Do you know the birthplace of basketball?

China
December 24, 2006 11:47pm CST
While everyone who has watched the popular American Show "The Simpsons "will have heard of Springfield,not many people also know that this US city was the birthplace of Basketball just 120 years ago.In comparison to soccer,which is usually played outdoors with 22 players,basketball is often played indoors with two teams of 5 players. The object of the game is to throw the ball into the opposing team's "basket",and players can move with the ball by rolling or bouncing it.
6 responses
@dhaeo_09 (1007)
• Philippines
9 Jan 07
basketball - Basketball is the hippiest game in the world
In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian physician of McGill University and minister on the faculty of a college for YMCA professionals (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he modified a childhood game titled "Duck on a rock" and wrote the basic rules.[1] He nailed a peach basket onto the 10-foot (3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom. Therefore balls scored into the basket had to be poked out with a long dowel each time. Naismith's new game is quite similar to the game of team handball, which had already been invented in the early 1890s. Women's basketball began in 1892 at Smith College when Senda Berenson, a physical education teacher, modified Naismith's rules for women. The first official basketball game was played in the YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with nine players, on a court just half the size of a present-day National Basketball Association (NBA) court. "Basket ball", the name suggested by one of Naismith's students, was popular from the beginning. Basketball's early adherents were dispatched to YMCAs throughout the United States, and it quickly spread through the USA and Canada. By 1896, it was well established at several women's colleges. While the YMCA was responsible for initially developing and spreading the game, within a decade it discouraged the new sport, as rough play and rowdy crowds began to detract from the YMCA's primary mission. However, other amateur sports clubs, colleges, and professional clubs quickly filled the void. In the years before World War I, the Amateur Athletic Union and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (forerunner of the NCAA) vied for control over the rules for the game. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball. The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, searching for a ball that would be more visible to players and spectators alike, introduced the orange ball that is now in common use. Dribbling, the bouncing of the ball up and down while moving, was not part of the original game except for the "bounce pass" to teammates. Passing the ball was the primary means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the asymmetric shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a major part of the game around the 1950s as manufacturing improved the ball shape. Basketball, netball, volleyball, and lacrosse are the only ball games which have been identified as being invented by North Americans. Other ball games, such as baseball and Canadian football, have Commonwealth of Nations, European, Asian or African connections. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball#College_basketball_and_early_leagues
• China
9 Jan 07
oh,it is very detailed,we will know more about it !
@wierdo (248)
• Pakistan
6 Jan 07
I didnt knew that .. its cool!
• China
8 Jan 07
lol...yes,it's cool!
@Hamlet333 (724)
• Pakistan
27 Dec 06
thats gr8 to know.Thanks.
• China
31 Dec 06
thanks for your response!
@kaniam (582)
• India
26 Dec 06
no i dont know?
• China
26 Dec 06
Do you know now with my topic?
• United States
19 Apr 07
Wow. Thanks. I didn't know about this before. Now I know. I don't really like basketball, but this is interesting to know. Thanks.
@bimmer999 (1159)
• Philippines
27 Dec 06
now i know :)
• China
31 Dec 06
ok.