Today’s Google Doodle is all about Dr. James Naismith…
It all began in the winter of 1891 with an idea to occupy his students who were being a little unruly during a New England blizzard. He brought the students to the gym and split them into two teams. He then handed them an old soccer ball and told them to work together to put the ball into the an opposing team’s peach basket which had been nailed to posts at opposite ends of the gym.
He blew a whistle, and the first game of basketball had begun.
The first game had some problems, like outright violence and physical altercations, but in the end, Naismith gave in to his students requests for more… and he unveiled a game with more rules, including one very important one: No running with the ball.
Ten years later basketball was being played all over the country. The sport debuted at the Berlin Summer Olympics in 1936.
And what became of Prof. Naismith?
Well, he went on to earn his medical degree and was hired by The University of Kansas in 1898 as the school’s first basketball coach and first athletic director.
