Introduction History & Immigration Culture People Multimedia Resources
  Text Size: S | M | L

Famous Scottish Canadians

James Naismith (1861-1939):

Invented Basketball

"I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place."
~ James Naismith
Dr. James Naismith
Dr. James Naismith

The sport of basketball, unlike other sports, did not develop over a long period of time; rather, it owes its creation to one man: Dr. James Naismith. Naismith was born in Almonte, Ontario, to first-generation Scottish-Canadians. His maternal grandparents, Robert and Annie Young, left Scotland in 1832; the year after their arrival in Ramsay Township, Upper Canada, Annie gave birth to Margaret, James's mother. His father was nine years old when his parents left Scotland for the Bathurst district of Upper Canada, but young John soon left his parents to live and work with his Uncle Peter in Ramsay Township, who had arrived there the same year as the Youngs.

When James was eight years old, his family moved to nearby Grand Calumet, where his father began work as a saw-hand. The move to the crowded milling community, however, proved tragic: both John and Maragaret contracted typhoid fever two years later, leaving their three children orphans. James and his brother, Robert, and sister, Annie, lived with their grandmother, Annie Young, on her farm for the next two years. When she died in 1873, the Naismith children were left under their uncle Peter Young's guardianship.

Naismith Homestead in Almonte
Naismith Homestead in Almonte

Although the young James performed rather poorly in his academic studies, he was a leader in all physical activities. His uncle expected him to participate in household chores and help on the farm and in the woods, where James learned how to chop trees, saw logs, and drive horses. Despite these duties, he found enough time for recreation, playing variations of tag and hide-and-go-seek with his friends in the fields behind the blacksmith's shop. In the fall, local boys hunted squirrels, snowshoe hares, and partridges with bows and arrows, graduating to shotguns to hunt deer and lynx when they had matured. And when the weather turned, the boys tobogganed, skated, and played ice-hockey. James, unwilling to ask his uncle for a pair of ice-skates, fashioned his own by setting metal files into pieces of wood.

James' Parents Gravestone
James' Parents Gravestone

Physical pursuits interested James much more than scholarly ones, and in 1877 he dropped out of Almonte High School to be a lumberjack. "He was good at [being a lumberjack]," said Stuart Naismith of his grandfather's career choice. "[But one day] he was in the saloon having a drink of whisky, and somebody turned around and said, 'You're Margaret Young's boy, aren't you? She'd roll over in her grave if she could see you now, drinking.' So he put down the whisky and never touched another drop as long as he lived."

Naismith returned to high school soon after that incident, now dedicating himself to his studies. The principal, P. C. MacGregor, encouraged him to pursue the ministry, and Naismith agreed that "Christianity would put him in the best position to be a positive role model" and to serve his fellow man. 1 Although his uncle pleaded with his best worker to remain on the farm, Naismith was determined to become a minister, and left for McGill University in 1883.

McGill Gymnastics Team
McGill Gymnastics Team

At McGill, the once poor student worked his way to the top of his class, graduating in the top ten in 1887 with an honours degree in Physical Education. Despite the enormous amount of attention he devoted to academics, he was also able to represent McGill in football, and soccer, and win multiple medals for gymnastics. To finance his graduate studies in theology at Presbyterian College in Montreal, he accepted a job as a physical education instructor at McGill's gymnasium. His professors and peers, however, were dismayed by his involvement in athletics, which they viewed as violent tools of the devil; they encouraged him to give up sports and focus instead on books and Christian duties.

But Naismith didn't share their views; in fact, athletics even brought him closer to religion. During a rugby game during his last year in seminary, one of his teammates uttered some profanity. He then blushed and apologized to James, explaining that he had forgotten the seminarian was there. This remark had a powerful impact on Naismith, who from then on began to develop the idea of helping young men by merging athletics with ministry. Intrigued by the Muscular Christianity movement, which stressed the need for energetic Christian activism in combination with an ideal of vigorous masculinity, Naismith began visiting the Young Men's Christian Association, a branch of which had been established in Montreal in 1851. The general secretary, D. A. Budge, told him about the Y.M.C.A. International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter, Naismith left the Presbyterian College, unordained, to be a teacher at the school, pursuing a career in helping youth with their spiritual development through athletic foundations.

