The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-01-20
IN THE WORLD OF SPORT
BASKETBALL HAS
RAPIDLY GROWN
GREAT DEVELOPMENT OF THE
WINTER INDOOR oAME-NoW
BEING PLAYED IN ALL GYM.
NAsIuMs IN THE COUNTRY
COLLEGES ENTHUSIASTIC.

Much attention is now turned to
basketball. While OF course in
former years basketball was called
moIlycoddle game by the gridiron
heroes at the colleges, yet very few
football men have made good at this
game. 1t is an indoor game, and when
played by two first-class teams is even
more exciting than football.
Very soon all OF the gymnasiums in
the city and those in the smaller
towns will resound with the cheers of
the basketball fans. And right hero
let it be said the sport does not en-
brace small area, but is played from
Florida to Alaska. 1t is, next to
hockey, the fastest game known in the
calendar of sports.
The players are continually on the
go, and rarely have a chance to rest
up. A careful estimate of the amount
of territory covered by fast forward
in a game against a good opponent
would not fall far from two miles
This is not as great a distance as a
baseball player sometimes covers, but
the basketball player is moving at top
speed all of the time, and is being
pursued by another man, SO that he
is actually exerting himself more than
the ball player, who at least has re-
spite between innings.
Brute strength does not count in a
game with skilled players. In fact the
big football player would look foolish
in contest where the opponents were
fast, heady players. At certain col
lege in New York western man who
had played football for four years in a
small college in Colorado watched the
men practice, and he decided that he
could easily make good at the game,
especially as he noted that body
checking was one Of the chief points
of the game.
why I'll just wade through that
crowd when l get going" he said to an
intimate friend, and he reported to the
coach the next day and asked for a
chance In a scrimmage Mr. Western
er tried to "get going" but sad to re-
late, he did keep going, but not in a
manner that was satisfactory to him
self
actiCS wouldn't work.
/ When the play started he charged
like a bull at his slim opponent, who
lodged away from him like a boxer,
and 1t was with difficulty that he kept
from falling down. He tried to follow
his man, but it was no use; he could
not get him. He soon found out to
his complete satisfaction that there
are little gentle tricks in the game
whereby green opponent will receive
a whack in the stomach with the ell
bow or cuff on the side in a spot
that is particularly painful In a scrim-
mage. At the end of the first half he
cried quits, and decided that he would
much rather be a spectator than a
player.
Basketball was first introduced to
the public by Professor Naismith OF
Kansas university, when he was an
instructor in athletics at the Hotch-
kiss school He did not at first make
any classified rules. but simply had
the students play the game as an in
door exercise. Later the game be-
came popular among the students. and
he drew up definite set of rules.
The private schools in Connecticut
later the schools in New England
began to take UP the game. The rapi-
dity with which the game spread Is
really astonishing. In the east it be.
came the rage especially in the small
er towns, where the town meeting
house was generally used TO play
games with outside teams. There are
now three professional leagues in the
east, which in itself ought to show
how popular the sport is.
New York has more basket ball
teams than any other city, but this is
natural, owing to the population:
also the best players are bred right on
the east side in the settlement houses,
and these men always make stars on
their college teams. A game between
two rival settlement teams like the
Clark house and university settlement
on Rivington street, is worth the price
of admission to box at the horse
show.
The rival teams have cosmopolitan
crowd of adherents and cries of Bravo
Eli Gut!'' and a babel of shouts from
the various supporters, while catcalls
and cries of derision from the rival