This Day in History: Basketball

The "This Day in History" part of my Google customized homepage was great today--on December 15th, 1891, James Naismith invented the game of basketball. It reads:

James Naismith Invents Basketball (1891)
"Looking for a way to relieve the boredom of his students during indoor gym class, Naismith nailed a peach basket to each end of a gymnasium, created 2 teams of 9 players, and thus invented basketball. Basketball was inspired in part by a game Naismith had played as a child, called Duck-on-a-Rock. One month later, Naismith published rules for the game, which did not allow for what is known today as dribbling; players had to move the ball up the court via a pass. ollowing each "goal" a jump ball was taken in the middle of the court. Although it wasn't a rule, players would commonly use the dust of coal to cover the palms of their hands, allowing them to get a better grip on the ball. The coal palm was used up until the early 1930s when the Depression hit, making the raw materials very pricey. Also interesting was the rule surrounding balls out of bounds - the first player to retrieve the ball received possession."

Today I honor you, Mr. Naismith, because I don't know what life would be like without this great sport. Everyone in my family played basketball, and my dad used to coach it when he was a history teacher (before he became a journalist).


Also in honor of this post, I salute the Duke men's basketball team on their excellent season so far. They lost some great players (like Sheldon Williams) but they've got some great players still there (like DeMarcus Nelson). Here's their record so far:

Duke 96, Shaw University 45
Duke 92, N. C. Central 63
Duke 86, Columbia 43
Duke 72, Georgia Southern 48
Duke 75, UNC Greensboro 48
Duke 71, Air Force 56
Duke 62, Marquette 73 (our only loss so far)
Duke 75, Davidson 47
Duke 54, Indiana 51
Duke 61, Georgetown 52
Duke 57, Holy Cross 45
Duke 69, George Mason 53

Keep up the good work, gentlemen.