ORIGIN OF BASKET BALL.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 98, 20 December 1904, Page 2

ORIGIN OF BASKET BALL.

First Played at Training School In Springfield, Mass., in the Year 1901. Basket ball as a recreative* game is unique in its origin for two reasons. Firstly, it is our on<*, positively sure, home American production; secondly, the name, date and place of its authorship are exactly known, says Golden Days. Of no other game in all the , category can this be said; the birth of the bulk of them is buried j in an obscurity which reaches beyond the cuneiform-covered: j baked clay tablets of Babylon, and j the hieroglyphics of the remotest Egyptian records. | Basket ball, on the other hand, was born in the year 1901 at Springfield, Mass., and its author was James Nainsmith. In that town is a training school connected with the Young Men's Christian Association, and, of course, professors, among them a professor of ps} T chology, who is paid to teach the young ideas how to think, effectively. In one of his lectures he called attention to certain conditions upon which tho brain could with advantage be exercised, and challenged his class to supply the requirements to meet them. The conditions were the invention of a new game which could be played indoors, in 3, limited area, by a defined and unalterable number of contestants, and adaptable to both sexes. Upon this hypothesis one of his pupilsj-Jaioes Nainsmith, the same -night evolved "basket ball." It was put into practice the next day. experimentally, and found to meet the conditions and% limitations laid down by v the professor admirably. But it had m6re than an Academic value, as its rapid spread as one of the most appreciated pastimes attests. ■ ■ Xust Have Them. Newrich — A man can get along without ancestors. Mack-^True, but his children can't. — Town Topics. » .