Early History of the Sport of Basketball

Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world today. Professional leagues are active in all corners of the world. High school and collegiate basketball are also extremely common. Often times, kids start playing basketball at very young ages and end up playing all the way through high school and college. Basketball is not a very old sport when compared to many others but it certainly has grown into a global pastime since its creation in 1891.

The sport of basketball was created by Dr. James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts. His motivation for creating the sport was to keep his physical education students occupied during the long, cold New England winter. The first basketball hoop ever used was a peach basket that was nailed to the wall of the Springfield YMCA by James Naismith. Though this idea seems primitive, it started the worldwide revolution that we all know today. The first basketball to ever be used was actually a soccer ball.

Naismith's students immediately fell in love with the new game called basketball. They honed their skills while Naismith worked on fine tuning the rules and the first official basketball game ever was played in January 1892.

Since Dr. Naismith worked for the YMCA, his sport of basketball quickly became popular all across the United States in other YMCA locations. The sport spread so quickly that teams were springing up all over the nation at schools and among friends and townspeople. High school basketball became increasingly popular and many students desired to play, including young women.

A funny thing to think about is that dribbling was originally not a part of the game of basketball at all. This seems odd today because dribbling is second only behind shooting in the most important skills for a person to have in the game of basketball. The reason for this was because many of the original balls could not be dribbled effectively. Dribbling became a part of the game once balls could be consistently dribbled effectively.

Though mostly all other sports have origins in Europe and other places around the world, basketball is an American sport. Canada was also very involved, however, in the early spreading and development of basketball.

This paper was meant to outline the basics of the early days of basketball and give a simple idea of what the early days of the sport were like. The popularity of basketball continues to grow today and is one of the most widely followed sports all over the world.