ONE CRUCIAL FACT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT 'MARCH MADNESS'
Caitlin Clark the Iowa Hawkeye's all time great scorer, and all other players, owe the great b-ball game to a 'sixth player' who never saw March Madness.
This is the wonderful story of how basketball was invented.
As the women’s and men’s U.S. college basketball (NCAA) national finals neared their climax in 2024, the excitement and glamor of the so-called ‘March Madness’ championship tournament would not have been possible had it not been for one person in 1891, with a bunch of rowdy boys on his hands.
James Naismith (above) was a gym teacher at the YMCA (now Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts). The weather was too horrible to play outside. He needed a way to keeping his bored and restless students from going stir crazy. Let’s just hear it from the inventor himself, in the following radio recording made in 1939. The interviewer was Gabriel Heatter of WOR Radio. The interview took place when Naismith traveled to New York for a basketball doubleheader at Madison Square Garden. This is believed to be the only voice recording of the man who invented basketball.
(Youtube is the location of the above modern-day video production, which appears to ‘re-create’ the atmosphere of the period). (The original audio recording is credited to KU Libraries
(A transcript of the Naismith interview is found at the end of this post.)
Below is a photo of what historians believe is that first-ever basketball court that James Naismith made by nailing two peach buckets above two opposite gym doors. Notice the first generation basketball on the floor.
And here is another photo of the early version of a basketball, with laces. It might have also served as a soccer ball.
An Even Earlier History? According to Wikipedia…
“A game similar to basketball is mentioned in a 1591 book published in Frankfurt am Main that reports on the lifestyles and customs of coastal North American residents, Wahrhafftige Abconterfaytung der Wilden.[5] Among other things, a game of skill is described in which balls must be thrown against a target woven from twigs, mounted high on a pole. There's a small reward for the player if the target is being hit.] “ (Source-Wiki)
Note: There is no record of ‘Sports Agents’ having been invented by year 1591. 😎
“There were other differences between Naismith's first idea and the game played today. The peach baskets were closed, and balls had to be retrieved manually, until a small hole was put in the bottom of the peach basket to poke the ball out using a stick. Only in 1906 were metal hoops, nets and backboards introduced. In 1894 the soccer ball was replaced by a ball (which) Naismith contacted Spalding to make.” [11][12. (Source - Wiki, as above)
As for Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes, she is said to be the highest scoring college player in history. She has done it herself. But she, and every other basketball player, college or pro, who has ever lived…owes their game to bad weather, an old soccer ball, two peach baskets and a man who was just trying to stop his gym students from ‘killing one another.’
I hope you enjoyed this little change-of-pace report. And best wishes to today’s elite basketball players, who have taken James Naismith’s old idea for bored boys on a rainy day, and turned it into a beautiful and artful sport.
Here is the transcript of the James Naismith 1939 interview
Announcer Gabriel Heatter Tomorrow night 15,000 cheering fans will pack Madison Square Garden in New York City to witness a giant basketball doubleheader. In that cheering crowd sitting in row seats seat 11 will be a modest 77 year old man. Those fans won't know that he made possible the game they are watching, but you're going to meet him now. WOR (radio) has brought him here tonight all the way from Lawrence, Kansas. Dr. James A Naismith, the inventor of basketball. Now, Dr, Naismith how did you happen to invent basketball?
Dr. James A Naismith, Basketball inventor Mr. Heatter, in the winter of 1891, when I was physical instructor at Springfield College in Massachusetts, we had a real ‘New England blizzard’. For days the students couldn't go outdoors. So they began roughhousing in the halls. We tried everything to keep them quiet. We tried playing a modified form of football in the gymnasium, but they got bored with that. Something had to be done. One day, I had an idea. I called the boys to the gym, divided them up into teams of nine, and gave them an all soccer ball. I showed them two peach baskets I had nailed up at each end of the gym. I told them the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team speech basket. I blew a whistle and the first game of basketball began.
Announcer Gabriel Heatter And what rules did you have for your new game, Dr. Naismith?
Dr. James A Naismith, Basketball inventor Well, I didn't have enough and that's where I made my big mistake. The boys began tackling, kicking and punching in the clenches. They ended up in a free for all in the middle of the gym floor. Before I could pull them apart. One boy was knocked out. Several of them had blacked eyes and one had a dislocated shoulder. It certainly wasn’t worth it.
Well, after that first match, I was afraid they'd kill each other, but they kept nagging me to let them play again. So I made up some more rules. The most important one was that there should be no running with the ball. That stopped the tackling and slugging. We tried out the game with those rules. And we didn't have one casualty. We had a fine, clean sport. 10 years later, basketball was being played all over the country. And in 1936, I saw it played for the first time at the Olympic Games. And the whole thing started with a couple of peach baskets I put up in a little gym 48 years ago. I guess it just goes to show what you can do if you have to.
Announcer Gabriel Heatter Indeed it does.