James Naismith

Born in 1861 in Ontario, Canada, James Naismith is the inventor of basketball. From a young age it was clear that Naismith was better with his hands than at schoolwork. He became an orphan early on in life and spent most of his life living with his aunt and uncle. He graduated from Almonte High School on 1883 and then went on to enter McGill University located in Montreal, Canada. There, he excelled in sports and earned a BA in physical education (1888). He also graduated from the Presbyterian College in Montreal two years later. In 1891 he became the physical education teacher at McGill, eventually becoming the university's first director of athletics. He later left McGill for Springfield, Massachusetts to become a gym teacher at the YMCA International Training School there.

At the YMCA Naismith was faced by restless kids who were restricted to indoor activities through the extended northern winter. Dr. Luther Gulick, the director of Naismith's YMCA ordered Naismith to create a new indoor sport in two weeks. The sport was to be fair, athletically challenging, but not too rough. Naismith considered three guidelines. He examined popular games like rugby, soccer, lacrosse, football, and hockey. He considered the safest of the games and the most injury causing games and came up with the idea to have a game that let players guard each other but allowed physical contact with the other players.

In December of 1891 the first game was played at the YMCA with Naismith watching on. There were thirteen rules. It was nine on nine. The basketball was a soccer ball and the ball went between two peach baskets, not into one of them. The baskets were approximately ten feet off the ground and though the class wasn't exactly enthusiastic, it quickly became one of the center's most popular games. On March 11, 1892 the first public game of basketball was played in Springfield. Basketball was first played at the Olympics in Berlin, Germany in 1936.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/indexn.shtml#Naismith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Naismith