Basketball is a game seeped in all-American tradition whose popularity has spread to all the corners of the world. This unique team sport, which is played at the social, college and professional levels, has a well documented history so there are no controversies regarding its inventors.
How it started
Basketball started way back in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts where a group of PE trainers were becoming impatient and bored with gym activities. They were getting increasingly frustrated as they could not go outside and play outdoor games such as baseball due to the harsh winter conditions. Seeing this, Luther Gulick, the head of the athletics department, called upon a young trainer whose name was James Naismith to invent a new indoor game that would provide players with some athletic stimulus.
A sport had to be designed which gave the players something to do other than just run around. Nainsmith had spent his childhood in Canada where knock-the-duck was a popular game which involved throwing a small rock or stone at an object in order to knock it off from where it stood. Naismith adapted the idea and developed a game where a ball had to be thrown into a basket attached to a high point on the wall. Not only did this give the players an opportunity to exert themselves, but this game could also be played in teams.
Popularity of the Game
The game was well received and within a few years its popularity spread across the East and West Coasts. The first college basketball game to be played competitively took place in 1896 between the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa. Iowa won that game and there has been no looking back since then for the sport.