Winter was particularly harsh in New England in 1891. Naismith's class, confined to indoor games, had become rowdy and was getting more difficult to control. Naismith's supervisor, Physical Education director Dr. Luther Gulick, assigned him a task: create an indoor game that didn't take up much space, could help track athletes keep in shape, and be "fair for all players and not too rough," in fourteen days. 2

Duck on a Rock
Duck on a Rock

Naismith first examined the most popular games: rugby, lacrosse, soccer, football, baseball, and hockey. Small, fast balls proved the most hazardous, so he determined to play his game with the large, soft soccer ball. He also observed that most physical contact between players occurred while running with the ball, so he decided to minimize handling by making "passing" the only legal way to move the ball around the court. Potential for injury or contact was further reduced by positioning the goal high above the players' heads, making it unguardable. The goaling system was inspired by "Duck on a Rock," one of his favourite childhood pastime. In "Duck on a Rock," one player guards a large drake stone from the other players, who try to knock it off a rock by throwing smaller stones at it. A soft lobbing shot was far more effective than a straight hard throw; this was the technique used to score goals in his new game. He drew up thirteen basic rules for play and christened his new game "Basket Ball" because the goals were peach baskets with the bottoms cut out.

The first "Basket Ball" game was played in December 1891. Naismith secured two baskets ten feet up on the railings at either end of the gallery and tacked his rules to the blackboard. "The class did not show much enthusiasm but followed my lead," Naismith wrote in his follow-up report. "I then explained what they had to do to make goals, tossed the ball up between the two center men & tried to keep them somewhat near the rules. Most of the fouls were called for running with the ball, though tackling the man with the ball was not uncommon." 3 In contrast to modern basketball, the original game did not include "dribbling," as it was played with a soccer ball that could only be moved through passing.

Original Basketball Equipment
Original Basketball Equipment
First "Basketball" Court
First "Basketball" Court

The game was an instant success. By 1893, the Y.M.C.A. introduced basketball to its locations all around the world. The following year, he married Maude E. Shermann, and the couple had their first child, Margaret Mason, in 1895. Before the new family moved to Denver that year so Naismith could take the position of Physical Education director at its Y.M.C.A., he published the rules of basketball through the "American Sports Publishing Company," with Gulick. While in Denver, Naismith pursued a medical degeree through the University of Colorado. After graduating in 1898, Naismith moved to Lawrence, Kansas to become chaplain and director of the gymnasium at the University of Kansas, where he would spend the next forty years.

U. of Kansas Basketball Team
U. of Kansas Basketball Team

Although Naismith hadn't been hired as a basketball coach, he organized its first basketball program shortly after arriving. At first there were only three other schools to play against; but the sport was so successful by the turn of the century that intercollegiate competitions could begin. The game of basketball had spread so quickly that it was introduced as a demonstration sport at the 1904 Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri. Three decades later, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (founded by Naismith's pupil Forrest "Phog" Allen, the "Father of Basketball Coaching,") sponsored the seventy-four year old Naismith to go to Berlin to witness the induction of basketball as an official sport in the 1936 Summer Olympic Games. After he handed out the medals, the International Basketball Federation named him Honourary President.

Naismith's career at the university had been interrupted only by the First World War. He spent the first four months of war training on the Mexican border with the Kansas First Infantry Division of the United States Army before spending nineteen months in France. Having finally been ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1915, Naismith spent the war as a counselor and chaplain to the soldiers. Putting his athletic philosophy into practice, he also organized recreational and sporting activities to keep the soldiers occupied in wholesome activities during their free time.

Naismith with Peach Baskets
Naismith with Peach Baskets

James Naismith retired from the University of Kansas in 1937 at the age of seventy-six, the same year his wife passed away. They had had five children together. He suffered a brain hemorrhage late in 1939 and died of a heart attack in his home shortly thereafter.

Almonte, Ontario, keeps the legacy of its most influential son alive with the Naismith Basketball Foundation and Museum. When asked about Naismith's legacy, John Gosset, former executive director of the foundation, replied, "He never let obstacles get in his way. He used them as motivation for something new. In today's society, he would be considered an incredible role model in the pursuit of challenges and higher learning, and not accepting things for the way they are." 4

There goes a typical Scotsman.

Visit the Naismith Basketball Foundation and Museum, Almonte, Ontario website
Please note this link will open in a new window or tab

Read the original 13 rules of basketball
Please note this link will open in a new window or tab

Visit the Life and Times of Dr. James Naismith, a digital collection at Library and Archives Canada
Please note this link will open in a new window or tab

  1. John Gosset, former executive director of the Naismith Basketball Foundation and Museum, Almonte, Ont.
  2. Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, James Naismith Collection, Manuscript.
  3. Ibid
  4. Kanter, Jacob. "Profiles-James Naismith: A legacy that stretches far beyond basketball." The McGill Tribune, Sports. 12 February 2008.
The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the author and
do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada.
Copyright © 2009 Windsor Mosaic Website. All rights reserved