A teacher named James Naismith invented basketball in 1891. It began at a YMCA training school. It was made up as a game to play indoors in the winter. At the 1891 Springfield school, Naismith's game was played with peach baskets, and an attendant on a ladder retrieved the ball after a made basket.
The college rules changed quickly. A rule from 1895-96 changed a field goal from three points to two, and a free throw from three points to one. Backboards were installed in college rules in the 1896-97 season. In 1906-07 the college free-throw line was moved from 20 feet to 15 feet, and in 1908-09 a dribbler in college basketball was allowed to shoot. In the 1959-60 college season an orange ball was permitted. Before that the only colors allowed were natural tan or yellow.
Senda Berenson, a teacher at Smith College, ran the first women's college basketball game, and she created new rules for women to discourage roughness. She divided the court into three equal sections and required players to stay in their section.
Basketball made its Olympic debut as a demonstration sport at the 1904 Games in St. Louis, before it became an Olympic medal event for men in 1936. The first Olympic basketball games were played on August 7, 1936, in Berlin, outdoors on clay. James Naismith was invited to throw the first jump ball and to hand out the medals.
The 1936 Olympic final between the United States and Canada was played in a downpour. Just eight points were scored in the second half, and the United States won 19-8 for the first Olympic basketball gold medal.
The first NCAA men's tournament was held in 1939. In the final, the Oregon Ducks, 29-5 on the season, beat Ohio State 46-33.
The league that became the NBA began in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America, and took the name NBA in 1949, and the BAA launched with 11 teams, divided into two divisions, for its first season in 1946-47. Its first game was played on November 1, 1946, in Toronto: the New York Knickerbockers beat the Toronto Huskies, 68-66.
Words to know
- attendant: a helper
- retrieved: got back
- downpour: heavy rain
- dribbler: ball bouncer
- tournament: a contest
