LOGAN – As March Madness begins, the hype hits a fever pitch, the brackets are set, the bets are made and work productivity slows across the country for college basketball’s biggest prize.
Sportskeedia.com said in 2025, the NCAA should earn roughly $1.1 billion from broadcasting rights alone for the annual event.
Basketball has come a long way from its 1891 roots when James Naismith tacked two peach baskets 10 feet high on each side of the gym and gave two teams one soccer ball. Naismith was a 30 year-old PhD. student and physical education instructor at Massachusetts’ Springfield College.
It started when Naismith was charged with finding a winter game between football and baseball to keep athletes fit and out of trouble.
Naismith figured games like baseball, tennis, cricket, lacrosse all needed additional equipment and would take too long to learn. Sports like rugby and football were more easily learned and used a larger ball, but he felt like tackling would not work on a hard floor indoors.
He came up with the idea of dividing students into two teams and put the ball in the peach basket by passing or shooting, there was no dribbling or running with the ball.
In a 1939 radio interview he explained the game to the students and told them how to play and it turned into a brawl.
“I showed them two peach baskets I’d nailed up at each end of the gym, and I told them the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team’s peach basket. I blew a whistle, and the first game of basketball began,” he said. “The boys began tackling, kicking and punching in the clinches. They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor. It certainly was murder.”
After the initial game he typed out 13 rules and tried playing it again.
“The players were interested and seemed to enjoy the game,” Naismith wrote. “Word soon got around that they were having fun and only a few days after the first game we began to have a gallery.”
The first public basketball game was held in Springfield on March 11, 1892, in front of 200 spectators. The players were teachers (including Naismith) versus students.
Only three of Naismith’s original rules are used today. Rule 1: “The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.” Rule 3: “A player cannot run with the ball.” Rule 13: “The side making the most goals … shall be declared the winner.”
The game started with two peach baskets and a soccer ball is played recreationally in parks, churches and community gyms. Basketball is played by both boys and girls in elementary schools, Jr. high, high schools and colleges all over the world.
The game was introduced as an Olympic sport for men in 1936 and the NBA was established in 1946.