History of Basketball

History of Basketball
Who is known world-wide as the inventor of basketball? His name is Dr. James Naismith, he was born in 1861 in Almonte, Ontario. Most people wonder were a young man would think of a game like basketball.   The concept of basketball was born from his school days in the area where he played a simple child's game known as duck-on-a-rock outside his one-room schoolhouse. The game involved attempting to knock a "duck" off the top of a large rock by tossing another rock at it. After serving as McGill's Athletic Director, James Naismith moved on to the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA in 1891, where the sport of basketball was born.
Naismith developed a set of 13 rules that gave origin to the game of basketball. The game involved elements of American football, soccer, and hockey, and the first ball used was a soccer ball. Teams had nine players, and the goals were wooden peach baskets affixed to the walls. By 1897-1898, teams of five became standard. The game rapidly spread nationwide and to Canada and other parts of the world, played by both women and men; it also became a popular informal outdoor game. U.S. servicemen in World War II (1939-1945) popularized the sport in many other countries. By the turn of the century, metal hoops with backboards were implemented, giving players more control of the ball. Nearly two decades later, on June 25, 1929, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted G.L. Pierce a patient for the ball known as the "basketball." U.S. colleges adopted the game between about 1893 and 1895. The first college games were in New York’s Madison Square Garden, around 1934. By the 1950s basketball had become a major college sport, thus paving the way for a growth of interest in professional basketball. Since the creation of basketball, several changes have been made to the game including the size and style of basketball courts. In 1891, Naismith used the gymnasium at the YMCA as a basketball court. That gym...