How Was Basketball Invented as a Game for Winter Days Indoors?

The Problem Was Restless Students and a Winter That Kept Them Indoors

Basketball was invented in the winter of 1891–92 at a training school for physical education in Springfield, Massachusetts. The school is now Springfield College. The inventor, James Naismith, was a 31-year-old instructor and graduate student there [1].

Luther Gulick, who led the school’s physical education work, challenged him to make “a new indoor game, one that would be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play in the winter and by artificial light” [1]. Many existing games did not fit. Outdoor sports were hard in the cold, and rough ones were a poor idea in a small room. Years later, in a 1939 radio interview, Naismith described the setting as students stuck indoors in a snowy Massachusetts winter [4].

The Goals Were Peach Baskets Because Nothing Better Was Handy

Naismith needed something to throw the ball at. He asked the school janitor for a couple of boxes. The janitor came back with two peach baskets instead [1].

Naismith nailed one to the lower rail of the gymnasium balcony at each end of the room. That rail happened to be ten feet (about 3 meters) above the floor [1]. Basketball hoops are still set at ten feet today.

The ball was an ordinary soccer ball. Each team had nine players, three forwards, three centers and three backs, and the game started when two centers met at mid-court and Naismith tossed the ball between them [1]. Sources give the date of that first game as December 1891, and one gives it as December 21 [2].

The Rule Against Running With the Ball Kept Early Games Gentle

Naismith’s first idea, he said, was almost no rules at all, and that went badly. In his 1939 interview he recalled that players tackled and kicked each other, so he added rules to calm things down [4].

The result was a list of thirteen rules, printed in January 1892 in the school paper, The Triangle [3]. Two of them explain most of what was different about the early game.

• No running with the ball. A player had to throw it from the spot where he caught it, with some allowance for stopping if he was moving fast [3]. This is why the ball travelled by passing. Players could not simply carry it down the court, and the dribbling we know today was not part of the first game.
• No shoving, holding or tripping. A first offense counted as a foul, and a second kept the player out until the next goal [3]. Compare that with the tackling Naismith remembered, and you can see the rules were written to fix a real problem.

The rest was simple. A goal was scored by getting the ball into the basket and having it stay there. A game was two 15-minute halves with five minutes of rest, and the side with more goals won [3]. Dribbling is said to have become common by the middle of the 1890s, along with a rule against dribbling twice in a row [5].

A Basket With a Bottom Meant the Ball Did Not Come Back Out by Itself

There was one more practical problem. A peach basket has a bottom. After a goal the ball sat inside, ten feet up, and the game could not go on until somebody got it out. According to the usual account, the bottom was soon cut away so that the ball could be poked out with a long stick [5].

Later the baskets were replaced with a hoop and a net that the ball could fall through, which sped up play [2]. The simple basket gave way to the equipment we know because the people playing kept running into the same small interruptions.

The Backboard Was Added Because Spectators Leaned Over the Balcony

The baskets hung from a balcony, and the balcony had an audience. Spectators began leaning over to swat shots away from the basket. The backboard was brought in to stop that [2]. Fans could get so involved that chicken wire was put up around some courts, which is one reason players were once called “cagers” [2].

So the goal, the height and the backboard all came from the rooms the game was first played in, rather than from a plan.

In Short, Basketball Was a Design Brief Answered With What Was on Hand

Putting it together: a teacher had to invent a gentle, easy game for a gym in winter. Peach baskets on a balcony rail became the goals, the ten-foot height came from the building, and rules against running and rough play kept the game safe in a small space. Equipment and rules then changed whenever an early problem showed itself. The game spread quickly through the YMCA network, and Springfield College says it became an official winter sport by 1905 [1].

Try It Yourself: Play the First Rule With a Sock Ball and a Laundry Basket

You will need a pair of rolled-up socks, a laundry basket or wastebasket, a clear indoor space with nothing breakable, and two or three players. Keep the basket on the floor or a low chair. Nobody should climb on furniture or throw hard.

1. Set the rule. Nobody may walk or run while holding the sock ball. You must throw it from where you caught it, as in Naismith’s rule.
2. Play for a few minutes. Notice where players stand and how passes get to the person nearest the basket.
3. Then remove the rule and let people walk with the ball. See what changes about who gets the ball and how crowded the space feels.

If you want to read more, the 1892 rules and the Springfield College page in the sources are good places to start.

Sources

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