A New Game Called Basketball...

“Blogging at the Intersection of Faith and Sports”

On this date in 1892 the first public viewing of basketball took place in Springfield, Massachusetts. The game was invented by James Naismith for cold Massachusetts winters, with ties back to the games of his youth. Naismith was an orphan early in life and was raised by his uncle in Almonte, Canada to be a priest. However in college he discovered sports and dropped out of priestly studies to be a teacher at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield.

There he was challenged by the YMCA staff to invent a new indoor game that was physical, athletic and geared for the indoors. He started work on it in December 1891, and modeled it after games of the Aztec and Mayan Indians as well as the cleanup from the “Duck on a Rock” game of his youth (he remembered throwing the rocks back in the bucket between rounds was as fun as the game itself.) That day, he asked his class to play a match that was 9 versus 9-- using a soccer ball and two peach baskets. The players could not move with the ball: they had to pass it, without dribbling around or past the opponents, as is common today. The peach baskets were closed, and balls had to be retrieved manually (using a ladder). Later they cut a small hole in the bottom of the peach basket and poked the ball out using a stick. Only in 1906 were metal hoops, nets and boards introduced.

Someone proposed to call it “Naismith Game”, but he answered "We have a ball and a basket: why don’t we call it basketball?” So they did; the world of sports was never the same again.

Naismith took the challenge to do something new, fresh and exciting—he took the dare and made something fresh for life. Maybe we need to hear that same challenge again today from Jesus Christ—“Create something new, fresh and exciting that will make the world a better place.” Jesus once said, “Behold, I am making everything new…. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 21: 5-6).

If he is making everything new that means he’s doing it for us, in us and through us. So don't be afraid to make the world a better place!

Scott Sager