This is a historical-fiction, short-story written by Rob Brannon. This story is based on the true story told by Dr. Naismith of his invention of basketball and his interaction with one of his young men, Frank Mahan, who first played his game invention that fateful day of December 21, 1891 at the Springfield, Massechussats YMCA. :
Hello! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Frank Mahan, and I lived in Springfield, Massachusetts back in 1891. I grew up in North Carolina, but then moved to Massachusetts as a teenager. One day I decided to join the PE class at the local YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) in Springfield. In the summer time, this PE class was really fun. We played Football, Rugby and Soccer for many fun-filled hours. It was great! However, as winter arrived here in the northeast, it got too cold to play the outdoor sports and since there were no indoor sports back then, the PE class at the YMCA got really boring!
Our PE teacher that winter at the YMCA was a very interesting young man named, James Naismith. Like me, he did not grow up in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was originally from Canada. However, he moved to Springfield to help kids like me learn "clean living through sports" at the YMCA. You see, Mr. Naismith was not only a college trained PE teacher, but he was also a Presbyterian minister. I found Jim Naismith easy to talk with. He looked like the highly moral—but in no sense stuffy—man that he was. His blue eyes were kind, with crinkles at the corners. He had a heavy mustache, which looked prickly. His head was a bit square, as was his stocky, straight body. He had cauliflower ears, squashed from much boxing. He was a strong, tough man that would sometimes show up to class with a couple of shiners (black-eyes) that he earned from a rough game of football.³ I rather liked Mr. Naismith and respected him, but I tried not to let anyone know it because I had to protect my rowdy, “tough guy” image. My peers looked up to me as a ring-leader in our boisterous class of neighborhood ruffians who made up this YMCA PE class.
Rumor had it that Mr. Naismith had been challenged by his boss to invent an indoor game for kids to play in the winter. It didn't take long to discover that the rumor was true. Mr. Naismith kept experimenting on our PE class with several goofy and unworkable games based on bits and pieces of Rugby, Football, Soccer and Lacrosse. It was a miserable joke being a guinea-pig for his game ideas!
Then one day it happened! The unexpected, the miraculous! Let me take you with me on that fateful day in the world of sports history: On that cold winter day, I was the first young man to arrive in the gym. I was smiling as I thought of the kid that I had just popped with my rolled up towel in the locker room. However, as I looked around the gym that day, my smile fell off my face as fast as it had come. I looked around that gym, and I saw the signs of another silly sports-experiment being planned for my PE class by Mr. Naismith. There on the walls hung two peach-baskets nailed onto the balcony too high to reach. When I looked at Mr. Naismith, I knew that my conclusions were correct. He looked uncharacteristically nervous and insecure. Yes, he was trying again to sell us on one of his foolish little game ideas. So, I said to him sarcastically, “Huh! Another new game!”¹
He looked down at his feet when I said this, as if I had just broken his fragile confidence with my statement. I felt a strange pleasure in causing him pain, but at the same time, I felt upset for hurting him. After all, he really was a nice guy that seemed to care more about us boys than even his ambition to invent a game. After an awkward pause, he looked up and stared at me directly in the eyes and smiled as he tacked the 13 rules of his game onto the bulletin board in front of me. Soon the whole class arrived. With renewed confidence, Mr. Naismith somehow mustered the courage to explain his game.
As for the game rules, they were weird! Really weird! He read us these 13 silly little rules about how to play a game where you throw a ball into a couple of old peach-baskets nailed to the wall! Ha! Not me! I am not going to play this idiotic game! But, then I reluctantly decided to give-it-a-go because there was no other games to play indoors on that winter day.
With a sparkle in his eyes, Mr. Naismith threw the ball into the air as I tried to tap it to my team. For the next 2 hours we learned this “peach-basket ball game”, and we all became instantly mesmerized by the amazing dynamics of the game. The challenge for each team was to throw a soccer ball from player-to-player in order to ultimately score a point by arching the ball into one of the peach-baskets nailed to the wall.
To my great surprise, I loved the game! I didn't want to stop playing! There was only 5 seconds left in our final game. I yelled for the ball. They passed me the ball. I stood at half-court and shot the ball at the basket just before Mr. Naismith blew his whistle signaling the end of the game. The ball arched high into the air. All eyes watched with excitement as the ball dropped into the peach-basket for a dramatic last-second winning shot! And the rest of the story is history. I was now deeply in love with this exciting new game invention!
As we played this new game, week-after-week, hundreds of people from the community would come to watch us play! It became the craze of the town. I hate to confess it, but I stole Mr. Naismith's 13 original rules that he had tacked to the bulletin board in the gym. I thought that these original rules would be a great souvenir to have as game was becoming so famous. However, my love for Mr. Naismith, and his brilliant new sports invention drove me to return the stolen rules to him. He was so relieved to have his souvenir-rules back, and he thanked me instead of rebuking me. Caught up in the emotion of the moment, I declared to him: “Mr. Naismith, you should name your new game: “Naismith Ball”! However, he laughed and smiled at me as he humbly said, “No, I believe that name would kill any game!” His cunning, yet humble comment reminded me of why I liked him so much. Then all of a sudden, out-of-the-blue came the realization that this game had a basket and a ball as the core equipment of the game. “Eureka!” I blurted out. “Mr. Naismith, I know what you should name your new game! You should call it: “Basket Ball!” As you know, James Naismith really liked my suggestion of the name: “Basketball” and to this day that is what the sport is called.
So, there is my story of how basketball was invented, named and how a creative young preacher/PE teacher changed my life by pouring his love into my life through a sport that the world now calls, “Basketball!”
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References:
1. Naismith, James, Basketball: Its Origin and Development (The University of Nebraska Press, 1996) pages 53-55.
2. Wikipedia, James Naismith, May 19, 2011.
3. Naismith, Grace, Sports Illustrated, article: “Father Basketball”, January 31, 1955; from the www.sportsillustrated.com vault.
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