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The
Game Catches On
If you want a new game
to catch on, teach it to a room full of
future P.E. teachers who are getting ready
to head home for Christmas break. Naismith’s
students took basketball back to their hometown
gyms. That original class included students
from Canada and Japan as well as the United
States and the game quickly spread. Just
two months after the game was invented,
teams from different YMCA’s met for
the first competitive game. The Central
YMCA and the Armory Hill YMCA played to
2-2 tie. Tuck that in your sports trivia
file.
Women also got in on the
action. Senda Bereson Abbott read about
basketball in the newspaper and introduced
it to women at Smith College. By 1894, Smith’s
annual spring game between the freshman
and the sophomores was attended by more
than 1,000 women waving violet and yellow
banners. The Sunday Boston Globe covered
the game and reported that when the sophomores
won 13-7, fans hoisted the captain on their
shoulders and celebrated in the streets
of Northampton.
Five is Enough
and Other Early Changes
Initially, there was no
limit on the number of people who could
play in a basketball game. Some historians
report that more than 50 people at a time
played in some early games. This made for
some very rough basketball that looked a
lot like a Rugby scrum. By 1900, it was
agreed that five members per side was enough
on the court at one time.
Jump balls were the most
common play in the early years of basketball.
The jump was used after every basket and
often after the ball went out of bounds.
Between all of the center jumps and having
to retrieve the ball from the basket, the
game was much slower than the modern version.
In the 1930s, rule changes eliminated the
jump ball after each basket. Fans everywhere
cheered.
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