Reminiscences of James Naismith, by R. Tait McKenzie
Dublin Core
Title
Reminiscences of James Naismith, by R. Tait McKenzie
Subject
Basketball--History; Springfield College--Faculty; International Young Men's Christian Association Training School (Springfield, Mass.); Springfield College;
Basketball; Naismith; Dr. James Naismith; Springfield College; Springfield; R. Tait McKenzie
Description
This piece, titled “The Reminiscences of James Naismith” is a short essay written by Dr. R. Tait McKenzie, about his experiences with Dr. James Naismith. Dr. McKenzie gives a unique account of how Naismith impacted his life. As the best man for Naismith’s wedding, McKenzie is able to share insight from a personal perspective. James Naismith was a student at Springfield College from 1890-1891. Upon completing his one-year program to become a physical director for the YMCA, he took a position as a full-time faculty member at Springfield College, a position he kept through the spring of 1895. Just prior to the Christmas break in 1891, with the intent to appease a restless secretary department physical exercise class, he designed a new game: Basketball. R. Tait McKenzie was a sculpture, physician and physical educator. One of his best known works is the Joy of Effort, 1912, a bas-relief masterpiece designed for the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, a version of which is on display at Springfield College.
HJ,INSIVN S~W:1fr ..10 S~8N~8gI~rrncr The Centennial Years -1931-32 New York University School of Education (
Washington Square East, New York New York University CampSloatsburg, N.Y.
Department of Physical Education
and Health
June 1, 1932.
Dr. J. H. McCurdy, Springf1eld College,
Springfield, Mass.
Dear Dr. ~ cCurdy:
I ~TI enclosing herewith the
"Reminiscences of James Naismith" which
Dr. R. Tait McKenzie gave to us at the
Luncheon during the Christmas meetings.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ FRANK S. LLOYD
Associate Professor of education.
COpy COpy COpy COpy
liTo assist in giving honorable direction to the destinies of the City and the Nation." Aim of the Founders. Reminiscences of James Naismith by
R. Tait McKenzie
A powerful youth bestrides an unbound sheaf of wheat, while in one hand he holds a sheaf he has just bound. He throws it up in the air, stoops and binds the other before the first one comes back to earth, and challenges anyone on the harvest field to do the same thing.
That is one picture I have of Jim Naismith before he went to college. His small admirer had been sent to the farm during the absence of his father and mother from the manse, and the old stone house, with its verandas, garaen and trees, built by aismithls grandfather, Robert .Young, and afterwards owned by his uncle, P. J. Young, and to him a second home.
Jim was the hero of many boyish exploits: spearing fish on the flooded flats in Spring by the light of the Jack filled with pine knots. Hunting the dogs that killed the sheep; riding, rowing, working and fishing in summer, made the round of the life on the farm , with the winters in school at Almonte.
His challenge of the wheat sheaf was characteristic of his love of competition.
When he went to McGill in 1883 he made the football team almost at once, and the gymnasium also had its lure for him, for in his second year he won the Wickstead Silver Medal which carried the Junior All-round Gymnastic Championship with it. -2 When
I came to McGill in 1895, two years later, he initiated me into the mystery of the first gymnasium I had ever seen; and two years later, when I won the coveted Silver medal myself, he was the winner of the Gold Medal, or Senior All-around Championship. The teacher was Frederic S. BarnJum, an English gentleman, a lover of horses and all forms of sport, and an inspiring teacher. He had come under the influence of Archibald MacLaren at Oxford and started a Gymnasium in Montreal at 19 University Street, where the student classes met three times a week. He believed in promotion for merit, and when the class lined up before the bridge ladder, over which we went in procession, our hands grasping
the sides or rungs, and progressing by steps or jumps backwards and forward, he was accustomed to take the meritorious student by the arm and plac"e him high in the line. At t he end of the exercises the first ten were numbered, and next class day they lined up in that order and had to fight for their place each day. The pride of making the first ten was sufficient reward for the ambitious beginner.
The exercises on the ladder were followed by a barbell drill that never varied. The strife for perfection replaced the novelty of constant change in its hold on the students interest and here again promotion to the front line was the incentive. The Vaulting Bar, the Parallel Bars, the Horizontal Bar, and the drill in Indian Clubs, constituted the usual exercises of each class and the competition was composed of these exercises and marked by three judges. -3 Jim
and I used to linger after the clase and try stunts. In that way we learned the simpler forms of tumbling, the handspring and the back and front somersault, and in the course of time we worked up a brother act enriched from time to time by surreptitious visits to a vaudeville theatre where there was usually a good acrobatic turn on the program. He was the under man, and I, being the lighter, was top man. Many times he saved my neck by his steadiness. Our 'turn' became a feature of the annual exhibitions, and on one great occasion when home from college we gave it during the Christmas holidays in the Town Hall at Almonte, as part of the program of the High School Concert. Our act ended in a Catherine tiheel in which each held his partner 's ankles, and by a series of dives rolled across the stage like a revolving wheel. We were accustomed to make six revolutions, but unfortunately, the stage was small and we found ourselves across before we realized it and too late to stop. So we burst through the dressing room door in the wings and collapsed in the midst of the chorus of girls who were changing their dresses.
