Dr Naismith
The sport of basketball was invented in 1891 by Dr James Naismith, a Canadian physical educator who was living in Massachusetts at the time of the game's invention.
Dr Naismith was born in Almonte, Ontario on November 6th, 1861, the oldest child of 2 Scottish Immigrants. His mother, Margaret Young was born in 1833 and immigrated to Lanark County, Ontario in 1852. His father, John Naismith, was also born in 1833, and left Europe to come to Canada in 1851, he would eventually settle down in Lanark County, where he met, and eventually married Margaret Young.
As a young man, Naismith struggled in school but was a gifted athlete who was strong at farm labour. Naismith was orphaned at a young age, and he spent most of his childhood living with an Aunt and Uncle near Almonte. He Graduated from Almonte High School in 1883.
After graduating high school, Naismith enrolled in McGill University in Montreal, Quebec in 1883. A versatile athlete, Naismith represented McGill in Football, Rugby, Lacrosse, Soccer, and Gymnastics. Naismith earned his BA in Physical Education in 1887. After his education was finished, Naismith taught physical education at McGill between 1887 and 1890.
In 1890, Naismith left Canada to teach at the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts. He invented Basketball in December of 1891, while teaching here.
Between 1895 and 1898, Naismith worked as a PE instructor at the YMCA of Denver in Colorado. In 1898 he took a job as a PE instructor at the University of Kansas and as the schools first Basketball Coach. Naismith coached the Jayhawks Basketball from 1898 to 1907, amassing a record of 55 wins and 60 losses over that period. During that period, he coached Phog Allen, who would go on to coach the Jayhawks for 37 years between 1919 and 1956, and become one of the most famous College Basketball coaches of all time.
From 1909 to 1917 Naismith was a professor at the University of Kansas, thought from 1914 on he was on hiatus as he was serving in the First Kansas Infantry Unit of the United States Military during the First World War. Naismith lived in France for a brief period while working for the YMCA, until returning to the University of Kansas in 1919, where he would serve as the Athletic Director until 1937.
Naismith first married in 1894, to Maude Evelyn Sherman in Springfield. The couple had 5 children together. After Maude passed away in 1937, Naismith remarried to Florence Kincaid in 1939. The marriage did not last long however, as Naismith died the same year, on November 28 1939 in Lawrence, Kansas due to a brain hemorrhage. Dr Naismith was 78 when he died.
Naismith still maintains a great legacy in the sport of basketball. He is perhaps best memorialized by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. This is where the sport's all-time-greats are memorialized. Dr Naismith himself was the Hall's first inductee. Dr Naismith received many other posthumous honours, including inductions in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame.
