James Naismith
James Naismith was a Canadian physical educator and ordained Presbyterian minister, best known for inventing the game of basketball in 1891. Orphaned at a young age, he worked various jobs before returning to education and ultimately earning a degree from McGill University. His passion for sports led him to the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he created basketball as an indoor activity to engage youth during the winter months. Naismith established thirteen foundational rules for the game and utilized peach baskets for scoring.
After leaving Springfield, he took a position at the University of Kansas, where he further developed his coaching career. Over time, basketball gained immense popularity and evolved significantly, incorporating new rules and equipment changes. Naismith was a humble man who valued teaching and coaching over personal fame or financial gain. His legacy endures, as basketball has grown into one of the world's most popular sports, while Naismith remains a respected figure in its history, exemplifying character and commitment to youth development.
James Naismith
Inventor
- Born: November 6, 1861
- Birthplace: Almonte, Ontario, Canada
- Died: November 28, 1939
- Place of death: Lawrence, Kansas
Canadian-born American sports administrator
Naismith, while working as the athletic instructor at a YMCA in Massachusetts, invented the game of basketball to ensure uninterrupted physical activity for youth between football and baseball seasons. Basketball, little changed since its inception in 1891, has become one of the most widely played sports around the world.
Areas of achievement Sports, education
Early Life
James Naismith (NAY-smihth) was orphaned at the age of nine when his parents died of typhoid on their small country farm in Canada. With his brother and sister, he was cared for by his grandmother and, after her death, by his uncle. By the age of fifteen, Naismith saw no need for continuing his education and dropped out of school. For the next five years, he worked as a lumberjack. By age twenty he was back in high school to earn his diploma. He then went to McGill University in Montreal, received a theology degree, and became an ordained Presbyterian minister.
Naismith also was an avid athlete who played many sports. This love of sports led Naismith to pursue a career in physical education rather than the ministry. He applied and was accepted for the position of athletic director at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1890.
It was in his role as athletic director at the YMCA that Naismith came up with the idea for basketball. He needed to develop an indoor activity that would keep youth active and in shape during the cold months between football and baseball seasons. It had to be an activity that could be played in a small indoor space and one that could be played by all children and was not based purely on physical strength. Recalling an old childhood game, Naismith asked a janitor to mount a peach basket on the lower rails of the YMCA gymnasium, one basket on each end of the floor. He then created thirteen rules for the boys to follow. Taking a soccer ball, he showed the players how to dribble, pass, and shoot the ball into the peach baskets. The game of basketball was born during the winter of 1891.
Naismith did not stay long at the YMCA in Springfield. In 1895 he accepted a similar position at the YMCA in Denver, Colorado. While in Denver, he attended Gross Medical School and earned his medical degree. In 1898, Naismith would make one of the biggest changes in his life. The University of Kansas, acting on the suggestion of a friend of Naismith, offered the position of school pastor and athletic director to Naismith. He readily accepted and moved to the Lawrence campus in 1898. Naismith brought the game of basketball to Kansas and became the first on a list of coaches that includes basketball Hall of Fame members Forrest “Phog” Allen, Larry Brown, and Roy Williams. Surprisingly, Naismith was the only Kansas coach to have a losing record overall.
Naismith married Maude Shermann in 1894. Together they had five children, and they were married for forty-three years.
Life’s Work
Naismith’s idea for the new game of basketball was an instant success. Basketball become so popular that by the time of Naismith’s death in 1939, his creation was part of every high school and college in the United States.
Many changes were in store for the game as more and more people played. The original thirteen game rules, many of which remain a part of the game, included five to six players on a team and baskets ten feet above the floor. Dribbling was introduced into the game in 1900, and the ten-second rule to move the ball to center court was added in 1932. Other modifications recommended by Naismith, instituted after his death, included the shot clock and the three-point shot. Concerning the players, Naismith stated in an interview with The Saturday Evening Post that although a player’s ability to score was important, good shooting was not the most important skill. Players also had to have speed and passing ability, and be able to perform the unexpected in a game built around quickness and fast thinking.
Other changes came when the peach baskets used for scoring were replaced with wire cylinders, and when the soccer ball was replaced with a “regulation” basketball. Additional changes, in 1895, included the addition of a backboard, on which the wire cylinder (the rim) was mounted. The backboard was added to prevent a basketball from landing in the audience after being hurled to a basket by a player.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began its annual postseason basketball tournament in 1939. Naismith saw his winter activity become a global phenomenon with the introduction of basketball to the Winter Olympics in 1936. The National Basketball Association, a men’s professional league, formed in 1949 after the merger of the Basketball Association of America (formed 1946) and the National Basketball League (formed 1937-1938).
Naismith, a man of outstanding character, believed his duties were not to himself, or to the promotion of basketball, but to people. He refused to have the regulation basketball named for him, fearing that it would reduce the popularity of the game. He suggested instead that the ball be called, simply, a “basketball.” Time magazine even stated that Naismith was clever enough to invent the game of basketball but not clever enough to exploit it. Basketball, alone, did not define him. His desire to teach and coach developed out of a desire to help young people.
While coaching at Kansas, Naismith became a commissioned officer in the Kansas National Guard. He saw duty in 1916 with General James “Black Jack” Pershing in the punitive action against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and then again on the western front during World War I. Soon after the war Naismith gained U.S. citizenship.
Naismith received honorary degrees as well. Kansas awarded him an honorary master’s degree in physical education; his alma mater, McGill University, gave him an honorary doctorate in law; and Presbyterian College in Montreal awarded him an honorary doctor of divinity degree. He also was an accomplished author, writing and publishing A Modern College (1911) and The Essence of a Healthy Life (1918).
Significance
Naismith was humble. He did not seek personal glory or attempt to benefit financially from basketball. When asked why he never chose to exploit the game for money, he responded with the rhetorical question, “to exploit the game for what reason?” Exploitation was not a part of his outlook. He was described by a friend as not only a medical doctor, Presbyterian minister, all-around athlete, nonsmoker, and teetotaler but also a person whose vocabulary excluded cuss words.
Basketball, though essentially the same game devised by Naismith, also has evolved since its inception in the small gymnasium at the YMCA in Springfield. It has grown into one of the world’s most widely played and lucrative sports. The billions of dollars that the modern game generates, namely in its professional capacity, would shock Naismith, the original inductee of the hall of fame in Springfield that bears his name.
Bibliography
Baker, William J., and James Naismith. Basketball: Its Origins and Development. Lincoln, Nebr.: Bison Press, 1996. An exciting book, originally published in 1941, detailing the origins of the game and its development. Explores how the game began as a way to fill time in the winter months between football and baseball seasons.
Kerkoff, Blair. Phog Allen: The Father of Coaching Basketball. Sylmar, Calif.: NTC, 1996. This book is a fascinating exploration of the early days of basketball. One of the first students of the game, Allen originally was a student of Naismith.
Peterson, Robert W. Cages to Jump Shots: Pro Basketball’s Early Years. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002. A history of the first decades of the NBA, beginning with basketball’s origins in 1891 to 1954, the year the league instituted the 24-second shot clock. A unique work on an understudied topic. Highly recommended.
Wyckoff, Edwin Brit. The Man Who Invented Basketball: James Naismith and His Amazing Game. Berkley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 2007. Part of the Genius at Work, Great Inventor Biographies series, this book describes how the game of basketball evolved from a game played with peach baskets to one of the world’s most popular games. Includes the original thirteen rules and rule changes since its invention.
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1971-2000: September 10, 1972: U.S. Loss to the Soviet Union Sparks Basketball Controversy; December 3, 1986: Boston Celtics Sell Shares in the Team.