Army chaplain credited with inventing Basketball (March 26, 2015)
Description:
A printed copy of an article titled "Army chaplain credited with inventing basketball," published by the Department of Defense through their defense.gov website. The article was published on March 26, 2015 and was written by Mark W. Johnson. It details James A. Naismith's work as an army chaplain in the Kansas Army National Guard and his work in France during World War I.
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James A. Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939), known as "The Father of Basketball" was born in Almonte, Ontario. When he was nine, both of his parents died of typhoid fever and he was raised by his uncle, who later financed Naismith's way through college. He earned his theological degree from McGill University and graduated from Springfield College, then the YMCA Training School, in 1891. After graduation, he was hired as a faculty member, where he taught for five years. It is in his first year as a faculty member at Springfield College that he created the game of Basketball as an activity for an unruly class. In 1895, Naismith enrolled at the Gross Medical School in Denver and received his M.D. in 1898. In that same year, Naismith took the position of department head of physical education at the University of Kansas, where he remained until his death.
