Basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1891. Naismith who was a physical education teacher at Springfield College in Massachusetts was asked to develop a game for students at the YMCA to do indoors durning the long winter months. He came up with the idea of nailing to two peach baskets to the balcony and the point of the game being to get a soccer ball in there. Originally there were only thirteen rules. The gamewas invented like that.

Two years later backboards became a part of the game. The original purpuse of them were to keep spectators in the balcony from leaning over the guard rail and interfering with play. The first backboards were orginal made of wire, but teams started grooving them to funnel the ball into their basket. But by 1904 wood backboards were mandatory. Glass backboards were permitted in 1909.

The uniforms were quite different than what you might see todays basketball player wear. The first team in Springfield wore long-selve wool jerseys and long grey trousers. The image of the game was also different back then. The early contests were brutal and often bloody. Players slammed into each other with reckless abandon, often causing brawls. These games were so intense that wire cages were built around the court to prevent the violence from spilling into the crowd.

But the wire cages were also there to protect the players from the fans. Some of the fans would throw bottles and nails onto the court. The atmospere was so bad that the refs would often carry guns to keep the game and the crowd under control. I guess hitting players with technical fouls just didn't do the trick.

But basketball has come a far way since then. Now a days only people close enough to maybe touch the players are all big rich suits.

The background appears at www.alleyopp.com