The history of basketball and the rules of the game are fairly well known throughout the United States, and indeed, most of the world, but an interesting fact about the game is that it was invented by a Canadian, James Naismith.

Naismith graduated from McGill University in Montreal and was very active in sports, playing football there for eight years. Afterwards, he became a teacher at the International Young Men’s Christian Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, and it was there that Luther Gulick asked him to put together a game that could be played indoors during winter, and that would also support their physical education program. Naismith based basketball on a childhood game called “Duck on the Rock.” In this game, which dates from medieval times, a boy from the playing group guarded the drakestone, which sat on a bigger stone or log and the boys took turns trying to dislodge the drakestone from its perch, either through high lobbed shots or skimming shots, such as one might use while skipping stones on a lake. After the drakestone was dislodged by a stone (the shooter’s “duck”), everyone rushed to retrieve their ducks. If one of the players was tagged before returning to the throwing line with his duck, he became the guard of the drakestone. The guard of the drakestone could not tag anyone until he had picked up his own duck or replaced the drakestone upon the perch. Played with stones, the game was perilous but fun, and combined tag with marksmanship.

It is also probable that Naismith, who was well-educated, was aware of both old Mayan and Aztec games that resembled modern day basketball. The Maya played a game called pok ta pok, which used a ball made of the local rubber (from rubber trees) weighing about ten pounds. The game was played in a long, i-shaped ball court, slightly under the length of a football field, and players were not allowed to use their hands, but had to bounce the ball off of thighs, hips, legs and feet to score. The head was not used, as ten pounds of rubber to the nose was detrimental. Stone hoops were found at either end of the ball court and scoring occurred by players bouncing the ball into the hoops. Tlachli, the Aztec version, was played in almost exactly the same manner. Some historians postulate that these games were not only played for sport and gambling among the richer society, but also to settle disputes among townships for both the Maya and the Aztec.

Naismith, however, simply wanted to keep the young men under his tutelage from getting bored and out of shape. On Dec. 21, 1891, he pitted 18 of his students against one another, nine against nine, on a court, using a soccer ball and two peach baskets. One of the students, Frank Mahan, was less than impressed. However, Mahan named the game “Basketball” since the obvious point of the game was to get the ball into the peach basket. At first, the baskets were closed, and scores had to be retrieved manually, using a ladder. Soon afterwards the bottom was cut out of the basket and the ball retrieved by poking a stick into the basket after each score. Then the soccer ball was replaced by an early model Spalding basketball, and more rules added. In 1906, metal hoops, nets and a backboard was added, and finally, players were not allowed to move, they were only permitted to pass the ball after dribbling once. That rule is in effect today.

Next in this installment will be part two: the rules and regulations of basketball.