Google honours basketball inventor Dr James Naismith with creative doodle

Google on January 15 celebrated Canadian-American physical educator, professor, doctor and coach Dr. James Naismith with a doodle. On this day in 1891, he had even invented the game of basketball for students during winter and announced its original rules in the pages of “The Triangle” which is a Springfield College school newspaper. The doodle honouring the inverter of world’s ‘favourite pastime’ shows an animated Naismith standing with a clipboard inside a gymnasium while the students take their shots for the basket with the ball as it snows outside.  From the ‘humble beginnings’ of basketball in a school gymnasium, 130 years later, the sport has become an international colossus played in over 200 countries today.

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Who’s Dr. James Naismith?

Dr. James Naismith was born on November 6, 1861, near the town of Almonte in Ontario, Canada. After acquiring a bachelor’s degree in physical education from McGill University, he took a job as an instructor at the YMCA International Training College in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1890. It was in this place where Naismith was asked to come up with an indoor game that could keep the students busy during the brutal New England winters. Including two peach baskets, a soccer ball and a set of ten rules, the game of ‘basketball’ was invented by him. 

Eventually, the game was introduced to his class on December 21, 1891. The initial game of basket ball featured only nine players in each time with elements incorporated from outdoor games such as American football, soccer and field hocket. Even though there was reportedly scepticism floating around the game, the sport caught popularity like wildfire in the following years. In 1936, Naismith’s game made its Olympic debut in Berlin, Germany with the founder of the game throwing the ball for the tip-off to commence the first game. 

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The sport popular across the globe, Naismith reportedly envisioned basketball as a way for students to better themselves both physically and mentally. While the sport was introduced at a time when schools were segregated, Naismith saw everyone as someone with potential for the game. His legacy is carried on till this day by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame incorporated in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1959.

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