Through the Johnson County Parks and Recreation Department, I took a day trip Wednesday to Lawrence, Kansas, to tour Kansas University's Allen Fieldhouse and learn about the beginnings of basketball as told by its inventor "Dr. James Naismith."
Impersonated to perfection by Bill Nicks, Dr. Naismith told of growing up in Ontario, and then attending McGill University in Montreal, where he earned a BA in Physical Education. He left McGill to teach physical education at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. The head of the PE Department gave his teachers 14 days to come up with a new game that would provide an "athletic distraction" for the harsh New England winters. Interestingly, Dr. Naismith's goals were to be boxes, but the janitor could only find old peach baskets in the school basement....otherwise would the game have been boxball? Dr. Naismith came up with 13 rules using 474 words (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_basketball#Original_Rules) for the game. (His original copy of those rules are on display at KC's Nelson-Atkins Museum and were recently purchased for $4 million.)
Dr. Naismith was then hired by Kansas University, not as a basketball coach, but as head of the physical education department and chapel director. Later, he did become the basketball coach, and had the only losing record in the school's history. He is also credited with inventing the football helmet. He coached his successor, Forrest "Phog" Allen, for whom KU's fieldhouse is named. Naismith was associated with KU for 40 years and is buried in Lawrence, KS.
