Author: Robert CareyA game that started with 18 men in a YMCA gymnasium in Springfield, Mass, eventually developed into a professional sport which over 300 million players engage in worldwide.

Basketball was invented in December 1891 by the Canadian clergyman, educator, and physician James Naismith.

At the demand of his leader, Dr Luther H Gulick, he organized a athletic entertainment pertinent for playing in the gymnasium..

The game had characteristics from American football, soccer, and hockey, and the first game was played with a soccer ball. With some long consideration, Naismith developed basketball’s original 13 rules and significantly, the new sport of basketball. The first basketball contest was played with a soccer ball, vegetable baskets and nine to a side.

This first match is believed to have been played Dec. 21, 1891. The first recognized basketball match was played in the YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with nine players, on a court just half the size of a present-day Streetball or National Basketball Association (NBA) court. “Basket ball”, the name suggested by one of Naismith’s students, was popular from its outset. Teams had nine players, and the goals were wooden peach baskets which were attached to the wall.

Basketballs first public match was in Armory Hill YMCA on March 11, 1892, with an assembly of 200 people on hand, as naismiths students beat the teachers 5-1; Amos Alonzo Stagg was the solitary scorer for the teachers. Basketballs first womens game was March 22, 1893 at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. The first college game was Feb. 9, 1895 Minnesota State School of Agriculture winning over Hamline 9-3. The first women’s basketball college match happened April 1895 between Stanford and California. Professional basketball begun their league in 1898 and was known as the National Basketball Association (not the same as todays nba). The first national AAU basketball tournament was in 1897.

Wisconsin claims to be the first state with a high school state tournament, which was won by Fond du Lac in 1905. High school basketball attracted national attention 12 years later in 1917. By 1897-1898, teams of five was promoted to the norm. Basketballs earliest admirers were sent out to YMCAs throughout the United States, and the game became popular through the usa and canada.

By 1895, it was firmly installed at several women’s high schools. Basketball became popular nationwide and to Canada and other parts of the world, played by both women and men; it also became a favorite informal outdoor game. Women’s basketball began in 1892 at Smith College when Senda Berenson, another gym teacher, converted Naismith’s rules for women. In the years before World War I, the Amateur Athletic Union and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (forerunner of the NCAA) sought to dominate the rules of basketball.

U.S. servicemen in world war ii (1939-1945) introduced the game around the world. A number of U.S. colleges adopted the game between about 1893 and 1895. In 1934 the first college games were staged in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, and college basketball became even more popular. By the 1950s basketball had become a major college sport, laying the foundation for a growth of interest in professional basketball.

Intriguing Basketball facts

Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball. The first constructed balls made especially for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, searching for a ball that would be more visible to both participants and spectators, introduced the orange ball that is now in common use. Running with the ball was not part of the original game except for the “bounce pass” to team mates. Passing the ball was the primary means of ball movement. Dribbling was ultimately introduced but restricted by the asymmetric shape of early balls. Running with the ball only took the job of a major part of the game around the 1950s as manufacturing allowed for a spherical ball.

The first pro league, the National Basketball League, was created in 1898 to protect players from exploitation and to advance a less rough game. This league only lasted five years before disbanding; its demise spawned a number of loosely designed leagues throughout the northeastern United States. One of the first and greatest pro teams was the Original Celtics, organized about 1915 in New York City. They played as many as 150 pastimes a season and dominated basketball until 1936.

The Harlem Globetrotters, founded in 1927, a notable exhibition team, developed a range of highly entertaining court antics and astonishing teamwork. Basketball was first played in the olympic games in 1936, in Berlin, when the USA winning against Canada 19-8 for the gold medal. The game was played outdoors, in the mud and rain, on a tennis court. In 1949 two subsequent professional leagues, the National Basketball League (formed in 1937) and the Basketball Association of America (1946) came together to create the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Boston Celtics, led by their center Bill Russell, dominated the NBA from the late 1950s through the 1960s. By the 1960s, pro teams from coast to coast played to audiences of many millions annually. Wilt Chamberlain, a center for the Los Angeles Lakers, was one more top basketball player in this period, and his games aginst russell were massively popular. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, also a center, came to prominence in the course of the 1970s. Jabbar perfected his famed “sky hook” shot while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers and run-rings around the opposition.

The NBA lost popularity in the late 1970s, though revived itself primarily through the increased magnetism of its generally acclaimed players. Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, and Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers are renowned for injecting excitement into the league in the 1980s through their incredible team skills and decade-long rivalry. During the late 1980s Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls came to prominence and helped the bulls dominate the NBA in the course of the early 1990s. Later basketball players, including Shaquille O’Neal of the Orlando Magic and Larry Johnson of the Charlotte Hornets, have pushed further the NBA’s growth in popularity.

In 1959 a Basketball Hall of Fame was founded in Springfield, Massachusetts. Its rosters mean the names of great players, coaches, referees, and people who have contributed significantly to the development of the game. Although no-one knows that basketballs origins was rooted in the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame, a version of that game was available for at least 50 years prior to Naismith’s creation in the writings of John Lloyd Stephens and Alexander von Humboldt. Stephen’s works especially, which included drawings by Frederick Catherwood, had been distributed at generally educational institutions in the 19th century and also were publicly accessible.

The history of Basketball is as compelling as any other sport and now is one of peoples favourite games in the world.