Canadian-American James Naismith invented basketball.
In 1891, physical education instructor James Naismith created basketball to provide an indoor sport that athletes could play in the winter. Originally, he also introduced basketball as a less injury-prone activity than football.
Throughout the 20th century, the sport gradually gained popularity beyond the International Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Training School. Soon enough, basketball became the global craze that we came to know today.
Basketball borrows its name from peach baskets.
The name of the sport originated from its very first game where Naismith used two half-bushel peach baskets as goals. While there was a lot of running and shooting, there was only one score in the game shot by William R. Chase midcourt.
Some basketball rules came from a children’s game called “Duck on a Rock.”
In this game, a stone is placed on any elevated objects like a tree stump. One player guards it while the other players try to knock the stone off by throwing rocks called “ducks.” This shares similarities with basketball’s offense and defense elements.
People did not have a copy of the rules until January 15, 1892.
The newly invented game soon had word spread out and compelled associations to write Naismith for a copy. Eventually, Naismith officially released basketball’s rules in the January 1892 issue of the YMCA Training School’s campus publication Triangle.