The best athletes are not always those who excel in a specialty, but those who are able to practice many modalities frequently.
This was the youth of
James Naismith
, born in Canada and later nationalized American.
He practiced soccer, baseball, boxing, rugby, gymnastics and athletics, managing to be the best athlete in his university on two occasions, and he also wanted his academic training to be like that: multidisciplinary.
Naismith studied Theology, Physical Education, and Medicine.
He served as a military chaplain for the National Guard in Kansas, but above all he was the coach of hundreds of minors and young people in whom he instilled a love for sports and values such as sacrifice and solidarity.
He is credited with the invention of basketball in 1891 and also that of the first American football helmet.
His idea of providing his 18 unruly students from the Springfield Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) with a sporting activity in the gym that required more skill than strength, with little contact, but still maintained the essence of many other sports such as rugby, soccer and baseball, materialized in what we know today as basketball.
Thirteen initial rules, two peach baskets located at a height of 3.05 meters - something that remains today - on the railings of the upper gallery of the gym and two teams of nine players were the essence of a sport turned into a colossus world show and that is practiced in more than 200 countries.
Naismith confirmed in his lifetime the growing success of his invention and was in charge of delivering the medadas of his sport the first time he was part of the Olympic Games program, in Berlin 1936. The first three classified were United States, gold;
Canada, silver and Mexico, bronze.
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James Naismith was born in Almonte, Canada, on November 6, 1861. He was the second of three siblings who were orphaned in 1870 by typhoid fevers suffered by their parents.
Raised on a farm by his grandmother and an uncle, Naismith traveled four kilometers each day and another four back in order to attend primary and secondary school, while helping his uncle in the fields.
One of his favorite games at this time was Duck on a rock (duck on a rock), which contained aim, speed, and encouraged collaboration among participants while avoiding the violence of other games.
Without a doubt, this game served as inspiration for the invention of basketball.
It consisted of knocking down a small stone, called a duck, located on a larger one a short distance from the ground.
One player, called a guardian, was responsible for the small stone that needed to be knocked down.
The rest of the players lined up at five meters and threw their stones, one by one, trying to knock down the guardian's.
Naismith realized that a direct shot, if it missed its mark, forced them to travel a greater distance to retrieve the stone and gave the guardian more advantage in catching them.
However, a parabolic launch avoided this inconvenience and gave them the possibility of recovering their stone and returning to the safe zone, making the task of the guardian difficult.
There it can be said that his idea of the new sport of the basket was born.
Young James dropped out of high school during his sophomore year to work full time on the farm and tried to enlist in the RCMP, although he was rejected for being too young.
He returned to his studies at the age of 19 and thanks to his tenacity and effort he managed to pass the four courses that were missing in two years.
In 1883 Naismith entered McGill University and settled in Montreal.
He had decided to start studying theology to become a priest, but as before entering the School of Theology he had to obtain a graduate degree, he became familiar with physical education and began to excel in all kinds of sports activities.
Basketball for all ages
In 1889 he already showed his creativity for sports by considering him the inventor of the first American football helmet.
That year he was selected by legendary player-coach Amos Alonzo Stagg to be part of his team and, to protect his misshapen right ear, he made a flannel and leather bump that is considered the first helmet in history.
Naismith earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from which he was able to enroll to be a part-time gymnastics instructor and almost immediately became one of the University's most respected and award-winning athletic teachers.
In 1890 he was offered the position of Director of Physical Education, a job he held until 1891 and which he continued to combine until he obtained his degree in Theology.
He had fulfilled his dream and could now be appointed pastor of a community.
However, he spent the summer months visiting various centers of the Young Christian Association (YMCA) in Canada and the United States and was hired as a Physical Education teacher at the center that the association had in Springfield (Massachusetts).
Providence decided for Naismith, and concluded that if his goal in life was to be to offer a better education to young people, his work could be more effective and reach a greater number of people by dedicating themselves to physical education. than being pastor of a parish.
The new Springfield teacher was given 14 days to develop an indoor game that would capture the interest of his rowdy 18 students confined indoors during the cold winter and found gymnastics boring.
And so it was that by adapting some elements of family games and other sports, Naismith invented basketball in 1891. Thirteen basic rules guided the game, which included two peach baskets as the objective of the game and where a ball had to be thrown.
On January 15, 1892, James Naismith announced the new game and its original rules in the pages of
The Triangle
, the Springfield school newspaper where he taught.
In 1894 Naismith married Maude Sherman.
Over the years, the family grew large with five children.
A year later, in 1895, the Naismiths moved to Denver, where James taught at YMCA College and earned a degree in Medicine.
He was later hired by the University of Kansas to coach the basketball team, serve as a Physical Education teacher, and serve as a chaplain.
Naismith, as time went by, was surprised by the great popularity of the game, as with the new century there were so many colleges that had basketball teams that the college league was formed.
At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, basketball was included as an Olympic sport for the first time.
There, in addition to presenting the medals, he was appointed honorary president of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
Naismith, a citizen of the United States, retired from the University of Kansas in 1937. He died in Lawrence, Kansas, on November 28, 1939, at the age of 78, from a cerebral hemorrhage.
The Springfield Basketball Hall of Fame was named the Naismith Memorial in his honor in 1959. In addition, each year the best college basketball players and coaches are honored with the Naismith Awards.
The original 13 basketball rules that James Naismith invented contained fewer than 600 words;
Today, the rules contain more than 30,000 words, and we owe it all to two baskets of peaches.