How Did Basketball Begin?
Some boys playing basketball
Basketball began in 1891 in Springfield, in the USA. It started with an appeal by the department of Physical Education at Springfield University, for a fast-moving ball game to help keep the students fit during the cold winter months.
The appeal was successfully answered by a teacher, James Naismith, who came up with the idea of Basketball.
The first baskets to be used were two vegetables baskets and these were fixed at a height of three metres and five centimetres at each end of the gymnasium.
The first team match was played in front of a crowd of 200 people.
The game was students versus teachers and the teachers won by 5 baskets to 1.