The History of Basketball James Naismith,"Father of Basketball"
Basketball was invented years ago by an American named James
Naismith. It began in December 1891 in Springfield,
Massachusetts. Dr. Naismith, who was a YMCA physical education
teacher, had a real big problem. His students played football
and soccer all during the Fall season. But now winter was
coming, and it would be too cold to play outside. Naismith
wanted all of them to stay in good health, but he didnt have any
sports for them to play inside. Finally, after much thinking, he
came up with a great idea for an indoor game. He got two peach
baskets and attached them to a balcony at the opposite ends of
the gym. There were eighteen people in his class, so he divided
them up into two groups with nine players on each team. Of
course, they couldn't play the game without a ball, so he chose
a ball that he had on hand: a soccer ball. When the first game
began, the players started passing the ball around and one boy
threw the ball in the basket. He sco