James Naismith

Typhoid killed both his parents in the autumn of 1870, weeks apart, and sources differ on whether the second death fell on his ninth birthday. Naismith and his brother and sister were raised on a farm outside Almonte, Ontario, first by their grandmother and then by a bachelor uncle. He quit high school in 1877 for a lumber camp and came back four years later to finish. At McGill he played centre in football with ear padding he sewed himself. He took three years of theology at the Presbyterian College of Montreal and was licensed to preach in 1890, then chose the gymnasium over the pulpit. The college principal urged him to give up the evils of athletics, and the decision put distance between him and his own sister.

Luther Gulick, who ran the physical department at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, handed him a restless class and 14 days to invent an indoor game for the New England winter. Naismith wrote 13 rules and pinned them to the bulletin board. He asked the janitor for two boxes, got peach baskets, nailed them to the balcony rail about 10 feet up, and used a soccer ball. The first game, on December 21, 1891, was nine a side and ended one to nothing. He was Canadian, and stayed Canadian on paper until 1925.

Naismith thought of basketball as a curiosity and preferred gymnastics and wrestling. When Springfield students proposed calling it Naismith Ball, he refused. When Phog Allen told him in 1904 that he meant to coach the game, Naismith said you cannot coach basketball, you just play it. Allen went on to 39 seasons at Kansas and a coaching tree running through Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith. Naismith himself coached Kansas from 1898 to 1907 and finished 55 and 60, the only losing record any coach has posted in the program's history. He never yelled during games and disapproved of booing. The game was one exercise among many to him, a way of building bodies and character, and he watched it become an industry without taking much interest in it.

In 1935 the coaches' association that Phog Allen had founded passed the hat so that Naismith, at 74, could go to Berlin and watch basketball played as an Olympic sport. He handed out the medals, the United States having beaten Canada 19 to 8, and was made honorary president of the international federation. He retired from Kansas in 1937 and died at home in Lawrence on November 28, 1939, nine days after a brain hemorrhage. In December 2010 his original 13 rules sold at Sotheby's for 4,338,500 dollars, the most ever paid for a piece of sports memorabilia, and went to Kansas. The hall of fame in Springfield carries his name.

James Naismith's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Basketball invention
  Devised in 14 days for a restless class at the Springfield YMCA training school 1891
• The original 13 rules of Basket Ball other
  Two typed pages pinned to a bulletin board — sold in 2010 for 4,338,500 dollars 1891
• University of Kansas basketball program other
  Founded on his arrival and coached by him for nine seasons 1898
• A Modern College book
  Written while he was building physical education at Kansas 1911
• Essence of a Healthy Life book
  The body and the soul treated as one problem 1918
• Basketball: Its Origin and Development book
  His own account of the invention, published two years after his death 1941

• 1870 aged ~9 Typhoid kills both parents within weeks of each other He was eight or nine. He and his brother and sister were raised near Almonte by their grandmother and then by their uncle Peter Young.
• 1877 aged ~16 Leaves Almonte High School and goes to work in a lumber camp He re-entered in 1881 and graduated in 1883.
• 1890 aged ~29 Licensed to preach, and turns down the pulpit for a gymnasium He left Montreal for the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
• December 21, 1891 aged 30 The first game of Basket Ball Nine a side, a soccer ball, two peach baskets on the balcony rail, and a final score of one to nothing. William Chase scored it. Some accounts date the game December 15.
• March 12, 1892 aged 30 First public game — the students beat the faculty 5 to 1 Amos Alonzo Stagg scored the faculty's only basket in front of more than 200 spectators.
• June 20, 1894 aged 32 Marries Maude Sherman in Springfield They had five children. She died in 1937.
• 1898 aged ~37 Takes a medical degree in Denver and moves to the University of Kansas Hired as chapel director and physical education instructor. The basketball job came with it.
• 1936 aged ~75 Hands out the medals at the first Olympic basketball tournament The coaches had raised the money to send him to Berlin. The United States beat Canada 19 to 8 in the final.
• November 28, 1939 aged 78 Dies at home in Lawrence, nine days after a brain hemorrhage He is buried with his first wife in Memorial Park Cemetery.

• Wilt Chamberlain 1936–1999
  Dominant basketball center whose scoring, rebounding, and physical impact forced rule changes and expanded the NBA's appeal. played at his university
• John Wooden 1910–2010
  UCLA basketball coach whose ten NCAA titles in twelve seasons remain the sport's benchmark dynasty. coached the game he invented
• Bill Russell 1934–2022
  Eleven-time NBA champion, pioneering Black coach, and civil-rights advocate whose team-first leadership defined a dynasty. played the game he invented
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar b. 1947
  NBA's all-time leading scorer and six-time champion known for his skyhook and social activism. played the game he invented
• Michael Jordan b. 1963
  Widely regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time, who became a global marketing phenomenon. played the game he invented