James Naismith

The uniform on that historic day in December was long gray trousers, short sleeved jerseys and a pair of gym shoes. The team consisted of nine players—a goalkeeper, two guards (right and left), three centres (right centre, left centre, and centre), two wings (right and left) and a home man, stationed in this order from the goal…. The rules called for a refereeand an umpire. With the bottoms remaining in the basket, a step ladder was placed beside the basket for retrieval.

From the eighteen members of his class, Naismith soon organized a team of nine, led by Frank Mahan as captain, for competition against teams in the eastern states. This group of nine is usually recognized as the first basketball team in history.

Source: The Early Days of Basketball." Canada's Digital Collections. http://collections.ic.gc.ca/naismith/james/basketball/early_days.htm (October 15, 2002).