Basketball Essay

543 Words2 Pages

A man named Dr. James Naismith created the game of basketball in 1891. Naismith created basketball as an assignment from Dr. Gulick, the head of a YMCA in Springfield Massachusetts, as an indoor game that used brainpower rather than skill. The first game was held on Jan. 20 1892 and consisted of, “Eighteen players, 13 rules, two peach baskets, and 1-0 final score” (e) as Naismith said afterwards. Naismith also said “ the game was a success from the time the first ball was thrown up” (f) but he didn’t know how big the game would become. Equipment and rules created by Naismith were generally the same although because of the time period, they were never exactly the same, especially for the females.
A physical Education teacher named Senda Berenson thought that basketball was “unladylike” and adapted the rules to make it appropriate for women in 1892 (a). Berenson was from the nearby Smith College and she was the first to change the rules so they allowed women to play. She also became known as “the mother of all basketball” for adapting the sport to women’s standards. One of the major r...

More about Basketball Essay

Open Document