Today marks the 148th birthday of the inventor of basketball, Canadian born physical educator James A. Naismith.
Before we go any further, I think we ought to spend the rest of this post listening to a little musical accompaniment from the incomparable Kurtis Blow.
Mr. Naismith first invented the game in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Although he could have never foreseen the heights of popularity his sport eventually reached, he did live to see it become an Olympic sport in 1936, three years before his death on November 28, 1939.
Of course the library has a number of books on Naismith’s grand game:
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Basketball / by Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Alex Sachare
The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac : Styles, Stats and Stars in Today’s Game
The Physics of Basketball / John J. Fontanella
And if you want to go “old school”, who better to get your information from than Adolph Rupp?
Rupp’s Championship Basketball for Player, Coach, and Fan
Happy birthday, Mr. Naismith, and thank you for one of the world’s greatest games!
–Scott
Eleventh Stack 