Naismith was completing his theological course at t he Presbyterian College when I won the Senior Gy~nastic Championship in 1889. That same summer Mr. Barnjum died and in the fall the University asked Naismith to take charge of the classes in gymnastics. We talked it over and he accepted with the understanding that I should help him in this unaccustomed work which both of us undertook with some misgivings. -4 This
was the beginning of his work in Physical Education and a visit about that time of Alonzo Stagg, the hero of Yale, still further inflamed his interest. He finished his course, however, and I heard him preach from a ontreal pulpit more than once.
The call of his life's work became more and more insistent, however, and he soon left for Springfield where he came under the dynamic influence of Luther Halsey Gu11ck, and played on the Springfield College team with Stat( who was his olassmate there. He was a grea:t center and at lolloGl11 he outplayed men who outweighed
him by many pounds. Often I have seen him so exhausted after a game that he could hardly hold up his head, but in the game he was quick, resourceful, and could usually outwit his opponents.
These qualities showed in his college life. He was generally the leader of the raids and forages that fell upon the unsuspecting
inhabitants of the "west wing" in the College Dormitory when study hours became t00 oppressive and no more than one occasion had to appear before the "powers" for explanation.
He had abundant vitality and was to me like an elder brother. Together, as students, we joined the Fifth "Royal Scots' , afterward the Thirteenth Royal Canadian Highlanders who distinguished themselves
in Flanders in 1916, and we used to swank about in our red coats and kilts on the field days and evenings of the weekly march out.
On one occasion Ie broug t rue home ignominiously in a cab after I had disgraced myself by fainting 1n the Drill Hall after a long march, because I had started with a sprained ankle which had swollen under the strain of the march in a tightly laced boot. -5 There
were many debate~ before he decided to give up the pulpit for Physical Educat ion. It took courage at that t lUie to leave the time honored and well beaten path for unknOlofn and comparatively unexplored regiona, but the decision once taken he never faltered, and, I think, never regretted it.
I visited him once at Springfield and sa'H' the college for the first time. Dr. Gulick urged me to come and teach, but I could not leave my growing medical practice i!1 Montreal.
One other visit I ma& to him, and that was as best man at his wedding. Having seen him safely disposed of, there seemed no reason for further worry about him on my part. Those who know his realize that he has been in good hands.
In recent years we have scarcely met, but the old friendship is just as deep and needs only such occasions as this to burn as brightly as it did in the days when we were students together at lvlcGill.
Washington Square East, New York New York University CampSloatsburg, N.Y.
Department of Physical Education
and Health
June 1, 1932.
Dr. J. H. McCurdy, Springf1eld College,
Springfield, Mass.
Dear Dr. ~ cCurdy:
I ~TI enclosing herewith the
"Reminiscences of James Naismith" which
Dr. R. Tait McKenzie gave to us at the
Luncheon during the Christmas meetings.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ FRANK S. LLOYD
Associate Professor of education.
COpy COpy COpy COpy
liTo assist in giving honorable direction to the destinies of the City and the Nation." Aim of the Founders. Reminiscences of James Naismith by
R. Tait McKenzie
A powerful youth bestrides an unbound sheaf of wheat, while in one hand he holds a sheaf he has just bound. He throws it up in the air, stoops and binds the other before the first one comes back to earth, and challenges anyone on the harvest field to do the same thing.
That is one picture I have of Jim Naismith before he went to college. His small admirer had been sent to the farm during the absence of his father and mother from the manse, and the old stone house, with its verandas, garaen and trees, built by aismithls grandfather, Robert .Young, and afterwards owned by his uncle, P. J. Young, and to him a second home.
Jim was the hero of many boyish exploits: spearing fish on the flooded flats in Spring by the light of the Jack filled with pine knots. Hunting the dogs that killed the sheep; riding, rowing, working and fishing in summer, made the round of the life on the farm , with the winters in school at Almonte.
His challenge of the wheat sheaf was characteristic of his love of competition.
When he went to McGill in 1883 he made the football team almost at once, and the gymnasium also had its lure for him, for in his second year he won the Wickstead Silver Medal which carried the Junior All-round Gymnastic Championship with it. -2 When
I came to McGill in 1895, two years later, he initiated me into the mystery of the first gymnasium I had ever seen; and two years later, when I won the coveted Silver medal myself, he was the winner of the Gold Medal, or Senior All-around Championship. The teacher was Frederic S. BarnJum, an English gentleman, a lover of horses and all forms of sport, and an inspiring teacher. He had come under the influence of Archibald MacLaren at Oxford and started a Gymnasium in Montreal at 19 University Street, where the student classes met three times a week. He believed in promotion for merit, and when the class lined up before the bridge ladder, over which we went in procession, our hands grasping
the sides or rungs, and progressing by steps or jumps backwards and forward, he was accustomed to take the meritorious student by the arm and plac"e him high in the line. At t he end of the exercises the first ten were numbered, and next class day they lined up in that order and had to fight for their place each day. The pride of making the first ten was sufficient reward for the ambitious beginner.
