Dr. James Naismith
When you first think of Kansas you think of farmland, but when you think of Kansas sports you automatically think of basketball. Not many people know that KU was one of the first ever basketball teams or that they were coached by inventor of basketball Dr. James Naismith. Naismith was born November 6th, 1861 in Ontario, Canada. Naismith was an orphan by age 9. For education he went to McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. After serving as McGill’s Athletic Director, he moved to a YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891.
Wanting to have a sport to play indoors during Massachusetts’ cold winters, Dr. James Naismith he invented basketball. "History of Basketball." According to Basketball was inspired by a game Naismith played when he was a young boy in school called “Duck on a Rock.” The way you played “Duck on a Rock” was by putting a rock (aka the duck) on a big rock then throwing other smaller rocks at the “duck.” The first basketball game was not played with hoops or even a basketball! It was played with a peach basket and a soccer ball, every time the ball was put up in the peach basket they would have to get a stick to get it out!
By now you are probably wondering what does James Naismith have to do with Kansas? Naismith moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1898, after getting even more education at the University Of Colorado. Naismith came to Kansas University to teach but he soon became the head coach of Kansas’ basketball team. One of Naismith’s players was the one and only Phog Allen. Once Allen was done playing for Naismith he became an assistant coach for KU and once Naismith retired Allen took over. Phog Allen was an amazing head coach in fact his name is used in many thing like “Beware Of The Phog” and the court that KU plays on is called “Allen Fieldhouse”
Dr. James Naismith will forever be known in not just Kansas’ history, but the whole world's. He forever changed sports as a whole. If Naismith didn’t come to the University Of Kansas then the original rules of the game wouldn’t be located there nor would KU’s basketball team be that well known.
"James Naismith." - Kansapedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
"History of Basketball." Basketball History: Dr. James Naismith, Basketball Inventor, Founder, KU Basketball: Kansas History Web Sites. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
"Kansas Memory." James Naismith -. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
