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Do You Know Who Invented Basketball?

basketball on the hardwood in a spotlight

It was Dr. James A. Naismith (1861-1939), who invented it in 1891 while working at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho), 5 February 1921, page 6

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.

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