It was Dr. James A. Naismith (1861-1939), who invented it in 1891 while working at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts.
It all started with a tough New England winter in 1891, two peach baskets, a ball, and a dogged determination by 18 players to win.
That first basketball game left a lot of injured players, so Dr. Naismith added more rules to the game to make it safer.
You can hear him tell the story in this brief two-minute interview recorded 31 January 1939 just months before he died:
http://exhibits.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/show/naismith150/collections/radio-interview
Genealogy Tip: GenealogyBank has digitized the entire newspaper – including the sports pages with the details of basketball games & scores. Dig in the old newspapers and find all the stories of your ancestors.
Related Sports Articles: