December 21st In History: Basketball Played For The First Time

James Naismith (Sumber: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Today, December 21, more than a century ago or in 1891, basketball was played for the first time. The historic location is in the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) Springfield High School, United States (US). Then how is the history? And how did this sport become popular?

Quoting massmoments.org, the person who first discovered the sport of basketball was not a US citizen, but from Canada, his name was James Naismith. He is a versatile athlete, theologian and physical education teacher at YMCA Springfield.

Naismith was born in Ontario, a province in Canada. Orphaned since he was eight years old, he was looked after by his uncle. His daily life is helping his uncle by farming.

Just like most teenagers, Naismith looks for entertainment by playing with his peers. One of the games he often plays with his colleagues is duck on the rock. This game is what inspired the origins of basketball.

The way to play duck on the rock is to place the rock on top of a large rock. The person who first laid the stone had to guard the stone or what was called the duck. Others, have to try to knock him down by throwing another rock.

In 1883 Naismith attended McGill University in Montreal majoring in philosophy and theology. His love for sports continues on campus. There he actively played soccer, rugby and lacrosse.

After graduating from McGill in 1887, Naismith became interested in joining the YMCA. The foundation happens to be developing a physical training program to complement interests in Bible study, education and social welfare.

Finally in 1890 he was accepted as a trainer at the school. At that time he focused on teaching boxing, wrestling, swimming and canoeing.

Chick

In the middle of the semester, the campus ran into trouble with a group of men preparing to become YMCA administrators. In order to qualify, they must take one hour of sports classes every day. When winter comes, they are getting bored and irritated with physical exercises such as gymnastics and children's games.

That's why the head of the YMCA department assigned Naismith to address the problem. At first, he tried to modify football and lacrosse to be played indoors. However it was too chaotic to play indoors.

Naismith went on to design an entirely new indoor ball game. Since there was no tackle in the room like a football, he made an alternative by playing the ball by passing.

The scoring system is based on duck on the rock playing. In that game, the best player is the one who throws the stone and hits the rock that is above the boulder that is targeted.

And right on this day December 21 more than a century ago or in 1891, Naismith also got the idea of horizontal goals, by placing boxes of peach baskets at both ends of the court like today's basketball hoops. Each time the ball enters the basket it will be counted as a goal.

It was then that the game of basketball was born and the problems faced on campus were resolved. "It was the beginning of the first basketball game and the end of the problems with the class," wrote Naismith as quoted by massmoments.org.

Gaining popularity

In just a week, 200 people came to Springfield Y to watch a basketball game during the day. The game is getting more famous when students go home for the Christmas holidays. They took the game to their village.

Before long, international students at the YMCA also enjoyed the game and "exported" the game outside of Uncle Sam's country. From there the world got to know basketball.

In 1894, the sport of basketball was introduced. At the same time wire baskets began to replace peach baskets.

Three years later, each team was determined to consist of five people. And the first professional basketball league: the National Basketball League (NBA), was held.

Middle school and amateur athletic clubs welcomed the game, and in 1905 the National Collegiate Athletic Association officially recognized it as a permanent winter sport.

Until several decades later in 1936, basketball became an Olympic sport. Three years later, or on November 29, 1939, Naismith died at the age of 78.

Now there are at least 170 countries that play basketball. To remember the historic moment when the game of basketball was born, in 1968 the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened in Springfield.