The exercises on the ladder were followed by a barbell drill that never varied. The strife for perfection replaced the novelty of constant change in its hold on the students interest and here again promotion to the front line was the incentive. The Vaulting Bar, the Parallel Bars, the Horizontal Bar, and the drill in Indian Clubs, constituted the usual exercises of each class and the competition was composed of these exercises and marked by three judges. -3 Jim
and I used to linger after the clase and try stunts. In that way we learned the simpler forms of tumbling, the handspring and the back and front somersault, and in the course of time we worked up a brother act enriched from time to time by surreptitious visits to a vaudeville theatre where there was usually a good acrobatic turn on the program. He was the under man, and I, being the lighter, was top man. Many times he saved my neck by his steadiness. Our 'turn' became a feature of the annual exhibitions, and on one great occasion when home from college we gave it during the Christmas holidays in the Town Hall at Almonte, as part of the program of the High School Concert. Our act ended in a Catherine tiheel in which each held his partner 's ankles, and by a series of dives rolled across the stage like a revolving wheel. We were accustomed to make six revolutions, but unfortunately, the stage was small and we found ourselves across before we realized it and too late to stop. So we burst through the dressing room door in the wings and collapsed in the midst of the chorus of girls who were changing their dresses.
Naismith was completing his theological course at t he Presbyterian College when I won the Senior Gy~nastic Championship in 1889. That same summer Mr. Barnjum died and in the fall the University asked Naismith to take charge of the classes in gymnastics. We talked it over and he accepted with the understanding that I should help him in this unaccustomed work which both of us undertook with some misgivings. -4 This
was the beginning of his work in Physical Education and a visit about that time of Alonzo Stagg, the hero of Yale, still further inflamed his interest. He finished his course, however, and I heard him preach from a ontreal pulpit more than once.
The call of his life's work became more and more insistent, however, and he soon left for Springfield where he came under the dynamic influence of Luther Halsey Gu11ck, and played on the Springfield College team with Stat( who was his olassmate there. He was a grea:t center and at lolloGl11 he outplayed men who outweighed
him by many pounds. Often I have seen him so exhausted after a game that he could hardly hold up his head, but in the game he was quick, resourceful, and could usually outwit his opponents.
These qualities showed in his college life. He was generally the leader of the raids and forages that fell upon the unsuspecting
inhabitants of the "west wing" in the College Dormitory when study hours became t00 oppressive and no more than one occasion had to appear before the "powers" for explanation.
He had abundant vitality and was to me like an elder brother. Together, as students, we joined the Fifth "Royal Scots' , afterward the Thirteenth Royal Canadian Highlanders who distinguished themselves
in Flanders in 1916, and we used to swank about in our red coats and kilts on the field days and evenings of the weekly march out.
On one occasion Ie broug t rue home ignominiously in a cab after I had disgraced myself by fainting 1n the Drill Hall after a long march, because I had started with a sprained ankle which had swollen under the strain of the march in a tightly laced boot. -5 There
were many debate~ before he decided to give up the pulpit for Physical Educat ion. It took courage at that t lUie to leave the time honored and well beaten path for unknOlofn and comparatively unexplored regiona, but the decision once taken he never faltered, and, I think, never regretted it.
I visited him once at Springfield and sa'H' the college for the first time. Dr. Gulick urged me to come and teach, but I could not leave my growing medical practice i!1 Montreal.
One other visit I ma& to him, and that was as best man at his wedding. Having seen him safely disposed of, there seemed no reason for further worry about him on my part. Those who know his realize that he has been in good hands.
In recent years we have scarcely met, but the old friendship is just as deep and needs only such occasions as this to burn as brightly as it did in the days when we were students together at lvlcGill.
Processed
All blank pages of the original document were not scanned. On the back of the first pages appears the number "51229".
Creator
McKenzie, R. Tait (Robert Tait), 1867-1938
Publisher
Springfield College
Date
1932-06
Rights
Text and images are owned, held, or licensed by Springfield College and are available for personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that ownership is properly cited. A credit line is required and should read: Courtesy of Springfield College, Babson Library, Archives and Special Collections. Any commercial use without written permission from Springfield College is strictly prohibited. Other individuals or entities other than, and in addition to, Springfield College may also own copyrights and other propriety rights. The publishing, exhibiting, or broadcasting party assumes all responsibility for clearing reproduction rights and for any infringement of United States copyright law.
Relation
MS 506 James Naismith Papers
http://www.spfldcol.edu/homepage/library.nsf/78D4B8F1DEB9FDC38525741100498AC9/F44DC1765001AE1185257639005992AE?OpenDocument
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Identifier
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mckenzie-reminiscencesofjamesnaismith
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Citation
McKenzie, R. Tait (Robert Tait), 1867-1938, “Reminiscences of James Naismith, by R. Tait McKenzie,” Digital Commonwealth , accessed May 21, 2013, http://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/items/show/12229.
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