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Speaker 1: Welcome to this Day in History class, where we bring

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Speaker 1: you a new tidbit from history every day. Today is

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Speaker 1: March eleven, nineteen. The day was March eleventh. In Springfield, Massachusetts,

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Speaker 1: seven students and seven teachers played the first public game

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Speaker 1: of basketball at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training

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Speaker 1: School or what is now Springfield College. An article in

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Speaker 1: the March twelfth issue of a Springfield newspaper set the

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Speaker 1: following Over two hundred spectators crane their next over the

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Speaker 1: gallery railing of the Christian Workers Gymnasium while they watched

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Speaker 1: the game of basketball yesterday afternoon between the teachers of

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Speaker 1: the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School and the students.

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Speaker 1: At the time, James nay Smith was working as a

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Speaker 1: physical education instructor at the y m c A Training

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Speaker 1: school in Springfield. The students at the school were confined

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Speaker 1: indoors during the cold Massachusetts winter, and they had a

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Speaker 1: lot of pent up energy. The calistenics and children's games

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Speaker 1: they were playing in class just weren't cutting it for

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Speaker 1: the rowdy students, So a teacher challenged nay Smith to

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Speaker 1: create a game that could keep students active in the wintertime.

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Speaker 1: Between football and baseball season, nay Smith drew from the

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Speaker 1: games of rugby, lacrosse, and another that combines tag and

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Speaker 1: marksmanship called duck on a Rock. So on December nay

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Speaker 1: Smith asked his students to play a nine versus nine

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Speaker 1: match using a soccer ball and two peaks baskets. He

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Speaker 1: mounted the peach baskets to the lower rail of the

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Speaker 1: gym's balcony, which was about ten feet or three meters

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Speaker 1: above the ground. The goal was to throw the ball

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Speaker 1: into the opposing team's peach basket. The baskets didn't have

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Speaker 1: holes in the bottom, so students in the balcony would

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Speaker 1: have to grab the ball out of the basket when

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Speaker 1: it went in. But since nay Smith hadn't given the

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Speaker 1: students any clear guidelines other than get the ball in

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Speaker 1: the basket, the game didn't go so well. He said

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Speaker 1: the following in a nineteen thirty nine radio interview. The

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Speaker 1: boys began tackling, kicking, and punching in the clinches before

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Speaker 1: I could pull them apart. One boy was knocked out,

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Speaker 1: several of them had black eyes, and one had a

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Speaker 1: dislocated shoulder. It certainly was murder, But even though the

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Speaker 1: game didn't go too smoothly. The students still wanted to

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Speaker 1: play again, so Nay Smith wrote thirteen rules for the game.

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Speaker 1: His secretary typed the rules on two pages, and he

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Speaker 1: hung them up in the gym. I won't tire you

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Speaker 1: by going through all of the original rules, but are some.

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Speaker 1: The ball may be thrown or batted in any direction

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Speaker 1: with one or both hands. A player cannot run the ball,

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Speaker 1: but must throw it from the spot where he catches it,

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Speaker 1: though there is leniency for a player who catches the

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Speaker 1: ball when running if he tries to stop that no

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Speaker 1: running with the ball rule kept the players from tackling

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Speaker 1: and hitting each other. Nate Smith hadn't invented the game

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Speaker 1: of basketball, which was originally written as two words, and

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Speaker 1: in a January article that was sent to y m

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Speaker 1: c A s across the United States, he listed the

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Speaker 1: rules of the new game. Five days later, the first

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Speaker 1: official game of basketball was played at a y m

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Speaker 1: c A gym in Albany, New York, and on March eleventh,

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Speaker 1: the first public game was played at the y m

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Speaker 1: c A Training School gym in Springfield. The sport quickly

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Speaker 1: spread across college campuses. The first intercollegiate basketball game was

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Speaker 1: played in eight ten, and the first professional basketball league

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Speaker 1: formed three years after that. By around this time, teams

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Speaker 1: of five were the norm. In nineteen o one, dribbling

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Speaker 1: was introduced, though it wasn't that efficient considering balls were

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Speaker 1: still asymmetrical. By nineteen o six, the game used nets

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Speaker 1: with holes in the bottom. And today the sport looks

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Speaker 1: a lot different than it did at that first game

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Speaker 1: in and the rule book is a lot longer. I'm

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Speaker 1: eavestecote and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. So here's some fun trivia

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Speaker 1: I found while researching this episode. Nate Smith's original thirteen

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Speaker 1: rules were purchased at auction in for four point three

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Speaker 1: million dollars. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow.