Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1921-04-13
THE ORIGIN OF
BASKET BALL
1t is Young Sport, Less Than
Thirty Years Old. First Played
i'm About 1892
BASKETS WERE SET
ON THE FLOOR
Then Finally Raised to About Ten
Feet in Air. Bottom Taken Out,
Because Ball Bounced Out

A sport writer in the Chicago
Tribune gives the following version
of basket ball:
In the winter sports season which
| is near closing, basketball has stood
out so prominently and has enjoyed
such phenomenal period in every
way that it challenges by its rapid
growth the record of Americas
/ greatest outdoor pastime baseball.
The origin of the nations alfresco
sport is shrouded in considerable
doubt and required the services of a
special committee to establish wheth-
er it grew out of the ancient game
of pounders or the more elderly
sport of cricket. Aside from that, it
is certain that professional baseball
has existed in organized form for
more than fifty years. The firsc lea
que was formed in 1870, and the
present National league was organ
lied in 1876. Nobody knows how
many years before that embryonic
baseball was played on the lots.
Compared to that, basketball is a
very young sport. 1t was less than
thirty years ago that the first basket
ball game was played, and it was my
good fortune to see that initial con-
test of what now has become the
major winter pastime. And I'll spill
lit to the world that basketball i'm
| its swaddling clothes was funnier
than fat man trying not to sneeze.
Some time in the winter of 1891
l'92 James Naismith, who is now a
"Dr." and head of the department of
physical education of the University
of Kansas, drifted into the sporting
department of the paper for which l
was then toiling in Springfield, Mass.
He was then student at the Spring
! field Y. NJ. A. Training school, now
called Springfield college.
| He brought a flock OF diagrams and
! a skull full of ideas about new in
ldoor game he had invented, in re-
sponse to a lecture by DR.. Luther
Gulick of the training school, advo-
eating a winter game to break the
monotony of gymnastics, as exercise
between the outdoor seasons.
| 1t didn't listen like much of a
game to me, but because of the
novelty of it | wrote the story-the
first ever written about basketball.
Shortly afterward-early in 1892, as
| recall it-I covered" the first
game ever played. To man accust-
omed to reporting baseball, boxing,
football, and horse racing it was
scream.
The goals originally were two ordi-
nary peach baskets, and for this
contest" they were placed on the
floor, but afterward elevated ten feet
from the playing surface and fasten-
ed to the walls.
The sides then were composed of
nine men instead of five, and the
rules made it one of the most lady
like sports you can imagine. The re-
feree was always blowing his whistle.
If an opponent merely said boo"
to the player who had the ball, it
was foul, and the action consisted
chiefly of watching attempts to make
goals from free throws. Most of these
failed for lack of practice, and lot
of the goals which landed squarely
in the basket bounded out again. 1t
was several years before they reme-
died that by taking the bottoms out
tof the baskets"
Out of that ludicrous offspring Of
DR.. Naismith's brain, has grown the
major indoor sport of America. 1t
also has become stalwart outdoor
pastime, particularly in the south;
where it can be played in the open
between seasons.
Basketball grew so fast, in fact,
that it came near killing itself. In
Western Massachusetts, DR.. Mai
smiths idea was taken up early by
professionals, who revised the rules
to suit themselves, and by elimin-
,ating most of the fouls evolved a
game almost as rough as football.