El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-01-28
BASKETBALL IS
BABY Of SPORTS
Gymnasium Instructor In
vented Game to Relieve
Tedium of the Drills.
BY Frank G. arENkE-


New York. Jan. 2S.-Basketbau was
originated 25 years ago by James Mai
smith, a Y. N. c. A. instructor in
Springfield. Mass. in an attempt to
provide some game that would relieve
the tedium Of regular gymnasium
work
When Naismith created the basket
ball game in 1891 he never thought It's
popularity would spread beyond the
confines Of his own little gymnasium
Yet, basketball today is the major win
ter sport among colleges; II IS played
in every city and hamlet in the United
States and in every city Of any size IN
the civilized world
Basketball is the infant Of sports
but its popularity is increasing yearly
BY leaps and bounds and its devOtees
viii number far into the millions with
in a few more years
How Idea Was Born.
Back in 1890 Naisnith noticed that
his charges grew tired Of the regular
gymnasium stunts before the winter
was half over. They soon lost their
zest for the club swinging and dumb
bell exercises Naismith concluded that
II was necessary to discover some gym
nas1um game that would keep up inter-
est and at the same time promote
health and build muscles
One day he noticed some Of his boys
trying to throw a baseball into a bas-
ket that hung on the wall That gave
Naismith his basketball idea That
would be a game into which would en-
ter the element Of competition and one
which would increase the quickness OF
the hands, the feet and the eye, and
would promote health
Naismith's hardest job was to find
q suitable kind Of ball He realized
that a baseball was too small: that a
rugby football not only was too small
but also not Of the right shape Just
bout then he witnessed a game Of SOC
Ger football and his troubles ceased.
Used Soccer Ball
Naismith got a soccer football and
the early basketball games were staged
I with that sort Of bah as the standard
The Y N. c. A instructor not only
borrowed the ball from the soccer
game, but he also lifted" some Of the
rules The "drfbble' which is one OF
the important plays in basketball was
borrowed from soccer In several 9th
er ways the basketball playing meth
DDS are the same as soccer
The rules Of basketball today are
almost the same as those laid down
by Naismith % years ago The size
Of the ball, number Of men on a side
and such other details have been
changed but those are all
A peculiar thing is that the playing
area rule made by Naismith still re-
mains That limits the playing field"
to 1000 square feet The gymnasium
where Naismith was instructor was a
small one and its area limit was only
a trifle over 1000 square feet Had the
room been larger Nais1nith probably
would have increased the size of the
field" Yet his 1000 feet limit remains
the standard
Popularity Increases.
Naismiths pupils played the game
during 1891 and went wild about It
They told their friends about the new
game, the newspapers heard about il
and in 1892 several other gymnasiums
were staging basketball games
In 1898 every gym in Springfield
and many in Boston and other AasSa-
chusetrs towns had basketball teams
Inter-gyrn games Were played and at
tracted crowds IN 1884 the Smith
college girls began to play basketball
and from that time on the popularity
of basketball spread throughout the
I United States and beyond