The game of basketball was created by a Canadian/American named Dr. James Naismith.
Beginning in December of 1891 in the small town of Springfield, Massachusetts Dr. Naismith had a problem that required both shrewdness and resourcefulness.
As a YMCA physical education teacher Dr. Naismith wanted his young athletes both boys and girls to be able to have a sport/game in which they could play year round. It gets mighty cold in the hills of Massachusetts and he knew far too well about this as being from the Great White North of Canada.
Dr. Naismith had an idea and it would turn out to be a great one indeed! The young ones could then exercise and have fun all from the warm and cozy confines of a gymnasium, with the game the good Dr. Naismith created.
Peachy Keen Idea
After brainstorming a bit Dr. Naismith then came up with a great idea for an indoor game. What he did was gather three, that’s right, three peach baskets and attach them to each end of the balconies of the gymnasium.
The reason he went first with three is unknown even to this day but most estimate that it was for a center basket. Obviously this third basket was later dropped and is the two basket game we know and love today.
Too Many Players
Since there were 18 people in his class he divided them up into two groups of nine players and gave them the quick crash course on the first game of basketball. It was not called basketball then as that name would not come around until much later.
The game was nameless in reality and was a deviation of a game Dr. Naismith played as a young boy referring to Ducks and Rocks.
Every time a shot was made players would cringe and would hope that it would not go in as this meant climbing up the ladder to retrieve the ball at the peach basket. What the players decided to do was to cut holes in the bottom of the peach baskets to allow for the ball to fall straight through and stop all that ladder climbing.
This of course made that game of basketball much faster and more enjoyable to play and these peach baskets lasted all the way until 1906 when they were finally replaced by metal hoops with metal backboards.
Game of Basketball
Another issue that arose was that there were far too many players on each team for the game of basketball to be played effectively. There was even a game at Cornell University where there with 15 players on each team.
That would make for a lot of passing and standing around and sometimes a player or two would not even touch the ball during the whole game. What’s the fun in that?
Eventually the game of basketball straightened itself out and all the nuances turned into one of the most popular games played outdoors or indoors. Recall what was the main goal for Dr. Naismith way back when on that frozen day in Massachusetts?
Soccerball not a Basketball
The ball that was selected was a soccerball since no one had any idea what a basketball was back then. The game started out as most games do very evenly played with each side not really knowing how to defend a basket that was 20 feet in the balconies?
Most of the plays were just players that were asked to just pass the ball around and around until one finally decided to try to shoot the first basket ever attempted in the game of basketball.
Three-Point Bliss
That inaugural three-pointer was the shot heard round the world and in no way shape or form was in reference to a battle or war as the other more famous saying is referring to.
The game of basketball was created and from there went on to the sky like a rocket through North America and presently to all corners of the globe. Even though the game was great fun and it started to turn into more of a sprint than anything else, there was still the problem of retrieving the ball once a basket was made.