Baskets And Bottoms

December 15, 1891, the first ball hit the basket in a game invented by Canadian J. Naismith that incorporated rules from a children's game called ‘Duck on a Rock’, to keep his students busy and fit during the long New England winters. America’s most popular sport was born. Not much, if anything of what we know today, was already there. Baskets had bottoms and the soccer balls used had to be retrieved manually each time after a score. The backboard was only introduced after many rowdy interference of the shots of spectators. Hence the birth of the rebound! Initially, a court was of unspecified dimensions. The first formal rules were devised in 1892. That same year the first official game was played with 9 players and the final score showed 1-0. That kind of score is hard to imagine these days. Girls were allowed to play basketball even before the iron hoop and hammock like basket got introduced in 1893. In the Victorian age where woman weren’t allowed much more than being pretty, this was at least a beginning. But there were restrictions, adaptations to keep it ‘suitable’, to prevent a young lady to develop ‘dangerous nervous tendencies and losing the grace and dignity and self respect’. But how those girls could dribble (restricted to 3 times), jump and run in long dresses, is a mystery to me. Image by Photobucket/renaissance_09