Rare Naismith items from basketball's birth auctioned (December 9, 2006)
Description:
Article titled "Rare Naismith items from basketball's birth auctioned" from The Republican published on December 9, 2006 and written by the Associated Press. Items being auctioned include Naismith's personal, typed copy of the original rules of basketball, a vintage 1890s photograph of the first basketball court at Springfield College, the whistle Naismith used a century ago as basketball coach at the University of Kansas, and the passport he used to travel to the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin where basketball was played for the first time as an Olympic medal sport.
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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.
