Basketball is the only major sport in America that is strictly of U.S. origin. Basketball was invented by James Naismith, a physical education instructor at a YMCA in Springfield, MA. Naismith invented basketball to relieve the boredom of indoor activities such as calisthenics and gymnastic activities which his class detested. The first basketball game has nine players to a team and used a soccer ball as the first basketball. Since this first game basketball has evolved into one of the world's most popular games with some of the world's most recognizable and popular athletes. The indoor winter program at the YMCA consisted of calisthenics and gymnastics, which bored the students tremendously. In fact there were so many student complainants that two other physical education instructors at the Springfield YMCA quit rather than deal with the problems. James Naismith, a thirty-one year old physical education instructor at the YMCA decided to devise a game to relieve this boredom. First he devised a game that was a cross between soccer, lacrosse, and football, however the game was too rough to play indoors. Then Naismith became intrigued when he saw rugby players throwing their rugby ball into a box suspended off of the gym floor. Naismith went back to the YMCA and asked the janitor, Pops Stebbins, to suspend two boxes, one at either end of the gym, from the railing of the balcony which was ten feet high. Pops Stebbins was not able to find two boxes so he hung two peach baskets on the balcony railing instead. Naismith then posted thirteen simple rules which embodied five basic principles that still govern today's game. These principles were: to use a ball, large, light and handled with the hands, no running with the ball , no player shall be restricted from getting the ball at any time, both teams are to occupy the same area but there is to be no physical contact, and the goal shall be horizontal and elevated. After readin...
