Immigrant of the Day: James Naismith (Canada)

James A. Naismith (1861–939) invented the sport of basketball and was the first to introduce the use of a helmet in American football.

Naismith was born in Ramsay township, near Almonte, Ontario, Canada, the son of Scottish immigrants who worked in mining. In 1891, while working as a physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, Naismith was asked to make a game that would not take up much room, was not too rough, and could be played indoors. Inspired by a game he played as a child in Canada called "Duck on a Rock," Naismith's game started December 15, 1891 with thirteen rules (modified versions of twelve of those are still used today), a peach basket nailed to either end of the school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.

The rest is history.  Basketball became a popular men's sport in the United States and Canada, and spread around the world.   There were several efforts to establish a women's version of the game. Naismith was impressed with how quickly women caught onto the game and remarked that they were quick to understand the nature of the teamwork involved.

Men's basketball was added to the Olympics in the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin. There, Naismith handed out the medals to three North American teams; United States (Gold), Canada (Silver), and Mexico (Bronze). Women's basketball finally became an Olympic event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

In 1898, Naismith became a professor and the first basketball coach at the University of Kansas.  The Kansas Jayhawks went on to develop one of the nation's storied college basketball programs.  Interestingly, Naismith is the only Kansas coach to have a losing record (55-60) at the school.

Naismith was also a Presbyterian Minister and became a naturalized American citizen on May 4, 1925.

KJ