For the first time ever, listen to the inventor of Basketball Dr. James Naismith explain how he created the game in a YMCA gymnasium in Springfield, Massachusetts in December 1891 in his own words.
“I showed them two peach baskets I’d nailed up at each end of the gym, and I told them the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team’s peach basket,” Naismith said in a Midwestern accent that showed few traces of his family’s Scottish roots. “I blew a whistle, and the first game of basketball began.”
But “the boys began tackling, kicking and punching in the clinches,” Naismith said. “They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor.”
The rare audio was recorded from a January 31, 1939 radio broadcast during a doubleheader at Madison Square Garden.
The Voice of Dr. James Naismith, basketball’s inventor: https://t.co/rHpxpd0e1e
— Bijan C. Bayne (@bijancbayne) December 15, 2015
