McGill Tribune

Sports

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Take a moment and think about the complexity of any given sport: all the intricate rules that have evolved over the years to make that sport what it is today. It seems fitting, then, that it is impossible to identify a single inventor for most sports. Baseball's background is shrouded in mystery. Football evolved from rugby, whose origins in Scotland are largely unknown. Variations of soccer were played in hundreds of countries for centuries. Hockey developed from shinny, which inherently lacks rules.

There is, however, one glaring exception to this rule. One sport was invented by a single man-a McGill graduate-who devised a game, wrote 13 rules for it, and called it "Basket Ball." But despite his unique position as the inventor of one of the most popular sports in the world, McGill alumnus James Naismith and his many accomplishments remain relatively unknown.



Small town roots

Naismith was born to John Naismith and Margaret Young near Almonte, Ontario, on November 6, 1861. His parents died of typhoid fever when he was nine years old, and when his grandmother died in 1872, he and his two siblings were left to be raised by his uncle. Academics did not suit Naismith, and he dropped out of high school in 1877 to pursue a career as a lumberjack.

"He was good at [being a lumberjack]," said Naismith's grandson, Stuart Naismith. "[But one day] he was in the saloon having a drink of whisky, and somebody turned around and said, 'You're Margaret Young's boy, aren't you? ... She'd roll over in her grave if she could see you now, drinking.' So he put down the whisky and never touched another drop as long as he lived."

Naismith reentered high school soon after that incident, and with the tutelage of Almonte High School Principal P. C. McGregor, started on the path to the ministry.

"McGregor said, 'Go out and serve your fellow man,'" said John Gosset, former executive director of the Naismith Basketball Foundation and Museum in Almonte. "Naismith thought that Christianity would put him in the best position to be a positive role model."

Naismith's uncle pleaded with him to remain on the family farm, but with a desire to serve his fellow man and hopes of eventually becoming a minister, Naismith enrolled at McGill University in 1883. It was in Montreal, on McGill's rugby pitch, where Naismith began to integrate the two spheres that would dominate his life's work: athletics and religion.



The athletic theologian

In his first year at McGill, Naismith was watching a rugby game from the sidelines when the McGill centre left the game with a broken nose.

"The coach looked up and saw him standing on the sideline," said Stuart Naismith. "So he said, 'Naismith, you get in here and play centre.' So he went in and played centre. He played very well, so they made him part of the team."

Naismith was the starting centre in McGill's next game-against Queen's University-and in every subsequent rugby game for seven years. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in 1887, and then entered Montreal's Presbyterian College (which is affiliated with McGill to this day) to become an ordained minister.

During his seven years at McGill, Naismith made a name for himself both on and off the field. He won the Wicksteed Gold Medal in 1887 as McGill's top athlete, and was named director of physical training in 1889. He took his childhood friend R. Tait McKenzie under his wing as an assistant director. McKenzie-who is now regarded as the "father of physical education" after having pioneered the field at the University of Pennsylvania-succeeded his mentor when Naismith left Montreal in 1890. McKenzie eventually became McGill's medical director of physical training.

Naismith also began to show his creative tendencies while at McGill.

"He is credited with [creating] the first football helmet," said Stuart Naismith of his grandfather. "He had cauliflower ears-he was a boxer as well as a [rugby] player-so he took a soccer ball and hollowed it out, and made a helmet out of it to protect his ears."

Though he is well remembered for his athletic achievements at McGill, Naismith's focus was on his theological studies. His involvement in both departments angered his fellow theologians, who frowned upon the violent nature of rugby and lacrosse. But Naismith's continued involvement in athletics paid off, as he eventually found a means of connecting sports and the ministry.

During one rugby game in his final year at Presbyterian College, a player swore in frustration at the outcome of one play. He turned around, saw Naismith, and apologized, saying, "I beg your pardon, Jim; I forgot you were there." Naismith's status as a theology student, as well as the level of respect he had garnered from the student body, had inspired a sincere apology from his fellow player.

"[That moment] was a big influence in his life," said Gosset. "It made him realize that if he combined the attributes of his ministerial training and sport, then he could influence a greater number of people. It was one of those things that sparked something in him that he always kept close. As an adult, when he graduated from McGill … he always maintained those two worlds-athletics and the pulpit-because he could see how they could influence a greater circle of people."

This realization led to an interest in the Young Men's Christian Academy movement, which had roots in Montreal since the mid-1800s. Naismith was intrigued by the "Muscular Christianity" movement, which the YMCA taught in conjunction with its athletics classes. The secretary of the YMCA in Montreal, D.A. Budge, invited Naismith to come to Springfield College in Massachusetts.

"Naismith wanted to pursue the YMCA work in Springfield," said Gosset. "At Springfield College, they brought in what they viewed as potential secretaries who would open branches of the YMCA across America. He went to train and become a YMCA leader."



From theory to practice

In Springfield, as an assignment from his professor and mentor Luther Gulick, Naismith was given two weeks to create a new game that could help revitalize student interest in the athletic program.

Naismith began with his memories of a game he had played as a child in Almonte called "duck on a rock." Each player would try to knock a small stone (the duck) off a large rock from a given distance. The tossing motion and coordination of "duck on a rock" served as the foundation for basketball. Naismith originally envisioned two 18 by 18-inch boxes as the goals, which would be on the floor, as the rock was in his childhood game.

"Naismith worked on the rules for 12 or 13 days, and it finally came into his head one night," said Ian Naismith, another of Naismith's grandsons. "He always told my dad that the first game of basketball was played in his bed the night before. He was struggling. He went downstairs at 11:15 in the morning-the first class was at 11:30-and had the secretary type up the rules. And as she was typing, he went and found [the janitor] Mr. Stebbins. … If it hadn't been for Mr. Stebbins, who didn't have any 18 by 18-inch boxes-he only had peach baskets in the basement of the YMCA-the game would have been called 'boxball,' because that was basically his vision."

Naismith realized soon after that if the basket were placed on the floor, physical contact-an element that he tried to rid from the game-would be encouraged, and that scoring would be nearly impossible, as one player could easily block the entire goal. So he put the baskets on a railing about 10 feet above the ground-at the same height that basketball rims are placed today.

"The problem was, the ball wouldn't pass through because of the diameter [of the boxes]," said Ian Naismith. "Everyone says that Naismith was smart enough to put the baskets up on the railing, but he wasn't smart enough to cut the bottoms out. But there were two reasons that he didn't cut the bottoms out. Number one, the ball wouldn't have gone through anyhow, because of the diameter. And number two, because the boxes were so flimsy, all their strength was in the base. So he left the bottom of the baskets in."

It didn't take long for the game to spread after it was introduced to Naismith's class of YMCA secretaries-in-training on December 21, 1891. With Gulick's promotional help and the YMCA's budding popularity, young men were playing basketball throughout North America within a few years. The game thrived as a gentler alternative to the contact sports of the time, such as wrestling, rugby, and boxing. Naismith's reputation grew steadily with the sport.

Originally, players couldn't move with the ball-they could only pass it-and committing three fouls in a row would result in two points being awarded to the other team. But the game, like any sport, evolved over time. Across the country, Naismith was heralded as the undisputed inventor of the sport, to the extent that there were demands to call the game "Naismith Ball." However, Naismith's humility prevailed.

Naismith remained in Springfield as a physical education professor until 1895, when he departed for Colorado to head up Denver's new YMCA facility. But before he left, he inspired the invention of yet another sport.


Discover which other sport can trace its roots back to James Naismith, and learn about the rest of his achievements, in part two of the Tribune's profile on Naismith next week.