| In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a | | | | spread through the USA and Canada. By 1895, it was |
| minister on the faculty of a college for YMCA | | | | well established at several women's high schools. |
| professionals (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, | | | | While the YMCA was responsible for initially |
| Massachusetts, USA, sought a vigorous indoor game | | | | developing and spreading the game, within a decade |
| to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of | | | | it discouraged the new sport, as rough play and |
| fitness during the long New England winters. After | | | | rowdy crowds began to detract from the YMCA's |
| rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly | | | | primary mission. However, other amateur sports |
| suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic | | | | clubs, colleges, and professional clubs quickly filled the |
| rules and nailed a peach basket onto an 10-foot (3.05 | | | | void. In the years before World War I, the Amateur |
| m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball | | | | Athletic Union and the Intercollegiate Athletic |
| nets, this peach basket retained its bottom, so balls | | | | Association (forerunner of the NCAA) vied for |
| scored into the basket had to be poked out with a | | | | control over the rules for the game. |
| long dowel each time. A soccer ball was used to | | | | Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball. The |
| shoot goals. | | | | first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, |
| Dr. Naismith's handwritten diaries of the time indicate | | | | and it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, |
| that he was nervous about this invention, which | | | | searching for a ball that would be more visible to |
| incorporated rules from a Canadian children's game | | | | players and spectators alike, introduced the orange |
| called "Duck on a Rock", as many had failed before it. | | | | ball that is now in common use. |
| Dr. Naismith himself was originally from Canada. | | | | Dribbling, the bouncing of the ball up and down while |
| Naismith's new game is quite similar to the game of | | | | moving, was not part of the original game except for |
| team handball, which had already been invented in the | | | | the "bounce pass" to teammates. Passing the ball |
| early 1890s. | | | | was the primary means of ball movement. Dribbling |
| The first official basketball game was played in the | | | | was eventually introduced but limited by the |
| YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with nine | | | | asymmetric shape of early balls. Dribbling only became |
| players, on a court just half the size of a present-day | | | | a major part of the game around the 1950s as |
| National Basketball Association (NBA) court. "Basket | | | | manufacturing improved the ball shape. |
| ball", the name suggested by one of Naismith's | | | | Basketball, netball, dodgeball, volleyball, and lacrosse |
| students, was popular from the beginning. | | | | are the only ball games which have been identified as |
| Women's basketball began in 1892 at Smith College | | | | being invented by North Americans. Other ball games, |
| when Senda Berenson, a physical education teacher, | | | | such as baseball and Canadian football, have |
| modified Naismith's rules for women. | | | | Commonwealth of Nations, European, Asian or |
| Basketball's early adherents were dispatched to | | | | African connections. |
| YMCAs throughout the United States, and it quickly | | | | |