James Naismith

Always humble and never self-promotional, Naismith avoided drawing attention to himself as the inventor of a popular new sport. Although his students had suggested he dub the game "Naismith-ball," their instructor laughed off the idea, choosing the simpler name of basket ball. Mainly a coach and teacher, Naismith played only two official basketball games in his lifetime: a public match in Springfield in 1892, and a game at the University of Kansas, where he became the assistant gymnasium director, in 1898.

After setting his new sport in motion, Naismith went on to pursue the career he had envisioned for himself, combining fitness and spirituality for a healthy body and a healthy mind. After completing his training in Springfield, he served as the physical education director at a Y.M.C.A. in Denver, Colorado. Here he attended University of Colorado Medical School, obtaining a medical degree in 1898. With his wife, Maude, he then relocated to the University of Kansas, where he first directed activities at the gymnasium, and then became a professor and doctor. Among the academic papers he published was his 1911 piece, "A Modern College."

Upon American involvement in the First World War, Naismith served as a captain in the Kansas First Infantry regiment from 1914 to 1917. Becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister in 1915, he soon added "chaplain" to his army responsibilities. In 1916 he and his regiment served for four months on the Mexican border. Upon the war's end, Naismith was nominated Y.M.C.A. Secretary, and served a nineteen-month post in France before returning to Kansas University in 1919. He became an American citizen in 1925, and he served as Kansas University's director of physical education until 1937.

Before Naismith died at age seventy-eight in 1939, he witnessed basketball's acceptance as an official international sport at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Although he generally shied away from public acknowledgement, Naismith accepted an invitation to the Games' inaugural ceremony, and agreed to throw the ball for the Games' first-ever basketball match.

Naismith never sought fame or fortune for his invention of the popular sport, and it was not until after his death that this accomplished figure—who over his lifetime received degrees in philosophy, religion, physical education, and medicine—achieved true recognition for his contribution to sports history. In 1941 he was posthumously elected to the American Academy of Physical Education, and in 1959 Naismith, his name now synonymous with the Father of Basketball, was enshrined as the first member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.