Date of Award

8-1955

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Degree Discipline

Physical Education

Abstract

Basketball was originated in 1892 at the International Young lien's Christian Association Training School, Springfield, Massachusetts by Dr. James A. Naismith and Lather H. Gulick. The game was originated because it was felt that there was a need for an indoor game for the winter, as football is a fall sport and baseball is a summer sport.

The original game was played using peach baskets for goals. As each goal "was made the ball had to be retrieved by the use of a ladder. The first ball used for the game was a soccer football, due to its bouncing qualities. Eighteen boys, nine on each team were first used because Dr. Naismith had eighteen boys in his Young Men's Christian Association Training School.

Basketball attracts many spectators. Weather never causes a postponement, and spectators have all of the comforts of home. The game probably owes its popularity to the comforts it offers to spectators and the fact games can be played day or night. Basketball has grown so much since its existence that some of the high school contests now draw as high as fifteen thousand fans for one game. It is estimated that at the present time there are between seventy-five and one hundred million people who attend basketball games of one type or another in the United States alone, during the period from December 1 to March 1.

Committee Chair/Advisor

J. C. Mitchem

Committee Member

J. C. Mitchem

Publisher

Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical College

Rights

© 2021 Prairie View A & M University

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Date of Digitization

2/16/2022

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

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