Basketball inventor James Naismith honoured

Picture kindly provided by photographer John Fowler and The Millstone (www.millstonenws.com) Copyright John Fowler 2011

This month has seen an unveiling of a statue in Almonte, Ontaroo in honour of James A, Naismith, the man who is credited with inventing the game of basketball in 1891. In this picture kindly provided by photographer John Fowler and The Millstone (www.millstonenws.com) two of Naismith's grandsons, Stuart and James, pose with their illustrious ancestor's statue. The two men are cousins and traveled to their grandfather's hometown to participate in the ceremony. Naismith was born in 1861 and found himself, in 1891, the physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. The story is picked up by Wikipedia, which has many anecdotes for those who wish to know more. "At Springfield YMCA, Naismith struggled with a rowdy class which was confined to indoor games throughout the harsh New England winter and thus was perpetually short-tempered. Under orders from Dr. Luther Gulick, head of Springfield YMCA Physical Education, Naismith was given 14 days to create an indoor game that would provide an "athletic distraction": ... Naismith noticed the hazards of a ball and concluded that the big soft soccer ball was safest. He saw that most physical contact occurred while running with the ball, dribbling or hitting it, so he decided that passing was the only legal option. Finally, Naismith further reduced body contact by making the goal unguardable, placing it high above the player's heads. In the first games, actual peach baskets were used. After a basket, a ladder was used to retrieve the ball. It was only a little later that it was decided to cut the bottoms off. The hoop and webbed "basket" came later. To score goals, he forced the players to throw a soft lobbing shot that had proven effective in his old favorite game duck on a rock. Naismith christened this new game "Basket Ball" and put his thoughts together in 13 basic rules. He lived to see it grow incredibly quickly and become an Olympic sport.