The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-24
KEOUGH p1 en-

BY HERBERT c. REYNOLDS.
Coach of Central " NJ. c. A. Championship Team.


Basketball. invented hy DIR. James
Waismith. and FIRST played by the
training school team Of the Springfield
(NIass) Y. u. c. a. in 1891. has long
since passed the stage in which It was
met by jeers and laughter, and has
successfully filled the inventors idea
In working out the sport-that ot NIL
ing out the gap which came in athlet-
les between the fail football season ana
the spring baseball season, and now
stands as one of the recogp .2ed sports,
played alike by the y. ~. 9 As. UNI
Yersities. schools. and athletic clubs
and ] think can be said TO be the best
winter sport now in existence.
The game has undergone radical
changes and only tho fundamental
principles of the game played by the
Springfield team remain. The contest
q it was first played, and al the time
I first started PLAYING il, required nlhe
men on a side-three centerS, three
forwards and three bacis-and these
rules were kept in force for the trst
four years the game was in existence
when the number OF players on siae
was cut to seven. dropping one forward
and one guard. and two years later. IN
forwards. one center and TWO guards,
the feeding center being omitted.
The game, as il was played eVen as
late as 1897, simply was Il harunl-scar-
um scramble. with little or no team
work. each man playing the ball when
and where he pleased. and it was not
until the advent of the profess Onal
coach. which was in 1890. DeheVe'
that the game was reduced TO the SCI
entifc basis it now holds
The first game 1 contested in was
played in the old Garfield Boulevard
Y. ". c. 4. of Chicago. in 1882, and l
believe this was the first played in the
west. For the baskets we had waste
basket hung at one end OF the hall,
ana for the ball we used a boxing
glove. Only one waste basket was
available. so nine of the men played
on the defensive. turn about Later
the waste basket and boxing glove
were displaced and an iron ring ahd
association football substituted.
The next year saw the formation OF
the first league in the west, the ia
venswood. West Side. and Garfield
Boulevard Y. NJ. c. AS Of Chicago be
ing the eontesting teams, and, despite
the toshing we received on the chicken
wire baskets. the game continued 70
grow IN popularity. the next year seq
ing seven team league in Chicago
and several teams in the smaller
towns.
The hardest game in which ] ever
have participated was played durins
this year. and one IL which laugh
able incident came up The game was
played in the German Y NJ. 9. A
! gymnasium. and at one end Of the hal
was an old-fashi0ned register, opening
( out Of the floor
The game was nearing the end and
the score was close, when / received
The ball and. being blocked from the
| basket turned 10 throw 10 Paul Loren
| sen. who was playing one of the for
wards. ! had heard Lorensen call fol
/ the pass but failed to see him when
! turned. ] could hear him calling some
! thing. however, and when time had
| been called, found him IN the hot all
/ pipe leading to the furnace, where ht
had slipped. after breaking through
| the iron register. Some little time was
needed to extract him. rs he had bent
> himself around a crook in the pipe.
The game. as it is played now. first