Who Invented Basketball? 5 Notable Evolutions in Basketball

Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian-American sports coach and physician, invented basketball in 1891. Born in Almonte, Ontario, Canada, on November 6, 1861, Naismith studied and taught physical education at McGill University in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, before relocating to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1890. Here, he would invent the game of basketball:

• The first game: While teaching physical education at the YMCA International Training School (now Springfield College), the thirty-one-year-old invented basketball, primarily as an indoor game for when the New England weather proved too cold. The first basketball game took place in December 1891, and its first public exhibition game came the following year.
• Hitting the college circuit: By 1895, the new sport spread to other colleges throughout the United States, while the first international games took place shortly after World War I. Naismith relocated to Denver, Colorado, to obtain his medical degree, and then to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1898, where he became the University of Kansas’s athletic director and founded the school’s basketball program, for which he served as basketball coach.
• Legacy: He lived to see the establishment of the first basketball league in 1898 and the introduction of the game as a demonstration sport at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, and later, as an official Olympic sport in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Former athletic director Lee Williams established the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1959 to honor Naismith’s foundational contribution to the game.

The history of basketball has a humble but unique beginning:

• Inventor: In 1891, Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball. At the time, he worked as a physical education instructor at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Naismith’s supervisor, Luther Halsey Gulick, asked him to design a new sport to keep students busy during the winter months.
• Inspiration: Naismith envisioned a game for multiple players that was fun and physically challenging but without the dangers of football or lacrosse. Recalling a game from his childhood called “duck on a rock” that required players to use small stones to knock over a larger rock, he obtained two peach baskets from a janitor and nailed them to the lower rails of the gymnasium balcony at the height of ten feet. Naismith then divided the young men into two teams of nine players and told them that the goal was to get the soccer ball into the peach basket.
• First basketball game: The first basketball game took place at the International YMCA Training School gymnasium on December 21, 1891. Two students became team captains and picked their sides from the remaining sixteen players. An umpire served as a referee, and a man with a ladder retrieved the ball from the peach baskets. His duties were light: The first game ended with a score of one to zero. However, there was a huge brawl involving the players, which left several students injured.
• Original rules: Naismith wrote the thirteen original rules of basketball and published them in “ A New Game,” an article for the Springfield College newspaper, The Triangle, in 1892. Among these early rules: no limit on the number of basketball players on the court, no dribbling or running with the ball (players simply threw the ball to each other), no tie-breakers, and games consisting of two fifteen-minute halves. All field goals were worth one point, and three consecutive fouls by a team—either by physical contact by players or by hitting the ball with a closed fist—earned the opposing team one point. Learn about contemporary basketball rules in this complete guide.

There have been numerous notable evolutions since basketball’s inception in 1892. Among the most notable changes:

1. 1. Baskets: Woven wire rims replaced peach baskets in 1892 before nylon nets became the game standard in 1912. Backboards arrived in 1895, primarily to keep spectators from interfering with the game after a goal. Initially made of wire, backboards were later made of wood and plate glass.
2. 2. Equipment: Heavy leather basketballs replaced soccer balls in the late 1890s. Their weight and external stitches made them difficult to dribble, but a 1929 redesign moved the laces inside the ball and reduced the size and weight. Molded basketballs became the norm in 1942.
3. 3. College basketball: Hamline University hosted the first intercollegiate basketball game in 1895, which pitted them against the University of Minnesota’s School of Agriculture. Other schools soon sponsored men’s basketball games, which prompted the founding of a governing body for college sports, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS), after a suggestion from then-President Theodore Roosevelt. The IAAUS became the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1910, and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), which governed small colleges, followed in 1940.
4. 4. Professional basketball: Basketball expanded from college and YMCA teams to professional basketball teams in the late 1890s. The first professional league—the National Basketball League—debuted in 1898, with the first professional basketball game occurring that same year. The National Basketball Association (NBA) emerged in 1949 and became the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The first international basketball league, FIBA (International Basketball Federation), was formed in 1932.
5. 5. Women’s basketball: Women’s basketball began at Smith College in 1892 when physical education instructor Senda Berenson introduced and adapted the game for women players. The first collegiate women’s basketball game was played at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1893. Around forty-three years later, the Amateur Athletic Union sponsored the first national women’s championship in 1936. Women’s basketball would not get its own governing body until the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 1997.

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