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It would eventually be the first team sport in the United States to be professionalized with the 1869 founding of the original Cincinnati Red Stockings (from whom the modern-day Cincinnati Reds took their name). By the late 19th century, baseball had become professionalized, with the National League established in 1876 as the first major professional league.
- Lacrosse. Year Invented: 1636. Inventor: William George Beers. Type of Sport: Ball (Team) photo source: Wikimedia. Among all the sports started in the US, lacrosse is considered the oldest organized sport in the country.
- American Football. Year Invented: 1869. Inventor: Walter Camp. Type of Sport: Ball (Team) photo source: Wikimedia. The history of American football dates back to the late 19th century, when the sport was first played in universities.
- Softball. Year Invented: 1887. Inventor: George Hancock. Type of Sport: Ball (Team) photo source: sportsmatik.com. George Hancock, a Chicago Board of Trade reporter who also developed softball, introduced “indoor baseball” in 1887.
- Basketball. Year Invented: 1891. Inventor: James Naismith. Type of Sport: Ball (Team) photo source: thoughtco.com. The sport of basketball was invented in the United States.
Jul 28, 2022 · One of the country’s first organized professional sports leagues was the National Association of Base Ball Players, founded in 1858. This league gave birth to the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, in 1869. Baseball quickly became a popular pastime in the United States, with teams springing up all over the country.
Feb 14, 2024 · The Cincinnati Red Stockings, formed in 1869, were the first openly professional baseball team. They traveled across the United States, playing against various amateur clubs, and went undefeated in their first season. The Red Stockings’ success accelerated the growth of professional baseball and inspired other teams to adopt a professional ...
- Overview
- Original rules of the game
- First public games
The first game used baskets as hoops and turned into a brawl. Soon after, basketball evolved into a pillar of American sports.
The nets used by athletes to dunk the ball and score points in the beloved game of basketball evolved from peaches, or rather the baskets used to collect peaches.
That’s what a young athletic director ultimately used on a cold day back in 1891 for a new game he created to keep his students engaged.
James Naismith was a 31-year old graduate student teaching physical education at the International YMCA Training School, now known as Springfield College, in Springfield, Massachusetts when students were forced to stay indoors for days due to a New England storm. The usual winter athletic activities were marching, calisthenics, and apparatus work but they weren’t nearly as thrilling as football or lacrosse which were played during the warmer seasons.
Naismith wanted to create a game that would be simple to understand but complex enough to be interesting. The game had to be playable indoors, and it had to accommodate several players at once. The game also needed to provide plenty of exercise for the students, yet without the physicality of football, soccer, or rugby since those would threaten more severe injuries if played in a confined space. (See 100 years of football in pictures.)
Naismith approached the school janitor, hoping he could find two square boxes to use for goals. When the janitor came back from his search, he had two peach baskets instead. Naismith nailed the peach baskets to the lower rail of the gymnasium balcony, one on each side. The height of that lower balcony rail happened to be 10 feet. The students would play on teams to try to get the ball into their team’s basket. A person was stationed at each end of the balcony to retrieve the ball from the basket and put it back into play.
Naismith didn’t create all of the rules at once, but continued to modify them into what are now known as the original 13 rules. Some are still part of the modern game today. Naismith’s original rules of the game sold at auction in 2010 for $4.3 million.
In the original rules: The ball could be thrown in any direction with one or both hands, never a fist. A player could not run with the ball but had to throw it from the spot where it was caught. Players were not allowed to push, trip or strike their opponents. The first infringement was considered a foul. A second foul would disqualify a player until the next goal was made. But if there was evidence that a player intended to injure an opponent, the player would be disqualified for the whole game.
Umpires served as judges for the game, made note of fouls and had the power to disqualify players. They decided when the ball was in bounds, to which side it belonged, and managed the time. Umpires decided when a goal had been made and kept track of the goals.
If a team made three consecutive fouls, the opposing team would be allowed a goal.
A goal was made when the ball was thrown or batted from the grounds into the basket and stayed there. If the ball rested on the edges, and the opponent moved the basket, it would count as a goal. When the ball went out of bounds, it was thrown into the field of play by the person first touching it. The person throwing the ball was allowed five seconds; if he held it longer, the ball would go to the opponent. In case of a dispute, an umpire would throw the ball straight into the field. If any side persisted in delaying the game, the umpire would call a foul on that side.
The length of a game was two 15-minute halves, with five minutes' rest between. The team making the most goals within the allotted time was declared the winner. If a game was tied, it could be continued until another goal was made.
The first public game of basketball was played in a YMCA gymnasium and was recorded by the Springfield Republican on March 12th, 1892. The instructors played against the students. Around 200 spectators attended to discover this new sport they had never heard of or seen before. In the story published by the Republican, the teachers were credited with “agility” but the student’s “science” is what led them to defeat the teachers 5-1.
Within weeks the sport’s popularity grew rapidly. Students attending other schools introduced the game at their own YMCAs. The original rules were printed in a college magazine, which was mailed to YMCAs across the country. With the colleges’ well-represented international student body the sport also was introduced to many foreign nations. High schools began to introduce the new game, and by 1905, basketball was officially recognized as a permanent winter sport.
The first intercollegiate basketball game between two schools is disputed, according to the NCAA. In 1893, two school newspaper articles were published chronicling separate recordings of collegiate basketball games facing an opposing college team.
In 1892, less than a year after Naismith created the sport, Smith College gymnastics instructor Senda Berenson, introduced the game to women’s athletics. The first recorded intercollegiate game between women took place between Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley in 1896.
With the sport’s growth in popularity, it gained notice from the International Olympic Committee and was introduced at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis as a demonstration event. It wasn’t until 1936 that basketball was recognized as a medal event. Women’s basketball wasn’t included as an Olympic medal event until the 1976 Montreal games. (Wheelchair basketball in Cambodia changed these women's lives.)
As the sport continued its rapid spread, professional leagues began to form across the United States. Basketball fans cheered on their new hometown teams. The first professional league was the National Basketball League (NBL) formed in 1898, comprised of six teams in the northeast. The league only lasted about five years. After it dissolved in 1904, the league would be reintroduced 33 years later in 1937 with an entirely new support system, with Goodyear, Firestone, and General Electric corporations as the league owners, and 13 teams.
Nov 16, 2009 · By 1896, the Allegheny Athletic Association was made up entirely of paid players, making it the sport’s first-ever professional team. As football became more and more popular, local semi-pro and ...
Based on revenue, the major professional sports leagues in the United States comprises the following: Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS). The major sports leagues tend to have the greatest fan interest, have national ...
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