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."