Everyone knows the game of basketball by now, but not many people know how it got started. Basketball was first discovered in Springfield, Massachusetts by a guy named Dr. James Naismith in 1891. Dr. Naismith was told by Dr. Luther Gulick, who was in charge of the Physical Education at the School of Christian Workers, to think of a new game. Dr. Naismith struggled to come up with something. His first idea was to bring soccer and lacrosse inside, but that was too physical. He finally thought of an old childhood game he used to play called duck-on-the-rock. This game gave him the idea of a new game called basket ball. It wasn’t the exact game he played, but the method was similar. The game required a soccer ball, two peach baskets at the top
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Naismith got the workers from the school to play the first public game of basket ball. He had eighteen people participating in the event, so he split them with nine on each team. All eighteen men were passing the ball around struggling to get the ball into the basket. It wasn’t until William Chase got the ball and finally scored the first basket ever in basket ball history. The very first basket ball game ended 1-0. After this game Dr. Naismith realized it was foolish to have a latter by the baskets to get the ball out, so he cut a hole in the bottom of each peach basket. He also noticed he needed a ball just for the game of basket ball. Dr. Naismith asked A.G. Spalding to make a ball for his game. In 1984, the first basket ball was made; it has a leather material and was able to bounce, so players could dribble. The rest of the 1990’s, basket ball was on its way to success. In 1993, the first girl’s basket ball game was played at Smith College and no boys were allowed to watch. The free throw line was moved from twenty feet to fifteen feet and was later only one point value, while anywhere else was only a two point value instead of …show more content…
This was also the time period where everyone started playing the sport; high schools, middle schools, and colleges had both girls and boys basketball teams. It was becoming so popular that in 1936 they made it an Olympic sport where the United States defeated Canada to win the first gold medal in basketball. In 1949, the National Basketball Association, also known as the NBA, was born. The NBA started with seventeen teams, but by 1954 only eight teams still participated. Later in that year, the NBA changed rules and now thirty teams around the country play today. It wasn’t until 1996, the Women’s National Basketball Association was established and it was a huge success. Today there are only twelve teams in the WNBA, but the program is still
Naismith got the workers from the school to play the first public game of basket ball. He had eighteen people participating in the event, so he split them with nine on each team. All eighteen men were passing the ball around struggling to get the ball into the basket. It wasn’t until William Chase got the ball and finally scored the first basket ever in basket ball history. The very first basket ball game ended 1-0. After this game Dr. Naismith realized it was foolish to have a latter by the baskets to get the ball out, so he cut a hole in the bottom of each peach basket. He also noticed he needed a ball just for the game of basket ball. Dr. Naismith asked A.G. Spalding to make a ball for his game. In 1984, the first basket ball was made; it has a leather material and was able to bounce, so players could dribble. The rest of the 1990’s, basket ball was on its way to success. In 1993, the first girl’s basket ball game was played at Smith College and no boys were allowed to watch. The free throw line was moved from twenty feet to fifteen feet and was later only one point value, while anywhere else was only a two point value instead of …show more content…
This was also the time period where everyone started playing the sport; high schools, middle schools, and colleges had both girls and boys basketball teams. It was becoming so popular that in 1936 they made it an Olympic sport where the United States defeated Canada to win the first gold medal in basketball. In 1949, the National Basketball Association, also known as the NBA, was born. The NBA started with seventeen teams, but by 1954 only eight teams still participated. Later in that year, the NBA changed rules and now thirty teams around the country play today. It wasn’t until 1996, the Women’s National Basketball Association was established and it was a huge success. Today there are only twelve teams in the WNBA, but the program is still