The history of basketball starts from 1891 when Dr. James Naismith wanted to keep his students occupied during the long and cold winters in YMCA Training School (today Springfield College). That’s why he had to invent a game suitable for indoor playing.
He combined the activities from soccer and lacrosse with a game he played in his childhood called “Duck on Rock”.
The concept of the game he invented is pretty much the same today. Only of course, the long evolution of the game made the game slightly different in terms of how it’s played.
The first official rules were devised in 1982, just one year after it was invented. There were 13 rules by Dr. James that he had typed on 2 pages.
Back then, the game was pretty basic. 2 teams of 9 players played against each other and the team that scores more points by getting the ball inside the peach basket that was used at the time, wins. At first, the peach basket had no hole, so whenever anyone scored, the ball had to be manually removed from there.
That proved, not so efficient and someone suggested of drilling a hole at the bottom of the basket in 1903. And the game used to be played with soccer ball only to be replaced by with the famous orange ball that we use today. It was Tony Hinkle who introduced that ball. And for the name, a student suggested to Naismith that they call it Basket ball (two words).
There was no dribbling at first. You can only bounce the ball when you wanted to pass to your teammate. In the period between 1893 and 1895, the game was widely accepted by all the major American Colleges.
In 1959, a hall of fame was founded and it consisted of all the coaches, referees, players and people who contributed to the development of the game.