throwing, running, jumping, equestrian activities, sword fighting to name a few. Later firearms would be included.
Towards the later end of the European industrial revolution, a new class of people, known as industrial workers, began to accumulate enough disposable income and time to spend on things other than just the bare necessities. But according to many religious people of the day, too much of this time and money was spent in bars and pubs. One such person was George Williams of London, England. He was so concerned with this situation that he formed a “safe house” where young men could avoid these “sinful” activities and to offer a place to study the bible and pray no matter what denomination or social class they came from. Shortly thereafter, this safe house would become officially known as the Young Men’s Christian Association or the YMCA in 1844. This is where the Y’s philosophy of nurturing a young person’s spirit with their mind and body was born.
The YMCA movement quickly spread to North America. In Canada, Montreal became a strong centre. It attracted a young theological student/athlete from McGill University named James A. Naismith who was intrigued by this new “Muscular Christianity” movement. Impressed by his dedication to the movement, Naismith was invited to come to Springfield College in Massachusetts to become part of this American “Muscular Christianity “ or YMCA movement.
Early on in his teaching career at Springfield College, he was given a task by one of his supervisors in the Fall of 1891 to come up with a vigorous, non-contact competitive indoor activity which could be played during the winter. The details of Minister Naismith’s thought process are described below by his grandson Ian Naismith:
“My grandfather began to address this task with his memories of a game which he had played as a child in Almonte, Canada called "duck on a rock." Each player would try to knock a small stone (the duck) off a large rock from a given distance. The tossing motion and coordination of "duck on a rock" served as the foundation for basketball. He originally envisioned two 18 by 18-inch boxes as the goals, which would be on the floor, as the rock was in his childhood game.
"He worked on the rules for 12 or 13 days, and it finally came into his head one night. He always told my dad that the first game of basketball was played in his bed the night before. He was struggling. He went downstairs at 11:15 in the morning and the first class was at 11:30. He frantically had the school secretary type up the rules. And as she was typing, he went and found [the janitor] Mr. Stebbins. If it hadn't been for Mr. Stebbins, who didn't have any 18 by 18-inch boxes (he only had peach baskets in the basement of the YMCA) the game would have been called 'boxball,' because that was basically his vision."
He realized soon after that if the basket were placed on the floor, physical contact-an element that he tried to rid from the game-would be encouraged, and that scoring would be nearly impossible, as one player could easily block the entire goal. So he put the baskets on a railing about 10 feet above the ground-at the same height that basketball rims are placed today.
"The problem was, the ball wouldn't pass through because of the diameter [of the boxes]. Everyone says that my grandfather was smart enough to put the baskets up on the railing, but he wasn't smart enough to cut the bottoms out. But there were two reasons that he didn't cut the bottoms out. Number one, the ball wouldn't have gone through anyhow, because of the diameter. And number two, because the boxes were so flimsy, all their strength was in the base. So he left the bottom of the baskets in."
It didn't take long for the game to spread after it was introduced to Naismith's class of YMCA secretaries-in-training on December 21, 1891. Soon combined with the YMCA's budding popularity, young men were playing basketball throughout North America within a few years.
“I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place.” – James A. Naismith
|
