The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-01
Dodgers Hope 10 Pitch Way Back As National Loop Le
(Reg. U. S. Pat. Off.) BY HARRY FERGUSON fwYws&nsz R....~- cvn@-k.. WTs1s4n-'

United Press Sports Editor)
 New York, Aug. ]. (UP)-It was bitterly. cold that. winter when pr. GuIck, head of the department of physical education at Springfield College, asked a young instructor to invent an indoor game.
 T think it should eliminate, phySi- cal contact" he said, 'but should require a high degree of skill and speed"
 Dr. James A. Naismith nodded. A few days later he hung two peach baskets at each end of the gym- nasiun.
 Basketball was born then and there.
 Today it is announced that temple of basketball'' will be built at Springfield, Mass, to commemo- rate the idea that the kindly gray haired man conceived 50 years ago. This year marks the. golden jubilee of basketball--a game that spread out of Springfield to every state and hamlet in the nation and changed the course of sports in the country.
 Big Idea
 There have been changes and notifications in the rules and most of them have tended to speed up the game, but the basic idea con- ceived by the late Dr. Naismith-- the throwing of ball into basket remains the basis of the game. It must have been curious sight when the first basketball team took the floor in Springfield. It consisted of nine men attired in turtle-neck sweaters, long trousers and flat heeled shoes. Most of them wore muStacheS.
 Even though the first game was crude affair, Naismith thought he had the essence of a good, ex- acting sport.
 He was right beyond his widest dreams Refinements in the game such as the Sribble, the pivot, the five-man defense came later and helped spread the game.
 Ask anyone what sport attracts the largest number of spectators each season and they-thinking of the vast crowds that assemble on Saturday afternoons in college sta diums-will almost invariably say college football. Or, if not that, they will say baseball.
 Hoop Game Gets Elm
 Neither is correct. Basketball draws the largest crowds over the nation and over a seasons time. Conservative estimates are that 90, 100000 persons witness basketball games each year.
 Certain sections of the country are more enthusiastic about basket ball than others, but there is no part of the nation where the game isn't known and played. Indiana is one of the hot spots of basketball and the annual high school tourna- ment in that state ranks as one of the great sports events of the middle west
 A few years ago a young news paper reporter named Ned Irish be- came convinced that the east, and specifically, New York would pay to see big-tilne basketball. Not all per- sons agreed with him. They argued | that New York was great baseball town, having three major league teams, that lots of the sports money went to buying admissions to box ing bouts, that there was the com petition of the theaters at night.
 Irish plugged ahead with his plans. Now he packs Madison Square Garden several times each winter, brings good college teams from all over the country and has made basketball a major sport in this town.
 The "Temple of Basketball" will be to that game what the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown is to baseball. It will be a large building contain ing basketball court and relics of the game-a white, pillared monu- ment to an idea and two peach baskets.