Origin of Basketball

The challenge that inspired the invention of basketball came from Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, Jr., the superintendent of physical education at the international YMCA Training School. During the summer session of 1891, Gulick introduced a new course in the psychology of play, and Naismith was one of his students. In class discussions, Gulick brought up an issue that was weighing on his mind: the need for new indoor game "that would be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play in the winter and by artificial light."

Though the class didn't follow up on Gulick's challenge to invent such a game, Naismith found himself revisiting the issue a few months later when the physical education faculty met to discuss what was becoming a persistent problem. With the end of the fall sports season, the school once again confronted the distaste many students felt for the gymnasium work that was mandatory during the winter months. One class was particularly incorrigible, and two instructors had already tried and failed to devise activities that would interest them.

During the meeting, Naismith later wrote, he expressed his opinion that, "The trouble is not with the men, but with the system that we are using. The kind of work for this particular class should be of a recreative nature, something that would appeal to their play instincts."

Though there was general agreement with Naismith, the group nevertheless found itself stymied. In fact, they knew of no indoor game that would inspire the excitement of football or baseball. Before the meeting ended, Gulick placed the problem squarely on Naismith's lap. "Naismith," he said, "I want you to take that class and see what you can do with it." As they walked down the hall together after the meeting, he added, "Now would be a good time for you to work on that new game you said could be invented."

Naismith tried several different approaches in an effort to improve the attitude of his difficult class. He had his students play simple games, such as various types of tag. He introduced a few games others had developed, including one called "battleball." He attempted to modify outdoor games like rugby and soccer so they could be played in a gym. However, as his first two weeks with the class neared an end, he had to admit that his efforts, thus far, had failed.

Still not wanting to give up, Naismith tried to deduce the cause of his failure. He saw, once again, the need to offer a totally different kind of game, and he was quite clear about what its characteristics should be. It should be easy to learn, but complex enough to be interesting. It must be playable indoors or on any kind of ground, and by a large number of players all at once. It should provide plenty of exercise, yet without the roughness of football or soccer, since those would threaten bruises and broken bones if played in a confined space.

American rugby (football) was the game Naismith considered most interesting, but tackling made it too rough for an indoor sport. Tackling, however, could be eliminated if players were forbidden to run with the ball, but could move it only by passing or batting it to another player, with the use of the fist prohibited. The game of lacrosse suggested the type of goal to be used, but the goal would be horizontal so players would have to throw the ball in an arc, thus limiting the force with which it was hurled. That idea came to Naismith from his memories of a childhood game he had played with his friends in Bennie's Corners, Ontario.

"I recalled from my boyhood in the lumbering camps of Canada," he recalled, "that when we played a game called 'Duck on a Rock,' the goal should be one that could not be rushed, and that the ball could not be slammed through. This called for a goal with a horizontal opening, high enough so the ball would have to be tossed into it, rater than being thrown."

The method he adapted for putting the ball into play-the toss-up-borrowed from English rugby, but had only one player from each team vying for the initial toss-up, rather than the whole team.

The next morning, Naismith assembled the elements for the new game. First, he considered whether to use a football or soccer