November 6, 1861 was the birthday of the Father of Basketball. James Naismith was born in Canada. He moved to the U.S. to become a physical educator. He was in graduate school at Springfield College in Massachusetts when his professor, Luther Gulick (the Father of Physical Education), assigned his class the task of inventing a non-violent game that could be played indoors in bad weather. Later, one of those days came along, and Naismith remembered the assignment. He asked the janitor to find some square baskets. He came back with peach baskets. They were nailed on the railing of the balcony above the gymnasium floor. It happened to be ten foot high. The ball was a soccer ball. And that’s how “basket ball” was invented. The game was an immediate hit and by 1905 it was established as the number one indoor participation sport. In the beginning, Naismith created 13 rules, which have undergone a lot of changes over the years. Here is the evolution of the game:
- Since Naismith envisioned the game as recreation for PE classes, the number of players was not set. As many as 50 played in the early days. Nine each side was common. By 1897, five was standard.
- In 1895, wire mesh backboards replaced walls. By 1904, wood came in and glass in 1909. A two- foot gap from the wall was added so players would stop running up the wall for layups. In 1939, the gap was expanded to 4 feet.
- In 1892, wire rims replaced the peach baskets. Cloth nets came in around 1912.
- Naismith wanted the game to be physically exerting, so when the ball went out of bounds, whoever touched it first kept possession. This created problems because when it went into the balcony, there was a mad rush up the stairs to get it. Some tried hoisting teammates over the railing. To stop the chaos, chicken wire was put up along the sidelines. The game was called “the cage game” and players became known as “cagers”. This created another problem as players would bump each other into the wire. Eventually it was ruled that the team that touched the ball last lost possession when the ball went out of bounds.
- There was no mid-court line until 1932 so stalling was very common since you could use the whole court. In 1933, the ten second rule was added to force teams to advance the ball into the front court. And the shot clock got rid of stalling in 1954, but not until 1985 in college!
- Originally, each goal counted one point. The ball had to stay in the basket (it took a while for the bottom of the basket to be open). Someone was stationed on the balcony to retrieve the ball, which didn’t happen often. The first game ended 1-0. It went to two points in 1896. The three-pointer did not arrive until 1977 for the NBA and 1980 for the NCAA.
- At first, there was no dribbling. You advanced the ball by passing it. You could take a few steps when you caught it on the run. Dribbling arrived in 1909.
- Three consecutive fouls by one team resulted in a point. The fouls were basically the same as today. Free throws were introduced in 1894. They were taken from 21 feet. The next year it was moved to 15 feet.
- The three-seconds in the lane rule ended very rough play in the lane in 1936. And in 1944 goal-tending ended the stationing of a tall guy in front of the goal to swat away shots.
- The first dunk was in 1944. Bob “Foothills” Kurland, one of the first seven-footers, was playing for Oklahoma A&M. He found himself under the basket with the ball. He jumped up and stuffed it. Dunking did not become common until the 1960s. When Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) made it look easy, college banned it from 1967 to 1977.
https://hooptactics.net/premium/basketballbasics/bb8rulesevolution.php
https://springfield.edu/where-basketball-was-invented-the-birthplace-of-basketball
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