Naismith, the "Father of Basketball," dies at 78
Nov. 28, 1939
James Naismith, the "Father of Basketball," dies at 78 of a heart ailment following a cerebral hemorrhage in Lawrence, Kan. His death comes three years after basketball became an official Olympic sport and 20 years before he will become the first individual inducted into the Hall of Fame that will bear his name.
As a gym teacher at the Springfield (Mass.) Men's Christian Association Training School in 1891, the Canadian-born Naismith invented basketball when he set out to develop a new indoor game. The result was a game with a large ball and two suspended peach baskets, 10 feet above the court, because that was the height of a balcony at each end of the gym to which the baskets were attached. Naismith envisioned the game as one for the masses, and the first encounter had nine on a side.
In 1898, he joined the faculty at Kansas and also became its first basketball coach. He is the only Kansas coach to post a losing record, 55-60 in nine seasons. He became the director of physical education and continued to teach until 1937.
