Real cause for hoopla: Inventor of basketball brought faith to game

Another basketball season is beginning. Each year at this time I wonder what Dr. James Naismith would think of the game that has evolved from the one he began with two peach baskets on 10-foot poles at the YMCA school in Springfield, Mass., in 1891. It was a far cry from today's game.

Naismith was a Presbyterian minister. He was born and grew up on a farm in Ontario, Canada, where he learned the meaning of hard work, sawing wood and driving horses for plowing. He was a sports lover, a hunter and a fisherman.

When he entered McGill University in Montreal, he planned to become a minister.

He was an exceptionally fine student and an all-around athlete with special skills as a gymnast.

After Naismith graduated, his intellectual and athletic skills were recognized, and he was called by the university to be director of athletics. He used that salary to pay expenses for his ministry studies at nearby Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Naismith had an insatiable hunger for learning and ultimately earned 11 degrees--one of them in music.

Ministering through sports

Shortly after he finished his schooling, he decided to become a different kind of minister--one who would teach Christian living through sports. He came to the United States and entered the YMCA School in Springfield as a member of the athletic staff.

Dr. Luther Gulich ran the physical-training department. He felt that the young men at the school were tired of the same winter activities: calisthenics, drills and throwing a medicine ball around. He encouraged Naismith, 29, to devise a game for winter months.

Adapting a game he had played at home, Naismith mounted two peach baskets on poles, divided students into two teams of nine, tossed them a soccer ball and the great game of basketball was invented in December 1891, 109 years ago!

Some wanted to call the game "Naismith-ball," but with characteristic humility, Naismith suggested a better name for the sport would be basketball.

It took a long time to develop today's rules for the game. An old drawing shows a janitor standing on top of a ladder, ready to pick the ball out of the basket when a goal was made. It was dangerous, with 18 young men running around the ladder. Eventually a hoop and net replaced the peach baskets, and the janitor's safety was assured.

For some time, it was all right for an even larger number of players to be in the game at the same time. At Cornell University, for instance, where the game became an instant hit, more than 100 players were on the court. Finally, in 1895, the standard five-person team was established.

Soon after the turn of the century, the sport gained in popularity at a rapid pace. Hundreds of high schools and colleges made basketball a regular part of their athletic programs.

In 1899, Naismith was called to the University of Kansas in Lawrence to become director for athletics. He brought with him the game he had invented, saying he envisioned basketball not as a competitive sport, but as a game to be played primarily for fun and exercise.

When Forrest "Phog" Allen was selected to coach basketball at the university, Naismith admonished his friend and co-worker by saying, "Forrest, you don't coach basketball, you just play it." However, years later when "Phog" was on his way to becoming one of the winningest coaches ever, he received a photograph from Naismith autographed, "From the father of basketball to the father of basketball coaching."

Although Naismith never became a church pastor, he had a wide Christian influence. His main interest was never basketball itself, but in the Christian life of those who played it--it was not what the boy did with the ball that really mattered, but what the ball did to the boy.

He did not believe that the game automatically developed a strong character, but that the sport offered a challenge and an opportunity to develop a sense of fair play that could be carried beyond the basketball court to everyday life. Winning was not to be the main incentive of the game. Fun, exercise and sportsmanship were its goals.

Naismith lived a life exemplary of the integrity and kindliness he tried to teach others. He was loyal to his attendance at his church and was faithful to his duties as a layman. His highly marked Bible gave evidence of the daily reading that was his practice.

His influence went far beyond the athletic department of the university. Students in all areas of the school's life sought his counsel. He was never too busy to share his time generously with all who came to see him. He often visited those in the Lawrence community who were lonely or shut-ins. The spirit of optimism and joy that he carried with him brightened every room he entered.

A true Christian hero

Naismith died on Nov. 29, 1939, after serving as athletic director of the University of Kansas for 40 years. He deserves to be regarded as a Christian hero as much as any great preacher, teacher, doctor or missionary. The life he lived reflected the Christian faith he professed and the game he invented has brought entertainment, exercise and opportunity for character development to millions.

Probably, Naismith would have some reservations about winning that characterizes the game today, but there is no doubt that he would smile with approval on the oft-quoted lines of sports writer Grantland Rice:

"When the final scorer comes to write about your name, it will not be whether you won or lost, but how you played the game."

The Rev. Dale Turner's column appears Saturdays in The Seattle Times.