Breakaway basketball rim invented by Arthur Ehrat
date: label: Date made
content: 1976
name: label: patentee
content: Ehrat, Arthur
label: maker
content: Ehrat, Arthur
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Orange metal basketball rim with a white nylon net attached to the rim hooks. There is a large metal spring, taken from a John Deere tractor, located at the bottom of the rim and attached to a metal plate under the rim. This was to give the rim spring when someone hung on the edge of the rim or actually "break" the rim away for the basket but not cause the metal to give and break off. Before this invention the metal rims would break if too much weight was applied. This is a prototype for the design and construction of the breakaway rim made by the donor Arthur Ehrat in 1976. He applied for a patent in 1976 and was granted one for this design in December of 1982, patent number 4,365,802. There are 2 spare spring coils, one nut and one piece of metal.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Arthur Ehrat – farmer, grain elevator manager, and inventor -- spent most evenings tinkering in his farm workshop in Virden, IL. There, in 1976, unfolded a classic tale of invention arising out of personal interest and of the development of a commercially successful sports product.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Although not a basketball fan, Ehrat was a problem solver. Responding to the St. Louis University basketball coach - his nephew Randy Albrecht – lamenting about his players bending rims and injuring themselves, Ehrat went to work resolving this long standing predicament. He bought an inexpensive rim and experimented using familiar farm equipment and parts. Strong magnets would hold the rim up but allow it to fold down under pressure. Coil springs from John Deere field cultivators proved to have just enough tension to bounce the rim back up. He put the pieces together and tried his new breakaway basketball goal at local schools. Success was immediate. Filing for a patent in 1976, it took him six years to become the grantee of United States Patent # 4,365,802. Soon after, the basketball governing board changed its rules to allow the use of the breakaway rim and Ehrat licensed his invention to several companies. The breakaway rim became the standard of the sport from school yards to the NBA. As often happens, several other inventors also applied for similar patents soon after Ehrat. Although several lawsuits proved his originality, he said that the legal battles drained his profits.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Papers related to this and Ehrat’s farm implement inventions reside in the National Museum of American History Archives Center.
topic: label: web subject
content: Sports
label: name of sport
content: Basketball
label: level of sport
content: Professional
label: level of sport
content: collegiate
label: web subject
content: Invention
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: Exhibition
content: Change Your Game
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Arthur Ehrat
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0213.01
label: accession number
content: 2005.0213
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0213.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Basketball Rim
label: Object Name
content: breakaway rim, basketball
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: nylon (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19 in x 7 in x 24 1/2 in x 19 in; 48.26 cm x 17.78 cm x 62.23 cm x 48.26 cm