Springfield, Massachusetts is known as the birthplace of basketball. During StoryCorps’ visit to Springfield, we parked the MobileBooth outside of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Paul Lambert, who gave us a great tour of the Hall, recorded some of his stories about the history of the game.In December 1891, James Naismith invented a simple game for his students at the Springfield YMCA Training School to play between fall and spring games. His students loved the game so much, they had rules published and took the game to YMCA school around the world. By 1894, young people were playing the sport in China. By 1936, 40 years later, it was an Olympic sport. At the time there were also young women who were students at the YMCA school who wanted to play the game and Dr. Naismith encouraged them. Basketball is now the fastest growing sport among young people world wide. “The joy of basketball’s expansion around the world is a remarkable story.” said Paul. Read the rest of this entry »
All posts including Basketball Hall of Fame
Posted by Chaela on September 24, 2008, from Springfield, Massachusetts
Community Partners: Basketball Hall of Fame
