Dr. James Naismith —- the Man
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DR. JAMES NAISMITH —- THE MAN Stories and anecdotes about the man who gave basketball to the world A Paper Presented at the NCPEAM Convention Portland, Oregon December, 1970 By Henry A. Shenk The University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas DR. JAMES NAISMITH 1861 - 1939 Doctor of Medicine Ordained Minister Professor of Physical Education Inventor of Basketball Preface Dr. James Naismith, inventor of the game of basketball, was a professor of Physical Education at the University of Kansas from 1898 until his death in 1939. The author of this article was one of Dr. Naismith's students from 1924 until 1928, and assisted Naismith with giving incoming freshmen men their physical examinations in the fall of 1927. Many of the stories in this paper are either from memory or are anecdotes related by others. I wish to express my deepest appreciation to Mr. Jack Hammlg, one of our former students who graciously gave his permission to use such material as I wished from his unpublished Master's thesis. I am also indebted to Mr. Duke D'Ambra, Lawrence photographer, and to my colleagues, Dr. Joie Stapleton, Professor Don Henry, Dr. Forrest C. Allen and Dr. Ed Elbel. I am particularly indebted to Dr. Elbel, a colleague of Dr. Naismith for many years, who gave invaluable help and whose sketch of Dr. Naismith is included with the paper. It is my hope that, through this effort, a glimpse at the character and personality of Dr. Naismith may be handed down, and that some of the Naismith story, heretofore untold, will be saved for posterity. Perhaps his basic philosophy of clean living through athletics will be an inspiration to young people entering the physical education profession as it has been to me. Henry A. Shenk Lawrence, Kansas December, 1970 DR. JAMES NAISMITH — THE MAN Stories and anecdotes about the man who gave basketball to the world The little town of Almonte, Ontario, Canada was destined to give to the physical education profession two of its greatest leaders. The one, James Naismith, was born November 6, 1861. He gave basketball to the world--one of the few instances where a man has deliberately set out to invent a new game and was successful. The magnificent gymnasia, field houses, and basketball courts to be found in every civilized country in the world are fitting monuments to Naismith and his game. The other leader, R. Taite McKenzie, was born in Almonte on May 26, 1867, more than six years after Naismith's birth. McKenzie not only was a leading physical educator, orthopedist, physician and educator whose book, Exercise in Education and Medicine is a collector's item but he was also one of the world's great sculptors, who specialized in sculpturing athletes in action. Naismith and McKenzie had many things in common besides having been born and growing to manhood in the same Canadian town. They were each of Scotch ancestry; they each lost their parents at an early age; each was a Presbyterian; each attended and was graduated from McGill University, where McKenzie succeeded Naismith as Director of "Gymnasium"; each became an M.D.; each was a fine athlete and leading physical educator; each made a significant and lasting contribution to the life and culture of the world. Naismith had a childhood filled with grief and frustration. Three days before his ninth birthday, his father died. On his birthday he lost his mother. After the death of his parents he went to live with his maternal grandmother and an unmarried uncle, Peter Young. After about three years his grandmother died and Jim, his sister and brother were reared by the uncle. 2. Jim started his education in high school while working in lumber camps in the winter and helping his uncle on the farm in the summer. Then he felt that he should help his uncle more so he dropped out of high school and worked. After two years at the insistence of his uncle, he decided to go back to high school so that he might finish up and go to college. He skipped a grade, took the Latin and Greek examinations required for college entrance and, in 1884 entered McGill University. His work on the farm and lumber camps had given young Jim a strong body. He was attracted to athletics and became a member of the rugby football team. He played rugby for three years. He also played soccer and Lacrosse. At the same time, he had certain ideas on the way a man ought to live his life. And then an incident occurred which created the focus of his entire career. One day during football practice at McGill, something went wrong, and the guard next to Naismith, who had gained respect for Jim's ideals, let loose a stream of profanity. Suddenly the player stopped and exclaimed, "Excuse me, Jim I'm sorry". Naismith suddenly realized that here was the way to connect the two, clean living through athletics. With these ideas in the back of his mind, Naismith was graduated from McGill in 1887 and was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian church. He stayed at McGill three years after graduation and preached in a small local church. On one occasion in a bruising game of football on Saturday, he received two very black eyes and presented a shocking appearance to his congregation when he appeared in the pulpit the next day. Still imbued with the idea that he could develop clean living through sport, in 1890 Naismith entered what was then known as the School for Christian Workers in Springfield, Massachusetts. Here he also taught Physical Education to a class of prospective Y.M.C.A. secretaries. The story of how Naismith, after promptings from Dr. Luther Gulick, then head of the Physical Training Department of the college, invented the game of basketball, has been often 3. repeated. But few know that we might be playing box-ball today, if the janitor, whom Naismith had dispatched to find two boxes, had been able to find them instead of coming back with two peach baskets and wondering if they would do. Naismith accepted them reluctantly and so we have been playing basketball instead of box-ball ever since. The height of the baskets, too, was determined more or less by chance. The running track, which circled the college gym, was approximately 10 feet in height and that is where Naismith hung the first baskets, so that is the height they have remained ever since. He had considered setting the baskets on the floor at either end of the gym, but then he reasoned that a guard could sit on the basket and thus effectively prevent all scoring! Graduates of Springfield College took Naismith's game of basketball with them to all parts of the country. It caught on immediately but was for a time considered something of a sissy game. Within five years time the girls were playing the game on an intercollegiate level. From Naismith's scrapbook comes this interesting item: The first intercollegiate basketball game between two women's teams was held between Stanford and California in 1896. Only women were allowed as spectators. The participants wore middies, bloomers and long black hose. Midway in the first half, one of the goals came down. A male janitor came in to fix it. The California girls ran for cover but the brazen Stanfords hussies strutted about the court while the janitor was putting the goal up. At Springfield, Naismith was credited not only with developing the game of basketball, but also with a lesser known achievement of inventing the first head gear for football. It came about in this manner. He was the regular center on Amos Alonzo Stagg's "Stubby Christians", the Springfield football team organized in the fall of 1890 from the 57 students then in attendance at the college.-' Stagg was the one player who had played 4. American football but Naismith and another student had played rugby in Canada. The entire squad had only fifteen players and usually the eleven starters had to play the entire game. The name "Stubby Christians" was the admiring appellation given the Springfield team by New York sports writers after a game with Yale in Madison Square Garden in the fall of 1890. Yale was a powerhouse in Eastern football circles and the ferocious battle that Stagg's men waged, as Springfield outplayed Yale in the first half, won the hearts of the Eastern writers. Naismith played center on the team. On one occasion, years later, he told his class about how he came to develop the head gear. As a center his head was getting sore and he was beginning to develop a cauliflower ear. In order to protect his head and ears, he took an old rugby football and cut it in two. He pulled one end of the ball over his head and ears and tied the two flaps under his chin. When young Naismith appeared on the practice field in this contraption, Stagg snorted, "What are you going to do, butt like a goat?" Naismith's reply has been lost. However, a picture of Naismith wearing this first head gear is to be found in the collection of Mr. Duke D'Ambra, a Lawrence photographer. Helmets have been an important part of the protective equipment of football for years and unless someone can successfully refute the claim, Naismith must be given credit for inventing the football helmet as well as the game of basketball. Following four years at Springfield, Naismith became Physical Training Director of the Y.M.C.A.